When two of the most famous last names in music came together in 1994, the whole world wanted to know how it happened. Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s daughter, kept most of the private details to herself for years.
Then she decided to tell it her way.
Lisa Marie recorded her memories for a memoir, but she passed away in January 2023, before the book was finished. Her daughter, the actress Riley Keough, finished it using the recordings her mother left behind. The book, “From Here to the Great Unknown,” came out on Oct. 8, 2024.
Riley has talked about why her mom wanted the two of them to work on it together, and hearing her explain it makes the book feel even more personal.
Riley Keough explains why her mother wanted to write the book with her
In the book, Lisa Marie writes about how things with Michael started out as a friendship. They were friendly at first, nothing more.
Then Michael invited her to Las Vegas.
According to Yahoo’s summary of the book, that’s where he “swept her off her feet.” And Lisa Marie remembered one moment from that trip very clearly. It was the night Michael finally told her what he’d been feeling.
He didn’t make a big speech. He was shy about it, the way a lot of people are when they’re about to say something that matters.
“Michael said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m completely in love with you.'”
You can almost hear the nerves in it. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed.” The biggest star on the planet, saying it the same careful way anybody would.
Lisa Marie was caught completely off guard. “I didn’t say anything immediately, but then I said, ‘I’m really flattered, I can’t even talk.'”
The daughter of the King of Rock n’ Roll, at a loss for words in front of the King of Pop.
But that wasn’t the end of the thought. She wrote, “By then, I felt I was in love with him too.”
The two married quietly in the Dominican Republic in May 1994. That same year, the newlyweds made a trip to Budapest, Hungary, and this footage from the visit is a nice look at the couple together in those early days.
Michael and Lisa Marie in Budapest in 1994
What makes the Las Vegas story land is how simple it is. Michael said a few honest words, and Lisa Marie, who had grown up around fame her whole life, gave an even shorter answer because she didn’t know what else to say.
Riley spent a long time with her mother’s recordings while finishing the book. In this late-night interview, she talks about finishing the book and listening to her mom’s old voice recordings.
Riley Keough on finishing her mother’s memoir
Lisa Marie didn’t live to see the book come out. But because she took the time to record her memories, readers now have that night in Las Vegas in her own words.
It started with Michael wondering out loud if she’d noticed. She had. She just needed a minute to say so.