Elvis Presley’s first-born granddaughter, Riley Keough, shared an intimate look at life at Graceland in Memphis, where her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, spent part of her childhood.

Keough, de sole heir to the famous estatediscovered some new details about her family while sifting through hours of audio recordings that her mother — the only daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley — made while working on her memoir, “From Here to the Great Unknown.” Keough fulfilled her mother’s wishes and then completed co-writing the book her death at the age of 54 in January 2023. The memoir has just been mentioned Winfrey’s 108th Book Club Pick.

In one exclusive special with Oprah Winfrey aired Tuesday night, Keough shared her mother’s last recorded words, discussed Elvis’ impact on her family and more.

“I think she definitely reveals a part of herself in the book,” Keough told Winfrey during “An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley,” produced by Harpo Productions.

Here are some highlights from the hour-long special.

Keough says hearing his mother’s last words was “very intense.”

Months before she died, Lisa Marie asked Keough to help her finish her memoir.

“She was incredibly insecure and I think there were times when she thought, ‘Why am I even writing a book about myself?’ She didn’t like to talk about herself especially,” Keough told Winfrey.

While she struggled to share private details about her life, Keough said her mother felt compelled to tell her story in hopes of connecting with people and sending a message in a “hopeful way,” especially after her death. the death of son Benjamin Keough by suicide in 2020.

In the recordings, Lisa Marie described Graceland as a whirlpool with no rules, saying she was “mostly up to mischief” and a “real wild child.”

As an adult, Lisa Marie often returned to the estate to feel her father’s presence.

“I’m trying to grieve my dad; it’s still there when I go there. I’m not necessarily crying, but I still feel all the energy that’s there. It’s just still there,” Lisa Marie can be heard saying in an audio recording.

In some ways, Keough said it was a “beautiful blessing” to hear some of her mother’s last words on the tape, but she also described listening to it as “very intense.”

“It was such a strange experience because after 30 minutes it feels very much like she’s there,” Keough said.

Keough said her mother was a “self-described daddy’s girl.”

“I feel so honored that I got to spend time with him at all,” Lisa Marie said in a recording. Elvis died at the age of 42 in 1977, when Lisa Marie was only 9 years old.

Lisa Marie’s last conversation with Elvis before his death

Keough showed Winfrey the last place Lisa Marie and Elvis spoke: the back entrance leading to the Graceland patio. He came in from racquetball and she was on her way to drive her golf cart.

The morning of Elvis’ death, on August 16, 1977, Keough said her mother woke up and instinctively knew something was wrong.

Keough said the memoir marks the first time Lisa Marie has ever talked about that day in detail.

“And she said good night to him and I think she knew that, like she had some kind of feeling. I think she often felt like things weren’t going well for him, you know?’ Keough explained. “She told me that sometimes she would find him in his bathroom looking a little funny or holding on to the railing to, you know, stand up. And she also wrote these letters when she was little that we hope my father doesn’t die. So there was some kind of feeling to it.”

Lisa Marie describes watching thousands grieving fans enter the house to pay tribute to her father, also known as the ‘King of Rock and Roll’.

In her memoir, she described being “so busy watching the grief of others” that she struggled with her own grief. After everyone left that evening, Lisa Marie went downstairs to view her father’s body.

“I went to where he was in the coffin, just to be with him, to touch his face and hold his hand, to talk to him. I asked him, ‘Why is this happening? you this?’ Lisa Marie wrote in her memoir.

A look into the relationship between Lisa Marie and Michael Jackson

After divorcing Danny Keough, Riley and Ben Keough’s father, Lisa Marie made waves when she announced that she and Michael Jackson tied the knot in 1994. The marriage lasted two years. Keough remembers calling Jackson “Mimi” at the time.

“I remember how much she loved Michael Jackson. She was really obsessed with him,” Keough said.

Lisa Marie spoke in the audio recordings about her admiration for Jackson, saying that he always made sure to pay attention to others and make them feel heard.

“He would be very interested and fascinated by everything you had to say about what you were doing. So he would lift people up. I saw him do it all the time. It was amazing. You know, he did it with me” , Lisa Marie said of Jackson.

Keough described the pair as having a “very apparently happy, loving relationship”. The couple often stayed at Lisa Marie’s house instead of Jackson’s Neverland to create a sense of normalcy for the family: getting ready and taking the children to school together.

Lisa Marie later briefly married Nicholas Cage in 2002. She then married Michael Lockwood from 2006 to 2021. They have twins, Harper and Finley, who just turned 16.

Keough describes an “unbearably dark” time for the family

Keough said her mother was a rebellious teenager, but she didn’t believe she had a “proverbial drug problem.”

It wasn’t until she was about 40 years old, when she gave birth to her twin girls via C-section in 2008, that she first tasted opioids. According to the book, at one point she was taking dozens of pills a day.

“She pulled me aside and said, ‘I’ve been taking opiates. And at first I took them for the pain. Then I put them to sleep at night. Now it’s like for fun,” Keough recalls.

She eventually went to rehab, but later returned to the pills.

The drug abuse spiraled into chaos and Keough said her mother and the twins had to move in with her in Nashville. Her father, Danny Keough, also came to help.

In the book, Keough wrote, “It seemed like it could have been a good thing to have everyone together. But it felt like the end of everything. We had had a wonderful, colorful, beautiful, abundant, fun and joyful life – but in That house took a turn and became unbearably dark for all of us.”

It was then that Keough realized that rehab might not work and that Lisa Marie’s problems were likely deeper than an accidental drug problem. Keough often saw her mother burst into tears when she listened to Elvis songs alone and drunk.

Lisa Marie Says Son ‘Looked So Much Like Elvis It Scared Me’

Winfrey remembered Lisa Marie telling her that didn’t know if she would make it after her son’s suicide in 2020. He struggled with drugs and alcohol his entire life.

‘I knew this was the end of her. You know?’ Keough admitted. “I just couldn’t imagine a world where she could make it without him.”

In her memoirs, Lisa Marie wrote about her close relationship with her son.

“Ben looked very much like his grandfather, very, very, very, and in every way. He even looked like him. Ben looked so much like him, it scared me. I didn’t want to tell him because I thought it was .” too much to attract a child. We had a very close bond. He told me everything. Ben and I had the same relationship as my father and his mother. Gladys loved my father so much that she drank herself to death worrying about him. Ben didn’t stand a chance,” Lisa Marie wrote.

After Ben’s death, Lisa Marie and Keough searched his phone, where they discovered a message from him saying he felt like he was having a mental health problem. That surprised Keough. She knew he liked to party and “go on these benders,” but she didn’t think he was depressed.

Winfrey said “one of the most shocking things” in the book was how Lisa Marie mourned Ben by bringing his casket into the house for about two months.

Keough said her mother found a very compassionate funeral director who explained how to keep the casket with her until she was ready for the funeral. As part of that preservation process, she regularly had dry ice brought in. And often she just sat with his body.

Lisa Marie was buried next to Ben in the Graceland meditation garden, where Elvis was also buried.

Keough said she worried about Lisa Marie for weeks before her death.

“I think there was always some undercurrent for me of feeling like I borrowed time with her,” Keough said.

Matching mother and son tattoos

Before she finally said goodbye and buried Ben, Lisa Marie wanted to make one last wish come true: to get a matching tattoo with her son.

“I think the story – on paper I can understand how this sounds completely crazy and absurd. But I – my mother was just very much herself. And I – I don’t know if you knew her. There’s nothing – you know, she wasn’t a crazy lady,” Keough said before starting the story.

Lisa Marie hired a tattoo artist to ink Ben’s name on her hand. To get the placement just right, she brought the artist into the room and opened Ben’s casket to show him his hand.

“(The tattoo artist), God bless him, was very normal about the whole thing,” Keough said, calling it “definitely one of the most absurd moments.”

She remembers her mother opening the casket and the tattoo artist studying the placement and going back to redo it for her.

“When he left, I thought, ‘Do you know how crazy that was, what you just did?’ Keough asked her mother, joking with Winfrey that the tattoo artist would probably write a book about it one day.

Graceland’s future and a powerful lesson learned

Keough, an actress who starred in “Daisy Jones and the Six,” says she plans to continue running the beloved Graceland estate — which is home to more than 2,000 people. daily touring.

“I think my instinct with everything is always to do what my mother would have wanted. That’s to keep it a home. It was our family’s home,” Keough said.

Keough said she had many hard times with her mother, but the love was always there. And that is something she hopes to pass on her 2-year-old daughter, Tupelo.

“I think if I can make (Tupelo) feel loved the way my mother made us feel loved. It was unconditional. Really,” she said.

Keough added: “She did things – we had fights. She did things that, you know, I didn’t approve of. We had horrible interactions, like you do with someone who’s on drugs. But… the love was always there, you know?”

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

For more information about mental health resources and support, reach the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 10 PM ET at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email [email protected].