Lisa Marie Presley Memoir Recap/Discussion: Chapter 5
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(Photo from the book)
Chapters 1 & 2 recap || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4
Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir From Here to the Great Unknown was 85% done and spread across 16 tapes when she passed away in January 2023. The book consists of Lisa's recollections, daughter Riley Keough's assessments, memories and clarifications, as well as occasional input from Danny Keough, Lisa Marie’s first husband and best friend (and Riley's father).
There will be some notes because while Lisa Marie and Riley say one way in the book, they said otherwise in other interviews in the past so for the sake of being factual, that's what we're doing.
General trigger warning?
ETA: The book is an official best seller, charting at #2. It got beat by the Melania memoir 😐
Chapter Five: Mimi
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• Lisa Marie hated the press, hated headlines, hated attention. She's not narcissistic in any way.
• She met Michael Jackson for the first time when she was six years old. She doesn't remember it, he did. When she was 15 or 16 and he was 25 years old, he called her mom for dinner. He was hoping Lisa would come with her but didn't mention it because he didn't want to be weird.
• MJ then tried to contact her when she was working for Jerry Schilling through John Branca who worked for the Elvis estate (current head of the MJ Estate) but she was about to marry Danny so nothing came of it. MJ told her later that when he saw her on the cover of People magazine with Danny after they got married he was devastated because he thought it should have been him. She had no idea any of this was happening.
• Lisa Marie officially met MJ in 1993 after his Super Bowl Show and his Oprah interview. They met through a mutual friend. He wanted to meet her after listening to her demo tape and she initially wasn't interested. Prince was also interested but she just wanted to do her own thing. She went anyway.
• Lisa was shocked MJ was alone, so nice and subdued. Danny went with her and made everyone leave the room so Lisa and MJ could talk alone. They clicked and phone numbers were exchanged. When he called her in Clearwater, where she was living and working on her scientology studies, they had a signal so she would know it was him calling- three rings and people had to get out of the way. They talked for hours and she thought he needed a friend but he was actually pursuing her.
• MJ invited her to Atlanta to see him and she went with her assistant, who was also Danny's brother's wife. She only hung out with MJ and went to amusement parks with him. She doesn't know why Danny let her go and why Danny trusted her and that was a mistake on his part. These trips and calls went on for months and then the molestation accusations happened (serious trigger warning for this article).
• MJ disappeared and she was one of the only people he was in contact with- she let him know she was there for him and he called her every other day. He went to rehab then called her to join him in Vegas. She went with her kids and her sister-in-law. They had different rooms but every night they would stay up talking about their childhoods and lives and watching movies in his room. MJ had a presence and he was allowing her in. This was not something he did and she thinks that was the first time. They connected and she understood him and didn't judge him. They had similar experiences and circumstances.
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• MJ claimed he remembered everything about their first meeting when she was six, where she sat, what she said, the white dress she wore. She doesn't remember any of it.
• She was supposed to go to Vegas for two days and she ended up staying for eight. Nothing physical happened but the connection was strong. The high-pitched voice persona was an act, no one had ever seen that side of him.
• Danny flew into Vegas and was banging on doors looking for them. She told him she was helping MJ as a friend and he should go home so he did. She told MJ her marriage was in serious trouble.
• The final night MJ invited her into his room and told her not to look at him, turned off the lights and said in the darkness that he was completely in love with her, he wanted to marry her and for her to have his children. He played her a song that told her how he felt and said that he really wanted her, he wanted to be with her, and he knew he threw her off. She told him she was flattered. By then, she felt she was in love with him too. She was infatuated and shaken. This is after a week of hanging out and no physical contact.
• She didn't tell MJ she felt the same way because she had her children with her and she had to go home and tell Danny. But she was fully in love with MJ.
• They flew back to Los Angeles together and MJ said he would miss her and it would be up to her. She notes when she came home, Danny was asleep and she was completely made up, her hair, outfit and make up perfect, as it was every time she went to see MJ.
• Riley remembers her mom's nails were fire engine red which she would tap on the table. She would try to mimic her mom. Lisa was a nail biter and she didn't want MJ to see them because she wanted to be the perfect woman for him. He never knew her mom smoked. Riley notes the similarity between MJ and Lisa to Elvis and Priscilla.
• MJ eventually told her he didn't mind her janky nails and she didn't need to be perfect. She couldn't believe she spent thousands of dollars on nails for over a year and he didn't care.
• Danny told Lisa Marie to get in bed with him and she said she couldn't. He asked her what happened and she told him MJ asked her to leave Danny and marry him, and to have his children. Danny asked what she said and she told him she said nothing. Danny said “that's it then, that's it, forget it” packed his bags and the dog and left. Lisa simply says “Gone.”
• MJ was excited by the break up and sent her baskets of flowers. She visited him in LA and was nervous. He told her he was a virgin even though Madonna tried it. He instigated all the, as Lisa calls it, “physical stuff” because he was “not waiting.”
• Riley was hysterical when Lisa told her she and Danny were getting a divorce. Riley thought that meant Danny wasn't her father anymore which Lisa assured her wasn't the case.
• Riley thinks MJ got at Lisa's core because she thought he was misunderstood and wanted to fix him, because she knew that feeling.
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• Danny was devastated by the break up and left the country for three months, taking hallucinogens and exploring jungles. He read the poem Bluebird by Charles Bukowski that reminded him of Lisa (note: Riley has consistently shared this poem during book promotion). He came home with a tattoo, a black eye and orange hair. Riley said she cried when she saw him because she could feel how much pain he was in and her brother tried to erase the tattoo with an eraser.
• At the lawyer's office, Danny told Lisa he wanted nothing from her. There was no prenup but Lisa forced him to take some money. Lisa says Danny never, ever betrayed her and filed divorce papers just so she could marry MJ. They were best friends and he was always there for her, and Riley and Benjamin never saw anything bad between them.
• Riley and Ben called MJ “Mimi” because Ben couldn't pronounce his name since he was a toddler. Riley describes MJ as larger than life and that MJ reminded Lisa of her father. Lisa told Riley that no one came closer to her father apart from MJ. Riley doesn't remember when Lisa told them that she was marrying MJ but she remembers MJ started sleeping over.
• Riley remembers Lisa's world would stop when MJ came around. She would run around fixing her makeup. Lisa would usually have NDAs (for visitors) and tabloids (she liked to read about herself) laying around but those disappeared when MJ was there and he was the only exception to her NDA rule. Lisa took Riley and Ben out of school whenever there was a big deal about something between MJ and Lisa in the press. Lisa was affected by what the tabloids wrote about her and Riley notes she was in a way the “Princess of America” and didn't want to be.
• The Keough family's lives were changed. After a virtually normal and private family life, there were now photographers outside their home, there had to be security around the kids and Danny was now getting physical with paparazzi. Lisa had spent her life trying to avoid the limelight and “paradoxically” fell in love with MJ. No one anticipated the scale of attention and Riley acknowledges Lisa Marie rarely ever thought about consequences.
• MJ and Lisa Marie got married in the Dominican Republic twenty days after her divorce from Danny was finalized. She didn't tell Priscilla that she did it, Priscilla found out from the news. There were only two witnesses [note: Lisa does not mention that the two witnesses were Danny's brother and sister in law]. They would go from rented house to rented house, call for MJ's security then ditch the security because they wanted to be alone and anonymous. Lisa says she was so happy and has never been that happy again [note: Lisa had previously stated divorcing Danny and marrying MJ was the biggest mistake of her life].
• Lisa says they were normal and she did MJ's laundry. They rented a house in Orlando for their honeymoon and shopped and went to Disney World every day. Lisa Marie says he wasn't doing drugs during that time and he was an amazing conversationalist. He had a remarkable energy that focused on others and it was an energy she had only ever experienced with her father.
• Lisa Marie felt lucky that he let her in. She said she fell in love with MJ because he was normal and she wished he would have shown that side more. He told things to her that his mother and Janet were surprised about. MJ was not close to his brothers and they were surprised the relationship was legit. Lisa loved the Jackson family.
• Lisa knew MJ had his guard down with her because when there was something he didn't want to talk about, he would snap his fingers and the convo was over but Lisa could be real and speak honestly with him because he knew it wasn't directed at him. Usually in his world, you had to agree with what he said. MJ would also have Lisa deal with people around him and be the bad cop. He respected her feelings and agreed with her regarding the people around them. He loved that fierce side of her until they started fighting and her honesty was directed at him.
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• Riley says MJ mostly lived at Hidden Hills with Lisa and the kids [note: Riley previously had said she and her brother was raised primarily by their father in Hawaii and Los Angeles during this time]. They were a normal married couple who would drive the kids to school together and sometimes he would bring a pet chimp (Riley confirms not Bubbles). He would often sing to the Keoughs (for Lisa: Happy Birthday Lisa from The Simpsons, for Ben: his song Ben, for Riley: his song You Are Not Alone). Everything was real and normal from Riley's perception.
• Riley remembers one day a toddler Ben was on his swing calling “look, Mimi!” and going really high. But MJ was too busy playing with Riley and Ben fell and hit his head on the ground and cried. The next day, Benjamin pooped under the swing in protest.
• Riley remembers after the marriage, Lisa had to travel with ten security guards. People would throw themselves at the car and grab at the family. Ben said excitedly “they're following us!” and Riley snapped back “they're following Mimi.” The kids were not allowed to go outside without a hat or sunglasses. Riley walked in one day to find Lisa and MJ laughing as they wore wigs, trying to find disguises. She remembers MJ and Lisa always talked sassy with each other, it reminded her of Presley family members Delta and Patsy.
• Riley notes both Lisa and MJ carried with them generational addiction issues and both families came from poverty. And both Elvis and MJ knew about that god-like level of fame.
• MJ wanted Lisa to have his children from the minute they got together. Lisa wasn't into it, she didn't have the same intuition she had with Danny. Whether to have kids was a fundamental conflict from the very beginning and MJ would tell Lisa if she wouldn't have his kids, he would find someone who would. He also told her Debbie Rowe would have his kids and a jealous Lisa Marie told him to go fuck Debbie then. All Riley knew of Debbie was she was a nice lady who helped her with her ear infections.
• Lisa Marie remembers MJ told her of the molestation accusations that Evan Chandler (the father of the boy MJ allegedly molested) was extorting him. She thinks she told him to settle the charges and everyone told him to settle because it would be a “fucking nightmare.” Lisa Marie, as far as child molestation goes, she does not say outright he's innocent but only says she “never saw a goddamn thing like that, I personally would have killed him if I had.”
• Despite Lisa not wanting attention, hating the press and not wanting to be in the headlines but did the Diane Sawyer interview with MJ to protect him. She loved that he needed her and she felt it was nice to play the female role for once where she could take care of her husband. She was subsequently sued by Evan Chandler because MJ signed a confidentiality agreement to not talk about the allegations. Lisa basically admits she was there to talk about the allegations and say they were false because she didn't sign anything. Lisa won the lawsuit.
• Lisa started noticing changes in MJ around his 1995 album HIStory and things went downhill. She started to suspect drug use and he started being secretive. She saw behaviors that reminded her of her father. She told Riley she thought he was protecting his addiction. When she would question him, they would fight and MJ iced her out. Riley remembers a bad fight where somebody threw a plate of fruit at the other person (Riley doesn't say if it were MJ or Lisa who threw the plate). MJ and Lisa were paranoid, had bad tempers and both had “people” whispering in their ears.
Click to view• Lisa was upset about the 1994 MTV awards kiss. She didn't know MJ was going to do it until right before it happened. She wondered if he did it for press and if he was another version of the actor who sold her out for money. She feared MJ was only keeping her around because she was Elvis’s daughter, a novelty. She no longer trusted MJ and he didn't trust her.
• MJ would disappear for days and when Lisa reached out to his circle, she got silence. She was growing increasingly paranoid about the people around her. When she picked MJ up at the doctor, he would be out of it. She thought he was getting demerol shots for his scalp injury and one of his family members told her it was a pill addiction.
• Lisa thinks MJ faked a fall so he didn't have to do a HBO concert and when she asked questions, he gave her a different answer every time. She flew to NY to be with him. His mother and people were there, as was his personal anesthesiologist and she calls out the red flag of him having a personal anesthesiologist- she realized he needed someone to legally administer the drugs. Lisa tried to go into his bathroom to see what he was talking and was asked by a family member to get his urine so they could test it, but she declined. MJ got mad at her for asking questions, she said she would go to rehab with him. The doctor started coming at her and threatening her for asking questions. After a meeting with his doctor, MJ told her she was causing too many problems and to go home and he would see her later. She filed for divorce soon after.
• Riley says someone told Lisa that MJ was going to file for divorce and it would be better for her to do it first [note: Lisa later told journalist Tony Ortega that Scientology made her divorce MJ]. She told Oprah in 2010 that seeing the drugs and MJ with the doctors reminded her of what she went through with her father and it scared her. But it turns out MJ wasn't planning to divorce her, and Riley calls it a Romeo and Juliet poison scenario. She tried to contact MJ and he iced her out. Lisa would tell Riley that she learned to ice people out from MJ.
• Lisa and MJ would eventually start talking again and engaged in a toxic on/off relationship for years. He wanted Lisa to have his kids and she didn't want to. She knew he wanted to be the only caretaker and didn't want any maternal influence or any other influence. She figured he would have her have the children and then dump her. She says she could read him like a clock, and she understood him and knew his nature. She called him controlling and calculating. She recalls a conversation with MJ where she called him a snake.
• MJ married Debbie three months after his divorce to Lisa was finalized, but Lisa and the kids would still go to Neverland. Riley didn't know if they were still hooking up but they were over there a lot.
• Riley said they went to see MJ for the last time in South Africa in 1997 where he performed. The plane they were on nearly went down and Lisa took it as an omen and cut MJ out of her life.
• Years later, a not sober MJ called Lisa Marie and said she was right about everything. That would be their last conversation. Lisa was in London writing her album Storm & Grace when he died. She told Oprah MJ often said he was afraid of ending up like Elvis. He always asked her about Elvis’ death- how, where, why.
• At MJ’s funeral, Lisa sat with his coffin for hours like she did with Elvis. She was the last person at his coffin and she wanted to apologize for not being around. She told Riley she communicated with MJ in her dreams for months after he died.
• On the audiobook, we close with Lisa herself saying MJ would lift people up by being really interested in them. He did it with her.
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See y'all Saturday!
Source: me and my handy dandy book and audible account, pics: one, two, three, four, five, six, YouTube