Rock royalty? Well, my grandad was the King . . .
ELVIS’ granddaughter Riley Keough is easily the best thing in Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & The Six, which starts streaming today.
Critics have hailed her ‘electric energy’ and observe that she ‘carries herself with rock-star swagger worthy of her real-life lineage’ as fictional pop star Daisy Jones.
Keough, left, was unsure how well she would tackle the singing in the show — with 1970s-style tunes written by artists including British star Marcus Mumford. ‘I was like: “I don’t know if I can do it.” ’ The cast spent six months rehearsing in order to pull off the performance scenes convincingly.
Riley has evolved into a leading lady after more than a decade of acting — and carries off the singing with panache. But she approached showbusiness with caution. Before the death of her mother, singer and songwriter Lisa Marie Presley earlier this year, she said: ‘With acting, I had a feeling I would really enjoy it. I was called up for an audition when I was 18 and thought: “Well, if you never try it, you will never know,” and I booked my first audition. If that had not happened I don’t know that I would have continued.’
Her status as Elvis’ granddaughter did give her pause for thought — and she felt unnerved by covert accusations of nepotism.
‘There was a sense of: “OK, let’s see what you can do.” I was sensitive to it. It made me really nervous. I was like, should I go, “Sorry for being here”? That was my interpretation.
‘For someone like my mother, releasing music, it would have been more difficult because there was a direct comparison. Although my grandparents [Elvis and his wife Priscilla Presley] did act, it wasn’t their primary focus so there was a layer of separation there and generational separation, too.
‘I am very grateful for all of the wonderful benefits I have been able to have because of these things as well.’
Lisa died aged 54, after suffering a cardiac arrest in January. She had struggled with drug abuse and was grieving her son Ben, who died by suicide in 2020.