Ask any grandparent what the grandkids are up to and you’d better have a few minutes free. The report comes with details, and usually with a little bragging tucked inside.
Priscilla Presley is no different.
Priscilla is Lisa Marie Presley’s mom. Lisa Marie was Elvis’s only child, and in 2008 she welcomed twin girls, Harper and Finley, born on Oct 7 of that year. That makes the twins Elvis and Priscilla’s granddaughters.
In the summer of 2019, Priscilla went on NBC’s TODAY show. She was there to talk about Graceland’s plans. But the chat turned to the girls, the way it does with most proud grandmothers.
She was 74 then, and she sounded just like any grandma who can’t believe how fast the years go.
“The [twins] are great, they’re almost 11 years old now. Time is flying by so fast.”
If you’ve got grandchildren, you’ve probably said almost exactly the same thing at a family dinner.
Then Priscilla started listing the classes Harper and Finley were trying out. The first two won’t surprise anybody. Ballet and dance class are about what you’d expect from a pair of 10-year-old girls, and plenty of grandparents have sat through a recital or two.
The third one is the surprise.
Opera.
Here’s how Priscilla put it, word for word: “I think they’re quite talented actually. They were in ballet and dance class and opera, so they’re testing the waters a little bit.”
It’s not exactly the usual after-school plan for two kids who weren’t even 11 yet. Most families are happy if they can get their children to sit through a single song at a school concert. These two were trying a style of singing that takes real lungs and real nerve.
Notice the words Priscilla chose, though. “Testing the waters.” She wasn’t announcing careers or promising anything about the future. She was a grandmother proudly describing two little girls trying things to see what they enjoyed.
There’s a sweet family echo in it all the same. Elvis loved big, dramatic voices his whole life. One of his best-loved hits, “It’s Now or Never” from 1960, was his English-language version of the Italian song “O Sole Mio.” So when two of his granddaughters stepped into an opera class, they were wandering into music their grandfather would have known well.
If you’d like to see Priscilla in her element, this TODAY segment has her giving the show’s cameras a tour of the guest house at Graceland.
Priscilla gives TODAY a tour of the Graceland guest house
That September, Priscilla was asked about the girls again, this time by Us Weekly. Her answer was gentle and simple, the way a grandmother talks when she wants children to stay children for as long as they can.
“They’re just little girls experiencing life and having fun.”
That’s the heart of it. Whatever classes they signed up for, Priscilla mostly seemed glad they were enjoying being kids.