Riley Keough Says Filming for 'Daisy Jones & the Six' 'Pulled Her Out of Suffering' After Losing Her Mom
During her cover interview with The Wrap, Riley Keough, daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and granddaughter of Elvis Presley, opened up about discovering joy amidst her most challenging moments. Keough, an accomplished actress, takes on the role of the central character in the music-oriented series Daisy Jones & the Six.
Speaking to The Wrap, she reflected, "In hindsight, it helped pull me out of the suffering I was experiencing at the time. It was exactly what I was supposed to be doing: something that would be entertaining and an escape for people." She added, "I needed that in my life at that moment."
Her cover story emerges five months after the heartbreaking death of her mother, Lisa Marie, who suffered a cardiac arrest at the age of 54 on January 12. This occurred just two days after her appearance at the Golden Globes.
Lisa Marie was a loving mother to four children. She had two children, Riley and Benjamin, with her former husband Danny Keough. Additionally, she had twin daughters, Finley and Harper, with her ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
Riley opened up about a profoundly challenging phase in her life when she commenced filming Daisy Jones & the Six. This period coincided with the heartbreaking loss of her brother Benjamin in 2020, as well as her own health problems. "I have Lyme disease, and the sickest I've ever been was probably the year we filmed 'Daisy Jones'," she told the outlet. She also mentioned how her brother's death impacted her during that time.
During the interview, Riley disclosed that despite her family's rock star legacy, she had never publicly played the guitar or sung before. She mentioned how funny it is and how people are very confused by this. "But it's the truth. For whatever reason I never picked up a guitar and sang until the show."
During the spring of 2021, when the final concert was filmed in New Orleans, Riley openly shared that she was ready to embrace her role and claim a part of her family's remarkable legacy. "We had been rehearsing to do the live performances and then we had, like, five months of just acting, we were like, 'We wanna perform now!' When I watch the performance stuff, it makes me feel joy because we were all feeling wild," she told the publication.
During her initial audition, Keough performed a song alongside her husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, who is both a stuntman and an actor, accompanying her on guitar. Impressed by her audition, the team requested a second song and provided her with three options.
From those choices, Keough decided to showcase her talent with the heartfelt ballad Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones. "I sang really softly, because that was all I knew how to do. And they said, 'That's great, but whoever's playing this role has to be able to really sing," revealed Keough.
In her determined pursuit, she enlisted the guidance of a vocal coach and dedicated a weekend to mastering the art of belting out a song. She diligently continued to send tapes, including one where she showcased her rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man.
Recognizing her potential, the producers arranged for her to visit Sound City studio in the San Fernando Valley, where she had the opportunity to perform for music producers Blake Mills and Tony Berg. Following her performance, Tony reached out and conveyed, "She's obviously not polished, but you don't want that in rock 'n' roll. We could totally work with this." This feedback brought immense relief to everyone.
