Lisa Marie Presley, RIP: Maureen Callahan’s piercing depiction of loner


»Lisa Marie Presley, RIP: Maureen Callahan’s piercing depiction of loner«

There may be no better illustration of the dangers of primogeniture than Lisa Marie Presley, notwithstanding all the current discussion about monarchy and the practice.

Lisa Marie felt like she belonged to all of us, which was really unjust since she was the sole kid of Elvis, the King of Rock n’ Roll. She was the young girl who had everything. Her father had given her genuine gems and a little, custom-made fur coat, spoiling her beyond belief.

He gave her the name of one of his own aircraft, which you can visit at Graceland for a charge. She knew she was going on the road with her father when he would unexpectedly send a vehicle to pick her up from school. Once, just so she could see snow, he flew her to Utah.

RIP Lisa Marie Presley, you never stood a chance: MAUREEN CALLAHAN's searing portrait of loner

When her father passed away in the toilet of Graceland, she was there. Her grandpa Vernon was screaming, “Oh God son, please don’t go, please don’t die,” as she watched him on the ground, rolling out of his own vomit, being revived.

Nine was Lisa’s age. She enquired, “What’s wrong with my dad?” “I’m going to find out what’s wrong with my dad,” the child said.

Just four days before she passed away from a heart attack at the age of 54, she was back at Graceland. It was her father’s birthday on January 8, so she delivered a speech. She had always felt that Graceland was a haunted house.

She claimed to Playboy in 2003 that Graceland’s backyard essentially served as a cemetery. How many homeowners have a graveyard in their back yard? How many individuals are constantly reminded of their destiny and mortality? The graves are all lined up, and my grandmother’s grave is right there, waiting for me.

She acknowledged that a gloomy cloud was following her. The Presley lineage is troubled, rife with addiction, heart issues, mental disease, and sadness. Her father was a “twinless twin”; the stillbirth of his twin brother Jesse left his mother Gladys with an unrecoverable grief. Elvis had an increasing sense of existential loneliness as his celebrity developed. In December 1976, on his last visit to Las Vegas, he left a message that said, in part:

I often feel quite alone. God, please help me.

Lisa Marie claimed to be very much like her father. I’m aware that this is a DNA issue, she added. Like Elvis, she used drugs and alcohol to cover her more complex emotions, such as uncertainty, fear, despair, and wrath. She said that she learned both good and bad from him.

I always hear about it from my relatives,” she said. “You’re just like him.” My God, you remind me so much like your father right now.

She resembled him in every way, including his oval face, hooded eyes, and pout. Being the lone Presley successor and sounding and looking so much like one of the most distinctive individuals of the 20th century could not have been simple.

She was nonetheless proud of her father and her ancestry. She said, “I would never take back any aspect of who I am or where I come from.” I’d never want to take part in anything else, the person said.

Lisa Marie had a rich life despite her troubled connection with fame. She married early and later divorced her first husband to wed Michael Jackson, in the height of his child molestation controversy, no less. They turned into a freak show thanks to their kiss at the MTV Video Music Awards, which, according to Lisa, “looked awkward because I wanted out of my skin,” their joint TV interview in which Diane Sawyer asked them directly whether they had sex, and their music video where Lisa appeared half-naked alongside Michael to demonstrate that he was just a typical heterosexual adult male.

She recalled that moment by saying, “I began to wake up and ask a lot of questions.” The relationship “went bad really rapidly” with Jacko.

She later wed Nicolas Cage, another ardent Elvis devotee. With breakups and reconciliations that culminated with Cage flinging Lisa Marie’s $65,000 ring over the edge of a boat, that was also crazy in a Liz Taylor-Richard Burton kind of manner.

Unfortunately, the diver sent in to find it had no luck. Cage replaced it with a ten-carat yellow diamond two days later. They too divorced quite quickly.

She made an effort to find her own path and define her own personality, but she seemed resigned to her fate: As the only child of Elvis, what else could she do except pursue a career in music? And she did, putting out three albums, the latest of which, “Storm & Grace,” received rave reviews. Her popularity, which was bestowed at birth, appeared to make her uneasy when she performed.

She was never given much of a chance. The loss of her father has affected her deeply. When Lisa was a young kid, her mother’s then-live-in boyfriend admitted to having sexual desires for her and, in Lisa’s account, attempted to enter her bed at night. Her mother hired Scientologists to attempt to straighten her out when she started using narcotics. She ended up joining and leaving the cult.

At the age of 20, she was married and gave birth to Riley, her daughter, and Benjamin, her son. Danny Keough, her former spouse and a musician, never betrayed her. Lisa Marie was most stable while she was raising the family they created together.

More recently, Lisa Marie had a fourth marriage to Michael Lockwood, twin girls, a horrible divorce, and a bogus accusation that Lockwood had child pornography. The police looked into this claim and rejected it.

In 2020, Benjamin committed suicide. After that, looking at Lisa Marie was like looking into a permanently dark room.

She usually keeps to herself, but she composed an article expressing her never-ending sorrow at Benjamin’s passing. It was first printed in August 2022 and said, in part:

No parent — and I do mean PARENT — chooses to go down this path, and happily, not all parents will have to become its victims. I once detested the term. I can see why now. Since I was nine years old, I have dealt with death, sadness, and loss. I’ve experienced more of it in my lifetime than anybody should have, but I’ve managed to survive. But what about this one, the passing of my gorgeous, gorgeous son?

Who made me feel so privileged to be his mother each and every day, the nicest and most magnificent creature I have ever had the pleasure of knowing? Who genuinely frightened me since on so many aspects he was similar to his grandfather? Which increased my already high level of concern for him. No. Simply no, no, no, no, no.

Lisa Marie worked poetically with Baz Luhrmann and Austin Butler to establish her father’s legacy in the last year of her life. The Elvis we see on TV is nearly always one of unadulterated pleasure, sex, and abandon; his suffering is hidden, and his life is celebrated.

Lisa Marie passed away at home, just like her father. She was attempting to be revived while living with her first husband, Danny Keough. She was aware that Graceland would be her last resting place, yet she found a way to mock it.

In 2003, she said, “I’m confident I’ll end up there.” Or I could reduce my head and place it in the living room’s glass display case. That way, I’ll attract more visitors to Graceland.

Like her father, Lisa Marie Presley is a true American original. Peace be with you.


»Lisa Marie Presley, RIP: Maureen Callahan’s piercing depiction of loner«

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