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Relative normality, Lisa Marie Presley

3/17/2014

 
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Relative normality, Lisa Marie Presley

Date: March 16, 2014
Megan Doherty


Lisa Marie Presley seems like someone who’d be good to sit down with and have a cuppa. Or even a glass of wine.

And not because she’s the daughter of one pop culture icon (Elvis) or the one-time wife of another (Michael Jackson), two facts that will be forever linked to her name and whatever profile is ever written about her and, fairly or not, give her some otherworldly quality.

No, it’s precisely because, even in a quick chat over the phone from one hemisphere to the other, she comes across as so down-to-earth, so grounded despite her remarkable life. Funny. Self-deprecating. A musician who knows she will always be judged because of who her father is, but does it anyway because that’s her passion. A mother with a fierce love for her four children. A woman who likes to cook and garden in her down time. Really.

When Lisa Marie Presley's not touring, recording or performing, she leads a bucolic life on an estate in East Sussex, in south east England.

When she’s not touring, recording or performing, Presley and her fourth husband, musician and record producer Michael Lockwood, lead a bucolic life on an estate in East Sussex, in south-east England, about as far away from the craziness of Hollywood as she could get.

It was a deliberate move to separate herself from that former world and create a sane, even-keel retreat. ‘‘I wanted to be normal. I’d been through a lot,’’ she says.

‘‘I’d experienced a lot of betrayal. Things around me which I thought were one thing, and they were another. It was too much. So we kind of went from ground zero. I just wanted to start over somewhere. I needed to get as far away as possible and get my head together. And I wrote the record and fell in love with it and we bought a house.’’

It’s a little intimidating interviewing rock royalty. The publicist has said the subjects of Michael Jackson and ‘‘religion’’, aka Scientology, are off-limits. Added to that, an earlier interview with Presley had been cancelled, because she was suffering from ‘‘food poisoning’’. But Presley, 46, thaws as soon as she’s asked how she’s feeling and happily puts the record straight on a break from rehearsals in LA.

‘‘Ha, I actually have this affliction that’s not serious, it’s not deadly or anything, Epstein-Barr virus, chronic fatigue syndrome. So I battle with that a bit, so I was kind of down and out for a couple of days but anyway, whatever. We’re manning up. I have a world tour!  The doctor said, ‘You’re crazy’ and I said, ‘Yes I am but I’m doing it anyway’,’’ she says.

Storm & Grace, Presley’s third album, has been critically acclaimed as a ‘‘moody masterpiece’’ by Spinner.com and described by industry bible Rolling Stone as a  ‘‘raw, powerful country, folk and blues collection that finds her embracing her Southern roots and family name’’. The Storm & Grace tour will see her perform in Australia, including Canberra, for the first time since 2006. She is playing small, mostly regional venues, starting at the Hornsby RSL on March 19. She doesn’t seem to have any pretensions about where she plays and has been grateful for the support for the album, including from the critics.

‘‘I’m always happy about that because I have so much against me. I’m always sort of, if you will, spitting against the tidal wave. That’s just purely my work and my art and my heart and it’s pure for me and it’s just music. It’s nothing ‘tabloidy’, it’s nothing sensational, it’s just what it is. And I always appreciate being acknowledged for my own work,’’ she says.

The inevitable question is how difficult was it following in her father’s footsteps? Her website recounts the story of Elvis catching her singing into a hairbrush in front of the mirror when she was three. Music was in her. She couldn’t resist its pull. It happened organically.

‘‘Yeah, naturally, since I was teeny- tiny.  I always loved poetry, music, so I kind of just put them all together and that was that. It’s like therapy, a little bit for me, writing,’’ she says.

What music did she listen to growing up? ’’Oh my God, so much. My dad, obviously, he was the inspiration. Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Heart, Pat Benatar. I loved strong females. Joni Mitchell. Joan Baez. And then I got into heavy metal,’’ she says, with a laugh.  ‘‘And then I got into country and I loved country music, as well.’’

But there’s no use asking her which song of her father’s is her favourite. ‘‘Oh there’s too many. There’s so many of them that I couldn’t say,’’ she says. Presley was nine when her father died in 1977. Her parents had separated five years earlier and she had relished any time she could get with Elvis, the dad, not the icon.

‘‘I remember everything. I spent a lot of time upstairs with him alone at Graceland, just being alone with him and spending every minute I could spend with him. I was the happiest I’ve ever been,’’ she says.

Presley has four children – Riley Keough and Benjamin Keough, now in their 20s, with her first husband, musician Danny Keough, and five-year-old twins Harper and Finley, with Lockwood, who she married in Japan in 2006. In between, she was married for two years to Michael Jackson in the mid-1990s and actor Nicolas Cage from 2002 to 2004.

Riley, 24, is an up-and-coming actor who will  accompany her mother to Australia. She’s  dating an Australian stuntman she met on the set of the latest Mad Max movie, Fury Road  and is ‘‘completely smitten’’ with him, according to her mother. Benjamin will also meet up with her on another leg of the tour.

‘‘He does his own thing, he stays low-key. That’s kind of how he wants to be and I respect that. He’s my heart and he’s got me wrapped around his little finger. He can make me cry and laugh like nobody,’’ she says of her only son.

The children understand their roots, their famous grandfather, but don’t revel in the connection.

‘‘Riley is so independent, she wants to do her own thing, she stays low-key. Ben wants to stay low-key. They respect it, they love it, they admire it but they don’t go around gloating in it. They’re not like, ‘Hey, I’m Elvis Presley’s grandson’. They’re not like that at all. But they’re proud,’’ she says.

The twins will be with her on the tour too. That’s non-negotiable. ‘‘Absolutely. They are never far. The cubs are never far from the lion,’’ she says.

Presley has described herself before as a protective lioness of a mother and it’s clear the twins, born when she was 40, are adored.

‘‘Oh my God, they’re the cutest little things. They’re so full of energy. They just light up wherever they are, they just light up everyone. They’re just little beacons of light in everyone’s life,’’ Presley says.

‘‘In fact today, we were packing and I said, ‘OK, you can pick out two princess dresses because we’re going to be dragging them all over the world’. And Finley was like, ‘OK,  but I need my crown and my earrings’. And she had to have her high heel shoes. She loves to run  in high heel shoes. It’s so funny, she’s such a little girl. Harper is the same. They’re amazing.’’

She says it was difficult to fall pregnant.

‘‘We tried for two years. Two effing years,’’ she says. ‘‘And we had to go through all kinds of tests to find out what was going on. And then I found out my blood was too clotty and thick so I just had to inject myself with a blood thinner and it happened. It was a weird find. I had an amazing doctor, sadly she’s passed away, but she sent me in for the right tests and they found it and I just had to give myself a shot of blood thinner and it was all good. Both my grandparents had twins so it was on the cards.’’ (Elvis was a twin, whose brother was stillborn. Presley’s mother Priscilla has twin brothers.)

Presley’s girls are big fans of British cartoon Peppa Pig, which would be pretty hard to avoid in England.

‘‘Oh my God, Peppa Pig. And Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. They love it. And In the Night Garden,’’ Presley says, with a laugh. ‘‘It’s kind of creepy [In the Night Garden], especially that little Upsy Daisy, she keeps kissing what’s-his-name, the little blue guy? Igglepiggle! She always has to kiss him, I don’t quite get that. Whatever.’’

Presley says Lockwood, also her musical director on the tour, is ‘‘the best dad’’.

‘‘He spoils them to death. He adores them. I knew he would be a good father, I knew the minute I met him. He doesn’t have a bad temper, he’s not intense, he’s so even-keeled and sensible and smart and caring and  loving. They just adore him.’’


Despite being in England, she still travels often to the US where she can see her mother Priscilla, who was a frequent visitor to Australia and a favourite of the women’s magazines and inevitable guest on The Midday Show.

‘‘You know, I can’t keep up with her, she’s so busy, doing something or other,’’ Presley says. ‘‘I called her yesterday to invite her to rehearsals [in LA] and she was in Austin, [Texas]. I was in shock. I don’t know, she’s always busy, always out, always doing something.’’

It seems Presley has struck the right balance between fame and privacy,  work and home life. She says it works by ‘‘coming in and out of it’’.

‘‘Not staying in the limelight. I don’t like to be in it. When I’m working, I don’t mind it or if I go somewhere. I like to do that and do my work and participate and I love engaging with the fans, but I also love to rest. That’s what my father did. That’s what Graceland was for him, his sanctuary.

England is where I go to get away and shut off.  In England, I’m gardening and cooking. Things are normal. When I’m on the road, it’s a totally different story.’’


For that reason, among others,  Graceland will always remain in the Presley family, a symbol not so much of the musical genius of Elvis but of the times the family, or at least father and daughter, were together alone, happy, not in the public glare. ‘‘Always. Never will that go away. Ever, ever, ever. Never has, never will,’’ Presley says, adamantly. ‘‘Rumours keep getting written about that all the time and I have to keep putting that fire out. But never. It’s always going to stay with us.’’


source: http://www.theage.com.au

Lisa Marie Presley can spot her true fans in a crowd of Elvis followers

3/17/2014

 
Lisa Marie Presley can spot her true fans in a crowd of Elvis followers

Lisa Marie Presley doesn't do the quick exit out the back door of the venue after a show.

The singer and songwriter, who came late to her music career after years of cautious procrastination because of her father, likes to meet the people who like her music.

She knows some of them are Elvis fans but mostly these days, 11 years after releasing her debut record To Whom It May Concern, Presley is proud to call them her people.

The 46-year-old singer and songwriter loves that a lot of them are women her own age who can relate to the relationship dramas and existential crises she writes about. And then there is the "large gay following" she adores for their support of "strong women".

"When people are looking at me, I don't know what they are thinking. Are they looking at my dad, are they seeing me for me now?" she says. "By the time I am done with the show, I am my own thing. I am me and I don't do what he does.

"I am a singer-songwriter, just like Carole King or Joan Baez, which is more my vibe."

The mother of four, including five-year-old twin girls Harper and Finley, returned to the studio a couple of years ago to make her third record, Storm and Grace, and return to the stage.

Reconnecting with the fans who had kept their faith in this bluesy rocker with the legendary surname has been her own saving grace.

"I love it, it's why I do it. After every show when I do meet and greets, I get to hear their stories. And their stories are heavy, you know," she says.

"They tell you about how a song helped them get through the big things in life - cancer, a death in the family, depression."

"That's why I tour, that's what I want. I don't make money. I get out there to be with the people who listen and hear what they want to sayback to me."

Presley certainly isn't doing it for the money. She doesn't need it. And for the first three decades of her life, she didn't do music at all because of the inevitable comparisons with her father. She didn't need that, either. But like a lot of the children of famed singers and songwriters, if the music is stamped on your DNA, you can only deny it for so long before it becomes a regret.

"I always wrote songs, even when I was a young child. I loved poetry especially and that was always an outlet of therapy," she says.

After a decade of regular shows, she is now comfortable on stage and not just looking at the faces to see who is there to see the daughter of Elvis and who is there to see Lisa-Marie.

"I can differentiate between them pretty quickly now," she says, laughing.

"I remember when I first got on stage I wondered what the hell I was going to do. And then I found out that the crowd's energy makes such a difference to how you perform."

"I had to develop confidence because I am not an innate lead singer."

"Lead singers are innately vain and that's something that I don't have at all. I am so insecure and really had to find way to stop being terrified and thinking I suck."

Presley says her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, is the "boss", her musical director and father of the twins.

"He is the boss, he does everything and he has always done that for Fiona Apple, Susannah Hoffs and Carly Simon, who he has been a musical director for as well," she says. "He knows what he is doing and he is an incredible musician," she says

Her daughter, Riley Keough, who is an actress with a role in the new Mad Max: Fury Road, will come to Australia for the shows next week. Her son Ben will accompany her for the Japan leg of the tour.

"The kids can't wait. My daughter has just started dating an Australian boy, she's in love with an Australian man. They met on the film," Presley says.


source: http://www.perthnow.com.au

Lisa Marie Presley Performing at SXSW

3/17/2014

 
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source: Presley's Pride - https://www.facebook.com/presleyspride

Lisa Marie Presley - What I Know About Men

3/17/2014

 
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What I know About Men

DateMarch 16, 2014
Paul Connolly


LISA MARIE PRESLEY
Singer-songwriter, 46, married

I was just nine when my father [Elvis Presley] died, but I had a very special relationship with him. He was the most incredible, enigmatic, powerful, dynamic human being I've ever met. As far as men go, he left big shoes to fill. He is still such a presence in popular culture, but I don't find it odd or surreal – it makes me happy, actually.

Most of my memories are of being home with him. Our rooms were on the top floor of Graceland [Elvis's home in Memphis, Tennessee]. We would sit in my room and watch TV, and spend a lot of time together upstairs alone. He'd take me on golf-cart rides, or we'd visit my grandfather or the pet store.

My father was very funny, very playful, but he also had a very bad temper. Across the board, he was extreme: either really funny, really playful, or in such a bad mood that people were running for the hills. But he had so many vampires around him, stupid people, and they'd tick him off. He was frustrated sometimes. Like everybody, he was human.

I didn't find it hard to have a normal life. Things weren't quite like they are now in the US, where you're in a fishbowl because of celebrity news sites like TMZ. Back then I felt I had a bit of space, and I could privately make my own mistakes and grow up.


I was comfortable around boys and never found them to be alien at all. But I find men and women different. One thing I will say about men: if they've had a good relationship with their mother, and are close with their mother, they are better partners for women. That is a fact. The best qualities men can have are dedication, loyalty, honesty and refraining from going elsewhere for their needs.

I got pregnant and married very early. I was pregnant [with actress daughter Riley Keough] at my 21st birthday. So I was a mom and quiet for years. It wasn't until my 30s that I put out my first record; I'm now on my third. But I coped well with being a young mom and didn't feel at all restrained by it. I liked being stable and didn't have any wild oats to sow – I'd already sown them. Motherhood is my favourite thing. I'm a lioness. A caretaker. I would have 15 children if I could.

I don't regret any of my marriages [to, in order, musician Danny Keough, pop star Michael Jackson, actor Nicolas Cage and current husband, music producer Michael Lockwood]. They were all incredible, fun experiences. Some were marriages of whim – I was wild, they were wild, and we did wild things, but I don't regret them. Each one ended for different reasons. Some I wished didn't end the way they did, but they weren't failures; we just weren't partnered right.

With MJ [Michael Jackson], unfortunately, too much happened, too much got between us. There was a very deep strong love there; intense. But people got in the way, on my end and his end. We had so many people telling us what to do and intercepting and speaking on behalf of the other. Had it been just he and I, towards the end, I don't think we would have divorced.

Michael [Lockwood] and I have been together for 11 years. We met when we were working and we're very close. We've never been apart for a night and we never fight. What I love most about him is that he's so easy-going. He's smart, thoughtful, lets me be myself, doesn't get worried or jealous, and he's the coolest guy I've met in my f...ing life. If he's taught me anything about myself, it's that I'm a complete raving lunatic!

Michael is a huge muso but he never mentioned ever listening to my father. We never talked about it that much. But he was a huge Beatles fan. I always thought of the Beatles as competition for my father, so when I was younger I didn't like them [laughs] – I always felt protective of Dad. I don't hate them any more, by the way! And I love John Lennon.

I have twin daughters [Harper and Finley Lockwood, 5], a son [Benjamin Keough] who's 21, and my daughter Riley is 24. Benjamin has me wrapped around his finger and I spoil the hell out of him. He can make me cry, but he can make me laugh like anyone's business. Riley is the same, while the little ones are the most precious things ever.

The title track on my album Storm & Grace is written for my son. It's about the kind of pressures and expectations placed on men. It's about how he's got the biggest heart but he's learnt how to put up a protective shell, which isn't necessarily a good thing. When men get hurt, they get more and more protective and closed off. I'm not sure how we can fix that. I wish there was a way.


source: http://www.smh.com.au

A Message from Lisa Marie Presley to her Japanese Fans

3/12/2014

 

Lisa Marie Presley - "Today" Australia Interview

3/12/2014

 

Lisa Marie Presley & James Burton

3/11/2014

 
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Lisa Marie Presley and James Burton

Monday, March 10th 2014

FT Worth, Texas
Queen City Music Hall

James Burton was Elvis Presley's TCB Band Guitarist.
1969-1977
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    Lisa Marie Presley was born to Elvis & Priscilla on February 1, 1968 at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, TN.

    On Lisa's
    25th birthday in 1993, she inherited her Father's estate. Today Lisa has 100% sole personal ownership of Graceland Mansion and all of her Father's personal effects. Lisa also owns 15% of Elvis Presley Enterprises.

    On April 8, 2003, Lisa released her debut album, To Whom It May Concern. It reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified gold in June 2003. Her second album, released April 5, 2005, Now What, reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was certified gold in November 2005. Her third album, Storm & Grace, was released on May 15, 2012. Storm & Grace, is produced by Oscar and Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett.

    Lisa is an activist for many charitable causes including: The LEAP Program in Memphis, The Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation, The Angel Network, The Grammy Foundation, and World Vision.
    Lisa was very active with recovery of Hurricane Katrina. On June 24, 2011, Lisa was awarded in the state of Tennessee where the Governor, Bill Haslam, proclaimed a day of recognition for Lisa Marie Presley to honor her charitable efforts. Most recently Lisa has been an activist for The Dream Factory and the charity World Vision. 

    Lisa is a Mother of four: Model & Actress Riley Keough and son Ben with former husband, Danny Keough. Lisa has twin girls, Harper and Finley, born October 7, 2008 with her husband, Michael Lockwood. Lisa currently lives in Tunbridge Wells, England with her husband, Michael Lockwood. Since moving to Britain Lisa has said: "We have found the quality of life so much more enriching and fulfilling. The civility, the culture, the people and its beauty have reawakened me and have smoothed out some of my bleak and jagged views about people and life."

    Lisa's current album is "Storm & Grace" which was released May 15, 2012.

    Connect with LMP:
    http://www.lisamariepresley.com

    https://www.facebook.com/officiallisamarie

    https://twitter.com/LisaPresley


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    Elvis Presley Fans of Nashville, President Caroline Pratt and Lisa Marie Presley.

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