Every kid who has split time between two homes knows the long goodbye at the door. For Lisa Marie Presley, that door was at Graceland.
Lisa Marie was born on Feb. 1, 1968, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Her parents were together until she was 4. After that she lived with her mother in Los Angeles, and she flew back to see her father on a regular basis, usually at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennessee.
So her childhood ran on two clocks. There was California, where she lived day to day with her mom. And there was Tennessee, where her daddy was.
As a grown woman with a music career of her own, she talked about her dad often, and you could hear how much of him she still carried around. Watch this Extra interview to hear her explain, in her own easygoing way, how deep his music runs in her.
Lisa Marie talks about her dad and his music
In 2003 Lisa Marie put out her first single, “Lights Out.” It came out in the US on Feb. 10, 2003, from her debut album, “To Whom It May Concern.” She wrote it with songwriters Glen Ballard and Clif Magness, and the song looks back on that childhood of coming and going.
One line is about leaving. She sings, “I was crying every time I’d leave you.”
Anyone who has waved goodbye to a parent from a car window knows that ache. For a little girl, it probably felt like the best part of her world was staying behind in Memphis every time the plane took off.
But another line in the same song holds the answer to how she held on.
“I still keep my watch two hours behind,” she sings.
Here’s what she meant. Lisa Marie kept her watch set to Tennessee time, her daddy’s time at Graceland, even while she was living out in California. Rolling Stone explained the line in an April 2003 interview with her, and the magazine said the habit stuck with her for years after her father passed away. Denver’s Westword newspaper reported the same thing that September: she’d kept her watch set to Memphis time.
It’s such a small thing. One glance at her wrist and she knew exactly what hour it was in her dad’s world, no matter how many miles sat between them.
Francis Lawrence directed the music video, and now that you know what the watch line means, listen for it when she gets there.
Lisa Marie’s “Lights Out” music video
Graceland stayed home to her as an adult, too. When she talked to Rolling Stone about the upstairs of the house, she said, “Nothing has been touched. It’s exactly the same.”
And the kitchen still knew her. When she came back to visit, the cooks from her dad’s days who were still around would make the same soul food the family used to eat there. Fried chicken and black-eyed peas went on the table, along with mashed potatoes and cornbread, just the way it was when she was a little girl flying in to see her father.