July 2003
| http://LisaMarie.tripod.co.jp/ |
|---|
July 2003 |
| http://LisaMarie.tripod.co.jp/ |
| LISA 2003 | ||
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| June 1 | East Rutherford, NJ | (Guest host) Z100's "Zootopia 2003" (Giants Stadium) |
| June 1 | USA | VH1's "Driven" |
| June 2 | Chicago, IL | The Mix's "Eric & Kathy" |
| June 4 | San Antonio, TX | (ABC-TV) A halftime show at NBA Finals, New Jersey vs. San Antonio (SBC Center) |
| June 7 | Baltimore, MD | (Cancelled) (Free Show) Mix 106.5 "Mix fest" (Power Plant Live) |
| June 20 | New York, NY | NBC's "Today Show Summer Concert" (Rockfeller Plaza) |
| June 24 | London, UK | ITV, "This Morning" |
| June 25 | London, UK | (Cancelled) |
| June 26 | Windsor, UK | Elton John Aids Foundation Dinner |
| June 30 | London, UK | BBC Radio 2, "Steve Wright in the Afternoon" |
| July 9 | Bonner Springs, KS | Mix 93.3's "Red, White & Boom" (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Kansas City) |
| July 14 | New York, NY | CBS's "The Late Show with David Letterman" (Performance) |
| July 15 | New York, NY | TV "Live with Regis and Kelly" (Performance) |
| July 22 | New York, NY | NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brian" |
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| July 11 | Boston, MA | Fleet Boston Pavilion (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 12 | Hyannis, MA | Cape Cod Melody Tent (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 13 | Portland, ME | Merrill Auditorium (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 15 | Hampton, NH | Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom |
| July 16 | Westbury, NY | Westbury Music Fair (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 17 | Pittsburgh, PA | Amphitheater at Station Square (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 19 | Atlantic City, NJ | Trump Marina (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 20 | Asbury Park, NJ | The Stone Pony |
| July 21 | New York, NY | Beacon Theater (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 23 | Vienna, VA | Wolf Trap Filene Center (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 24 | Baltimore, MD | Pier Six Concert Pavilion (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 25 | Portsmouth, VA | NTELOS Pavilion Harbor Center (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 26 | Anderson, SC | Anderson Civic Center (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 28 | North Myrtle Beach, SC | House Of Blues (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 30 | Cary, NC | Amphitheatre At Regency Park (with Chris Isaak) |
| July 31 | Atlanta, GA | Chastain Park Amphitheater (with Chris Isaak) |
| Aug.1 | Memphis, TN | Botanic Garden (with Chris Isaak) |
| Aug.2 | Nashville, TN | Ryman Auditorium (with Chris Isaak) |
| Aug.4 | Jackson, MI | Jackson County Fair |
| Aug.5 | Detroit, MI | Meadow Brook Music Center (with Chris Isaak) |
| Aug.8 | Chicago, IL | House Of Blues (with Chris Isaak) |
| Aug.9 | Minneapolis, MN | Orpheum Theatre (with Chris Isaak) |
| Aug.11 | Des Moines, IA | Iowa State Fair (with the Goo Goo Dolls) |
| Aug.12 | Springfield, IL | Illinois State Fair (with the Goo Goo Dolls) |
| Aug.16 | (Cancelled) | |
| Sep.9 | (Cancelled) | |
| Sep.12 | (Cancelled) | |
| Sep.13 | Las Vegas, NV | House Of Blues |
| Sep.20 | Puyallup, WA | Puyallup Fair (with the B-52's) |
| Sep.22 | Boise, ID | The Big Easy |
| Sep.26 | Omaha, NE | Omaha Convention Center Arena (Pro Rodeo with LMP) |
| Sep.28 | Milwaukee, WI | Pabst Theatre |
| Oct.2 | Austin, TX | Stubbs BBQ |
| Oct.3 | Dallas, TX | The State Fair Of Texas |
| Oct.18 | (Cancelled) | |
| Oct.19 | (Cancelled) | |
| Compiled by Haruo Hirose | ||
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CD Album, "To Whom It May Concern"
(Lyrics)
Germany; Mar.24 (EMI-Electrola) Amazon.de Amazon.uk
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CD-Single, "Lights Out" / "Savior"
Germany; Mar.24 (EMI-Electrola) Amazon.de,
UK; DVD Video Single(PAL) (Amazon.uk)
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(July 28, 2003)
 from Playboy |
(July 24, 2003. Thanks to elvis4life)
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Pics of Lisa from WSNE FM, Providence, RI.
Interview with Lisa from WSNE FM, Providence, RI. (mp3) That's not all right, mama (NY Daily News, July 23) Concert Review: Chris Isaak, Lisa Marie Presley (Hollywood Reporter, July 23) LISA MARIE PRESLEY, BITE THIS (The Boston Poenix, July 18) |
(July 23, 2003)
July 21, 2003 - Beacon Theater, NY
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(July 22, 2003. Thanks to Dennis)
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The King's daughter
By MARK VOGER, The Asbury Park Press 7/18/03
Tired of being defined by the men in her life -- do we really have to tell you their
names? -- Lisa Marie Presley is putting herself out there, come what may.
Presley doesn't need the money, thanks to her
inheritance from her dad, Elvis (oops, that's
one). She doesn't need the spotlight; her
marriage to Michael Jackson (oops, that's two)
afforded her plenty of face time.
At 35 -- nearly twice the age of Avril Lavigne -- Presley has released her debut
album, the moody "To Whom It May Concern" (Capitol), and is on the road behind
it, including a stop at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park on Sunday. She recently took
time out to talk to the Press about her famous father, her kids and her career:
Q. What have you been learning about performing?
A. That you don't go and do a record never having gone out live ever before that.
They threw me out kind of quick. Usually, bands have a runway; I got thrown out on
live television, second performance ever. I've had to step up, which is fine, but I also
need to get my chops live. This tour is all about that. Honestly, I got quite
comfortable with the whole idea pretty quickly, considering the circumstances.
Q. The reviews for "To Whom It May Concern" have been positive. Were you
prepared to be trashed?
A. I was, actually. But I ran it by some people, friends in my life that I admire and
respect. They were like, "Wow, this is good." I knew they weren't going to b.s. me.
I'm kind of hard on myself, so I knew I wasn't going to put anything out there that
would be trashable, particularly. I knew if I did a pop record or something really
shallow, then, yes, I would be ready for that. I wasn't too worried; however, I was
definitely prepared.
Q. The lyrics to your first single, "Lights Out" -- "I noticed a space next to
them there in Memphis/ In the damn back lawn" -- seem to acknowledge your
legacy right out of the box.
A. The lyrics are more conceptual than anything. They're not particularly about a
person. They're just metaphorical, conceptual, of a time and place, ideal, life, that I
once knew.
Q. What do your kids (Danielle, 14, and Ben, 10, from first husband Danny
Keough) think of their mom's new step?
A. Well, my daughter's sitting right here. (To Danielle) What do you think of my
new step? My being out there. What? (Back on the phone) She put both of her
thumbs up and was sarcastic about it. And, I'm crazy, she said. She's really good for
my public relations.
Q. Your publicity photos are lovely, sexy. Are you comfortable with the modeling
aspect of being a recording artist?
A. Thank you for that, but no. Actually, that's the most horrifying and
treacherous part of this. I hate having my picture taken.
Q. You were only 9 when your father died. What have you figured out about him
since then, reflecting as an adult?
A. I have so many reflections of him, but honestly, right now I'm kind of really
experiencing what he experienced -- not nearly on the same level. But he was the
original warrior in walking the path of becoming an icon. It's something that is very
alienating and very lonely. It's also very gratifying, but there's that alienation part of it. So I'm really seeing how that was for him.
Q. I'm guessing you watched that British TV special on Michael Jackson. Did any
of that ring true for you?
A. You know, I don't wanna go there. I've already done the Michael Jackson thing.
Q. No problem. What question from interviewers are you most tired of?
A. "Why did it take you so long?" It just happened that way. But it's usually the
first question. I think I've answered it 75,000 times.
Q. How long did the project take?
A. I was writing for five years, I think. Writing and writing. I wrote so many songs
in that time period. Basically, I was just developing as a songwriter and as a singer,
quietly, on my own. After signing the deal, I knew I needed to do that. I'm quick at
writing; just the production and the whole vibe had to be sorted out, which took a
little while. And I had to like it on top of that, which was really the toughest thing.
Q. When you first told Danny you wanted to sing, he helped get you started.
When did singing become a serious goal?
A. Mostly singing was cathartic, writing was cathartic, therapeutic. I don't think I
had a goal, particularly, to sing or put it out there for anybody. So he helped me. I
mean, Danny was the only person I would sing in front of for about eight years, until
I decided to do this. It's something that I've been passionate about since age,
probably, 2, 3.
Q. Do you understand why you are a magnet for the tabloids?
A. You know, it's funny, because I'm actually not so much right this minute. I
don't want to curse this whole deal, but honestly, since the record came out,
they've kind of chilled out. They basically have backed off a wee bit. The funny thing
is that now, because I'm doing so many interviews, I can counteract them really
fast. I get a kick out of that part of it.
Q. What's the best advice you ever received from your mom?
A. Well, I haven't always followed it, but the best advice from her was: If you're
going to dress like a whore to attract attention from men, then you're going to
attract the wrong kind of attention. It's going to be on that level. They're going to
be dogs, basically. So if you attract them on that level, then (laughs) -- my
daughter's sitting right here, so I'm aiming this at her.
Q. Did you resent your mother's advice at first?
A. She kind of went there, and I kind of thought, "Oh, you're full of it." But it's
kind of true. I've watched it with other women. It's pretty superficial.
Q. What's your favorite workout?
A. I hate working out. It probably would be dancing, if anything, or walking.
Q. Your favorite current musical acts?
A. Current? Jeff Buckley never dies. Pink Floyd never dies. Current? God, I don't
know. I like Audioslave right now. There's not too many current people.
Q. Your favorite junk food?
A. Mexican food or pizza, basically.
Q. How often in your lifetime have you heard the words, "You look just like your
dad?"
A. It goes back and forth. My mom, my dad, my mom, my dad. Particularly lately.
You know what happens when I'm singing? My lip -- if I'm in a certain mood -- my
lip will naturally, instinctively go up when I'm snarling or when I'm upset onstage or
when I'm really into whatever I'm singing. And that's not intentional. But I see these
photos regularly of comparisons of him and me with that lip going up. It's not
something that I try to do, but it happens.
Q. Must be genetic.
A. It is genetic, because I honestly don't know what I look like when I'm singing. I
don't know how I look, I don't know what's going on, until I see a photo afterwards.
Then it's like, "Ah, there we have it."
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(July 21, 2003)
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The King's daughter finally finding own voice
By ROBERT DiGIACOMO
Until this year, Lisa Marie Presley was caught in a trap. Elvis Presley's only child had become a celebrity through her iconic father and her tabloid relationships with Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage - not because of her own talents or accomplishments.
At age 35, looking for some direction in life, she opted for a risky path: recording her first album "To Whom It May Concern" (Capitol).
"It never occurred to me before - I wasn't interested in attracting more attention to myself," says Presley of her musical debut. "I wrote cathartically forever. It kind of just
happened. I had been through a lot in my life. My second divorce (to Jackson) happened. I was pretty aimless, trying to get it together. I thought it was the right time.
"I'd been through enough, it was not me attempting to become a pop star. I had been bitten by the snake of life enough, I had enough to drive from to do an actual record and to use it as a vehicle. It wasn't something I really wanted to do before."
Wanting to speak in her own voice, Presley took the additional risk of co-writing all the tracks. The move paid off. The album won praise from critics and drew favorable comparisons to Sheryl Crow and other rocking singer/songwriters.
"It's rewarding in that I can hold my head up a little higher because people are not just looking at me because of my marriages or the tabloids or because of my lineage," says Presley, who will perform 9 p.m. Saturday, July 19, at Trump Marina as an opening act for pop singer Chris Isaak. "A lot of times people like the music. It's much more gratifying than being stared at for being an animal in a cage.
"On the other hand, I can't go anywhere anymore. I used to be able to pull off anonymity. I used to be able to step up and step back - it's not really happening anymore."
Having made it through the initial hype, Presley no longer has to worry about being another celebrity who tried - and failed - to become a musician.
"I do feel relieved," she says. "I do feel like I did what I needed to do for myself, and for whoever's out there who wants to be moved by me. I aimed it at people who are willing to be moved by music as I have in my life. It's more about the music for me. It is a relief."
While Presley made the record on her own terms, she had to bow to certain commercial
considerations. Initially, she fought the label on the choice of the first single, "Lights Out in Memphis," with its overt references to her family history, before giving in.
"Someone turned the lights out there in Memphis," the chorus goes. "That's where my family's buried and gone. Last time I was there, I noticed a space left. Next to them there in Memphis. In the damn back lawn."
"I was more prone to not relying on that in any way," Presley says of the song.
"The (label's) idea was to get it out of the way first, and I finally agreed after six months of arguing. It was never my intention to have it go out as the first single. I just dealt with it and the fact that I have to sing it 20 million times. I didn't want it to look like I needed to do that. It would have gone against the reasons I did the record."
But Presley, who strongly resembles her late father, doesn't deny that being the daughter of the King has affected her musically, too.
"I'm sure there's no way to escape the fact that I was heavily influenced by him," she says. "I was only around his music and him most of the early part of my life. It's impossible not to have been inspired or influenced.
"The only thing I can say about (his influence) is he dumped his soul into his singing. I'm not saying I do it anywhere near as well as he did. But I definitely learned that's the way to go. That's the kind of music that would move me. That's where I aimed."
On the tracks "S.O.B," "Better Beware," and "Gone," the three-times divorced Presley squarely takes aim at problematic relationships. During a recent phone interview, she is more circumspect about her tabloid-fodder personal life.
"I think (with) anyone if you put their relationships under a microscope, everyone's going to be scandalous somewhere along the line," she says. "It's all out there - I screwed up. Mine's a little more high profile. I'm in an unusual situation. Unusual things happened. I get attracted to unusual people, and that's the way it's going to bloody go."
Now in the position of wanting to talk to the press about her music, Presley has decided it's better to respond to coverage than to ignore it.
"I've realized that not saying anything isn't any good," she says. "Now that I'm out there, at least I have the opportunity (to respond). I can counteract them now, then it's done. It's unavoidable that people want to know that stuff. The (ABC) 'PrimeTime' interview and a few things I did ... I tried to answer as much as I could without going too far."
Like her complicated personal life, Presley's professional career has gotten off to an unusual start.
Most singers with first albums don't appear on national TV before they've gotten comfortable performing live; usually, they have the luxury of honing their act away from the glare of the cameras.
But several months into her nascent career, Presley says she's finding her comfort zone on stage. Her summer schedule - which includes the Atlantic City gig and more than a dozen dates with Isaak, touring with the Goo Goo Dolls and solo shows - should add plenty to her stage acumen.
"It's getting better, I'm getting more at ease," Presley says. "It would have been better if I'd gone on a tour and then gone out on national television. Now I'm going on tour, it's in reverse.
"I want to go on every night and find my way with it. When I know people are there to see me because they like the music and they're singing the lyrics, it's great - instead of when they're standing there and don't know what the hell to think about me."
The downside of her musical career? The mom of two doesn't much like being on the road.
"I'm a homebody," she says. "It's a little hard for me to be out of my shell. I like stability."
Chris Isaak is probably best known for frolicking with a topless Helena Christensen in the video for the 1991 hit "Wicked Game," which hit No. 2 on the Billboard charts.
But the soulful singer/songwriter has been pretty busy since then. His songs have appeared on several movie soundtracks, including 1996's "Tin Cup," 1999's "Eyes Wide Shut" and 2000's "The Family Man." Isaak also hosts Showtime's "The Chris Isaak Show," visited U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and is currently touring behind his latest album "Always Got Tonight." Isaak has also dabbled in acting, holding down small parts in "Silence of the Lambs" and "Wild at Heart."
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(July 21, 2003. Thanks to elvis4life)
ROCK'S FUTURE AND LEGACY (NY Post, July 18) |
(July 19, 2003)
Lisa Leaving the Letterman Show (July 14)
Music Review: Isaak concert a love-in with his fans (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 19) Rock's Princess & A Prince of a Guy (Newsday, July 18) Lisa Marie Presley makes a name for herself (The Courier-Post, July 18) Music Preview: Princess of rock 'n' roll stays quiet on her royal ties (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 17) Lisa Marie Presley is finding her stride outside of Memphis (Pittsburgh Tribune, July 17) |
(July 16, 2003)
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Transcript:
Lisa Marie Presley On "The Late Show with David Letterman" Monday, July 14, 2003
Dave: Please welcome back to the program, Lisa Marie Presley. ( Cheers and applause)
Dave: Good to see you again.
Dave: How have things been since we last saw you?
Dave: How about the success of the album?
Dave: And you're on tour right now?
Dave: But why a bus, because the success of the CD has been phenominal.
Dave: No, is that the case. When do you get paid?
Dave: Have not seen one check?
Dave: Have you placed a call?
Dave: Well, look if this is still going on around labor day, you give me a call, because something is desperately wrong here.
Dave: But are you enjoying traveling around?
Dave: What kind of places do you go?
Dave: It gets confusing. I know kit be fatiguing and grueling, but after a while you get sort of punchy and giddy and it all becomes fun. So what's the best part of it for you when you're out there doing it, the folks?
Dave: How many of you are on the bus?
Dave: Alternate around, what do you mean exactly by... ( applause)
Dave: Whoa!
Dave: For heavens sakes what do you care if you get paid?
Dave: And, how long will the tour last?
Dave: Thank you very much for coming in.
Dave: Well, I missed you as well. When you were here last time we talked about growing up and your parents and stuff, and I was wondering if you had ever recorded any songs that your father recorded.
Dave: What was that song?
Dave: Are there things that you might consider doing in the future like that? Just his material bill yourself.
Dave: I think that would be pretty exciting.
Dave: And when you were a kid, do you have memories of famous people or interesting people coming over to the house?
Dave: And how was it handled ?
Dave: Now, you in your own life and your own career, do you have groupies as well?
Dave: I'll bet you have groupies and you don't know it. ( Cheers and applause)
Dave: It's sort of like monky pox, you're not sure if you... you may have monkey pox, but you're just not...
Dave: And are you romantically involved with anyone?
Dave: But you would be open to something like that now, or are you just going to take it easy?
Dave: And are you going to sing for us on the show?
Dave: Now, the last time, I think the last time was one of the first times you had ever performed in front of an actual audience, really?
Dave: Second time. And it turned out fine.
Dave: And I'm expecting tonight it will turn on the just as well.
Dave: All right. Well, good for you.
Dave: You want to mention that?
Dave: You were singing on a --
Dave: Was it,.
Dave: The today show?
Dave: And something happened, it was wet and you fell?
Dave: Whoa, well, that wasn't quite explained to me like that. But... do
you mine if we show it?
Dave: All right, let's take a look.
Dave: Oh! Oh, my god. That was horrible.
Dave: You know what comes to mind when you see that, you know, lawsuit. ( Laughter)
Dave: Let's puts them out of business.
Dave: Good for you. You're all right, though,?
Dave: Well, you look terrific and we're looking forward to your song.
Dave: We'll be right back.
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Lisa at David Letterman (London Features)
Lisa at David Letterman (Globe Photos)
Lisa at Regis and Kelly (Globe Photos)
(July 16, 2003. Thanks to Dora)
 |
Lisa Interview from WJBQ, Portlamd, ME
Lisa Interview from WIXX, Green Bay, WI
Video clip from "Top Of The Pops" UK |
(July 14, 2003, Thanks to ID Know)
|
Lisa Marie Presley Q Magazine Interview
The King And I By DAN AQUILANTE, New York Post
Who expected Elvis's little girl to grow up entirely sane? Certainly not
Lisa Marie Presley, survivor of one gothic drug phase and three car crash
marriages
A bright spring day in Knightsbridge, London. Lisa Marie Presley takes a
seat on a chintzy hotel sofa and watches as the tape recorder in front of
her is switched on. "Michael Jackson, Scientology, Nic Cage," she says
without prompting. "What else?"
What else indeed? Given that Lisa Marie has been a tabloid fixture for most
of her life, a celebrity sideshow occupying the space between Drew Barrymore
and Elizabeth Taylor, variously infamous as Elvis's daughter and the ex-wife
of Michael Jackson and, more recently, Nicolas Cage, it's not too surprising
she's a little cynical. Still she says it with a smile.
Yet, attempts to take control of her public image have been hampered on many
fronts. Not least because of her physical resemblance to her father. But in
this oversize hotel room, small-boned and slender, dressed in a soft,
military-green jacket, metallic scarf and black combat pants, she looks
first and foremost like Lisa Marie: her thick hair streaked with blonde
highlights and the now familiar heavy make-up around the eyes and lips.
The most obvious similarity is in her shoulders. High, squared and slightly
hunched, they give her an almost defensive air. She has the look of someone
who's grown used to keeping strangers at arm's length.
"I don't mind doing these interviews because it's about something I did",
she says. "Not some out-of-control sensationalistic bullshit which makes me
really uneasy. I don't like talking about myself, and I don't like talking
about my personal life, but I know that there are questions and my life has
been somewhat controversial and entertaining for a log of people."
But Presley is in London because she has another story to tell, the one that
isn't just about her father and her ex-husbands. It's her own, inner story,
as channeled through her recently recorded album, To Whom It May Concern, an
intense and personal set of songs written, with the exception of one
collaboration with Billy Corgan, entirely by her and given powerful
rock-soul backing by producers Eric Rosse (who produced Tori Amos's first
tow albums) and Andrew Slater (Fiona Apple, Macy Gray).
Yet Presley's intentions as a singer and songwriter remain buried in the
complexities of her personal life. Songs like Gone seem aimed pretty bluntly
at ex-husband number three, Cage, who filed for divorce after just three
months of marriage ("And the yes men will agree, you gave it everything,"
runs the lyric), but she refuses to comment one way or the other on their
meanings.
"I won't say who my songs are about," she says. "But the record was written
over a four-year period. I can sit and write about something that happened
10 years ago or two hours ago."
At least two of the songs, though, Lights Out and Nobody Noticed It, would
appear to be about her father. Or about her relationship to her father's
memory, his presence. Lights Out concerns the vacant space beside her
father's grave at Graceland, a space Presley has described as "morbidly
inviting".
Her morbid feelings often rise close to the surface. The black hair and
Ferrari-red lipstick of her mid-20s may have gone, but there's still a
gothic side to Lisa Marie Presley. One of her best friends in Hollywood is
Marilyn Manson. And she has a portrait of herself above the fireplace in her
living room painted in blood (the artist's, not hers).
"I did go through a Goth thing, but that was a long time ago," she says. "I
just like artists that shake it up, that piss people off or make people
think or rattle the cage somehow."
As a teenager, Lisa Marie Presley was a textbook rebel. She hung out with
the bad kids at school and by the age of 13 was into cocaine, painkillers
and, most of all grass. That, however, was as far as her interest in
narcotics went. Fours years later she cleaned up and says she hasn't done
recreational drugs since. And, since whisky makes her "mean", her only vice
these days is vodka. "I'm nice with vodka," she says.
During her teenage years, she also traveled to Europe. "I used to go to
Spain every summer with a group of kids. We'd work during the day and hang
out at night on an island off Mallorca. I did that two summers in a row,
then I did the Eurail thing. I stayed in hostels, bathroom down the hall,
the whole thing."
In those days, no one bothered her. She didn't go out of her way to avoid
attention, it't just that she wasn't really in the public eye, even though
she was already on speaking terms with some of the most famous faces of the
day. When Lisa Marie was still a young teenager her mother arranged for her
to meet her idol, John Travolta, and they later went out together for lunch.
He offered her advice and fatherly reassurance.
Travolta also helped introduce her mother to Scientology, the infamous
"religion" founded in 1954 by sci-fi hack L. Ron Hubbard. Based on
principles of self-improvement (known as Dianetics), it has proved extremely
durable among Hollywood celebrities, notably Travolta and tom Cruise, and
currently operates from a fortress-like building in Los Angeles known as The
Castle. It is also the religion Lisa Marie Presley has practiced since she
was a teenager.
What is it about Scientology that appeals to you?
"It doesn't tell me what I have to believe. It's kind of a science of life
and it's explained really well to me the mind, people, myself, relationships
with others. It's not just somebody preaching. The reason I think so many
celebrities are attracted to it is because he [Hubbard] had a really deep
understanding of what an artist is, that they have a place and they have a
purpose in what they're doing."
The other great source of peace and comfort in Presley's life is her home: a
large modernist and very un-Graceland house in a gated community north of
Los Angeles, appropriately named Hidden Hills. In the garden, which extends
around the house for a number of acres, roam three dogs and a peacock. "Its
kind of a rustic area," she says. "People down the road from me have llamas
so it's not like I'm that out of the ordinary."
Her life is very different from that of her ex-husband, imprisoned behind
the gates at Neverland. Lisa Marie often ventures out into the city to
browse the fashion outlets on Melrose Avenue or meet friends for dinner.
Since her album came out she gets recognized more but has yet to feel the
need to go out wearing a mask. "I just go out looking like shit," she says.
Nonetheless, for Elvis's daughter, certain precautions are necessary.
"There's a file which has mugshots [of the real weirdo's], which my security
people have. I don't want to see it because I get obsessed with that kind of
stuff, so they have to keep it away from me."
Some days her ex-husband Danny Keough (ex-husband number one, that is) comes
over to help with their two kids. Lisa Marie refers to him as her "absolute
best friend in the world", They met in the late-80s while studying at the
Scientology "Celebrity Center" in Los Angeles; he was a couple of years
older than her and played bass in a band. He also represented a kind of
stability she hadn't known in her previous relationships. They married in
October 1988 had two children, Danielle Riley (now 14) and Benjamin Storm
(10), and stayed married for six years. It remains the longest marital
relationship in Lisa Marie's life.
Lisa Marie Presley was born on 1 February 1968. Her parents stayed together
for the fours years following her birth, after which she lived in Los
Angeles with her mother, Priscilla, and visited her father at Graceland in
Tennessee as regularly as she could - certainly more regularly than most
girls whose parents live on opposite sides of America. It didn't hurt that,
aged seven, her father bought her a red, white and blue jet named the Lisa
Marie, to go with her fur coat, diamond jewellery and the miniature golf
cart she drove around the grounds at Graceland.
"I didn't get too caught up in all that, oddly enough. Other people seem to
be so fascinated by it. I understand that, but everything good has bad
connected with it. Immediately they want to place you as a spoiled brat."
Did you ever feel you were being spoiled?
"I didn't because I knew he had limited time with me and that he was just
trying to do whatever it was to make me happy at that time," she says. "it
wasn't a regular thing. I'd go back to my mom and it'd be the complete
opposite. I knew it was a special thing and the time I had with him was
special so therefore he was going to go out of his way with me to make me
happy".
Yet she was always aware that her fathers lifestyle was somehow compromised
and from an early age took against many of the people he had surrounded
himself with. These members of the Memphis Mafia hung out at Graceland,
drinking, partying with women and generally, as she saw it taking advantage
of her father's hospitality. In an effort to get her own back, she would act
up while Elvis slept in the afternoon, chasing peacocks in her golf cart or
playing tricks on gullible fans waiting outside Graceland's gates for a
glimpse of the King.
"I was very much a daddy's girl, and was pretty tyrannical when he was
sleeping. If I could get into trouble, I would. I didn't have a lot of
respect for those people [around him] because I saw a lot of debauchery and
decadence going on. People trying to hid it from me, but I was onto them."
When Elvis died on 16 August 1977, Lisa Marie was nine years old and staying
over at Graceland. Asked about her last memories of her father, her voice
goes cold. "I have a lot of memories, but I don't go into capitalizing on
that," she says. "Something's got to be my own. I'm not doing the record to
sit here and broadcast my memories of my father. You know what I mean?"
She's also not doing the record to talk about Michael Jackson, but it's
another part of her past that continues to fascinate. The married in 1994 in
a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic and, despite the "shit storm"
that followed, she insists now that she married with the best of intentions
and that Jackson in private is very different from the falsetto man-boy who
appears in public. Yet she also admits that her tie spent in Jackson's world
distorted her perceptions and twisted her emotions. The level of scrutiny he
live under was too much, even for her.
"There's good and bad to it. I felt I'd be more at ease with someone who was
more famous than I was, that I could be second to, because I had no interest
in having a record deal or anything like that," she says. "There are
drawbacks, because that person can build their own reality and everyone
around them then goes into that reality and nothing's real anymore. And I've
been through all of that, I've seen all sides of it. Power or celebrity, you
walk a really fine line. It's a struggle to keep your sanity, to keep on a
straight line."
After splitting from Jackson in 1995, Lisa Marie Presley fell seriously ill,
sparking rumours of suicide attempts and a nervous breakdown. In fact, she
now believes, her health problems (which included everything from asthma to
weird allergies) were related to stress and old mercury fillings. At the
same time she was trying to get her emotions back to a stage approaching
normality. In her case, this meant reaching a stage where she felt nothing
towards Jackson at all. As opposed to just hating his guts.
"The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference," she says. "Someone
kept telling me that and I was like, Bullshit!, because I could never get
there. And then I finally didn't care anymore. When you sit there full of
venom and hatred for years, and you want so badly for the person to rot in
hell, and I'm not saying this about Michael, but when you feel you're caught
up in something and theirs still enough emotion to even hate someone, it's
not ideal."
But having "recovered" from her post-Jackson travails, Presley didn't
exactly play it safe. By 2001 she was in a relationship again, this time
with Hollywood hothead Nicolas Cage. Things between them never seemed
exactly stable, a situation not helped by media stories suggesting Cage, who
starred as a skydiving Elvis impersonator in the 1992 film Honeymoon In
Vegas, was living out some kind of Elvis fantasy through the relation ship.
It was even rumored at one time that he did a striking imitation of Presley
for his answering machine message.
"Yeah, that's bullshit. Yes, he made those films. But no, he didn't have
fuckin' answering machines saying whatever about my dad, he didn't have any
memorabilia, I never say one artifact of my father's. Maybe a couple of CDs,
that was it. It was just an attempt to disqualify that, make it weird, make
it odd."
The pair split up in January 2002, only to reunite a few months later and,
finally, marry on 10 August the same year. The marriage lasted just over
three moths. So, is she learning to be "indifferent" to Nicolas Cage now,
too?
"No, Nicholas and I are still in good condition. We're good. That's wasn't
as exciting or controversial as the other one [with Jackson]. There's no big
story behind it. Two pirates who sunk the ship, that's simply all it is. But
we still recognize in each other..." she pauses, then makes a couple of
hesitant sounds. Apparently nothing she's thinking seems appropriate, as
finally she just says, "Whatever."
In Elvis Presley's will, Lisa Marie was named as his sole heir. It should
have meant freedom from any future financial worries, but when the estate
was examined, his assets - which included a 76 page inventory of aircraft,
cars motorbikes, interior furnishings and statues - totaled just $5 million.
After protracted legal battles with Elvis's former manager, Colonel Tom
Parker, control was put in the hands of Lisa Marie's mother. It was
Priscilla who took the decision to open Graceland to the public and make
Elvis Presley Enterprises the sole arbiter of rights to Elvis's music and
merchandising. In the process she turned EPE into a global concern now worth
an estimated $150 Million.
Lisa Marie Presley took control of EPE on her 30th birthday. Yet, just as
she was taking on this new responsibility ("There are phone calls going back
and forth all the time," she says), she actually felt as if she were
regressing.
"For some reason, when I turned 30 I became a teenager again and it wasn't
really by my own will, it just happened," she says. "I married and had my
first baby at 21, so I had it together early on. But I started acting about
15 again when I turned 30. So I guess that makes me 19 now."
Is that why there aren't many happy songs on the album?
"It doesn't in any way signify my general state of being or how I live my
life. I'm not trying to be some mopey sad girl or tormented child. It's just
what I pull from when I'm writing. And songs have always gotten me through
things because I felt that someone else related to what I was going through.
So I figure if I can do that for other people..." I'm not trying to make some
statement that I'm a ... mope-tress."
Statement or not, you're Lisa Marie Presley. People are always going to be
looking for hidden meanings. She smiles: "They can go fuck themselves."
|
(July 12, 2003)
Mix 93.3's "Red, White & Boom", Bonner Springs, KS (July 9)
More pics |
(July 11, 2003)
|
PRINCESS SHY
By DAN AQUILANTE, New York Post
July 11, 2003 -- SHE'S the King's daughter, and she's been married to Michael Jackson and actor Nicolas Cage, and de spite living in the public eye, Lisa Marie Presley had protected her self in relative privacy.
But when her debut CD, the dark, brooding rocker "To Whom It May Concern," was released this spring after years of false starts, Presley, 35, shattered her semi-solitude in a wave of showcase performances and tell-all interviews.
In those inquiring-minds-would-like-to-know exposes, we learned, yes, she did have sexual relations with her second husband, Michael Jackson. And yes, he actually has a man's voice when he's not speaking in public.
Whodathunkit?
It's estimated she's worth more than $300 million and doesn't need the scratch a debut record will bring. So why did this reluctant star relinquish her privacy?
So she could finally separate her identity from the men who've obscured her by virtue of their incredible star power.
"I did this to justify my existence, aside from the sensational tabloid crap," she told The Post from her L.A. home, where she lives with her two kids, Ben, 10, and Danielle, 14. (Their father is Danny Keough.) "I wrote these songs for myself, to work things out."
The music was crucial to her, she says - and it turns out she's pretty good at making it. "It's a huge part of my life," she said, adding this wasn't a vanity project, but rather a "sanity" record. "I wrote these songs to purge myself."
Finally living outside the shadows cast by the men in her life, Presley is playing small theaters and working her album as any new music act would. She hits the Westbury Music Fair on Wednesday and the Beacon Theater July 21, opening for Chris Isaak.
Post: Judging by all the articles written about you, most people would think you've had a terrible life. True?
Presley: My life has been unusual. I was born to unusual circumstances, but I'm surviving and going through crap just like anybody else. Sure, it might be on a different level and maybe in a different way, but my life is the same as anybody's. When people look at any life under a microscope, it might seem terrible, but I've met people with worse stories.
Post: Then why are you portrayed as this messed-up person?
Presley: Because I've never said anything before this, and then to finally come out talking when I'm 35, answering 25 years of speculation - it's a little overwhelming. It probably seems like a lot of bad stuff when you look at it all in one fell swoop.
Post: Do you think your age limits your audience?
Presley: No, when I play a show I have teenage girls quoting my lyrics. A lot of kids love the songs, but the audiences have been varied.
Post: Do your own kids relate to your songs?
Presley: They've both been listening to me record this album for the past four years, so they knew each song as it was written. It's not whether they like them or not; I think they are just stunned the album is finished and my career went from zero to 2,000 mph in 30 seconds. Once the record hit, it was like, "Mommy's gone."
Post: How are they dealing with you being on the road doing concerts and promoting the album?
Presley: It's hard because I like routine and schedules. I'm really a homebody, so it's very tough for me to leave them. The whole thing has been a bigger adjustment for me than it was for them.
Post: Would you encourage your kids to become entertainers?
Presley: If that's what they wanted to do, I'd encourage it. They can do anything they want - except be crack addicts.
Post: What does your mom (Priscilla Presley) have to say about your stepping into the spotlight?
Presley: I talk with her every couple of days. She's watching and listening. She's been right there with me and has been very supportive.
Post: There is so much negative writ ten about your relationships. What are the good memories of your dad, of Michael Jackson, of Nic Cage?
Presley: I'm not interested in talking about those memories of (Elvis). I have many great memories of good times, but I'd prefer not to talk about them. I don't like to capitalize on my dad's memory. As for Nic and Michael, there were good times, but people are just interested in the bad stuff. It's just sensationalism. With Michael, I learned a lot. Nothing was all that terrible. As far as Nic, he and I still talk.
Post: Had Elvis had a son rather than a daughter, do you believe he would have been able to make a record, as you have?
Presley: No, I don't think so. Thank God I wasn't born a boy.
Post: When your dad died, you were a young girl. As an adult, are you angry at the people who surrounded him but didn't take care of him?
Presley: Of course. That's what my song "Nobody Noticed It" came from. I wrote that about that anger in me. I'm not going to blame anyone in particular because everybody was responsible.
Post: Being a celebrity has its drawbacks.
Presley: Stardom is difficult. It is a lonely, alienated position. You sometimes put yourself on a different plane than everyone else. That causes problems.
Post: But you didn't have to make the album. You didn't have to put yourself on a different plane.
Presley: I had to do this record for me. I don't like attention on me, and that's a problem, but if I get it, I'd rather have it because I made a record and not because of who I married or who my dad was.
|
(July 11, 2003)
| Royal Flush, Lisa Marie plays her cards close to her chest. (The Boston Phoenix) |
(July 10, 2003)
Photos from Q Magazine (Aug. 2003).
 |  |  |
(July 10, 2003. Thanks to Maria)
| Looks like Lisa will be on the Regis and Kelly TV show on July 15th and Late Show with David Letterman on July 14th. |
(July 10, 2003)
|
Lisa Presley's Music Video for Sinking In Debuts on AOL Music's First
View
AOL Music's First View program has the worldwide exclusive premiere of the music video for Lisa Marie Presley's second single, Sinking In. This song appears on her debut album To Whom it May Concern. AOL will have it exclusively for 72 hours. It first becomes available for viewing on Friday July 11, 2003 at 12:01 A.M. (EST).
After this period of exclusivity, it will start airing on televison on the various music channels and various Web sites will have it, including Lisa's official site.
|
(July 10, 2003)
|
Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop (MSNBC)
Lisa Marie Presley: No more men
July 9 -- Lisa Marie Presley says she's sworn off men. That's one of
many revelations that the self-proclaimed hater of publicity has made to
overseas reporters while trying to pump up sales of her debut album, "To
Whom It May Concern," which gets released in the UK later this month.
PRESLEY, who has had failed marriages to Michael Jackson, Nicolas Cage
and musician Danny Keogh, says she's cutting men out of her life at
least for now because they would interfere with her music career. "The
joys of celibacy? No, practicality," Presley told the London Mirror.
"It's more practical to do my job and not be distracted."
And although Presley specifically told reporters that ex-hubby
Cage asked that she not discuss him, she does declare that she will
never hook up with another actor. "This is not about Nicolas," Presley
told the London Independent. "But actors are out. They don't know who
the hell they are, what they're doing. Drama -- big, big, big!
Everything's so overblown."
The reporter asked her if the song,
"Gone," about a man who likes his girlfriends to call him Daddy, was
about Cage. "I don't know," Presley shrugged. "I'm not answering
questions like that."
Presley also told reporters that she had a physical breakdown after splitting from Michael Jackson. When asked by the London Mirror if she's surprised by all the woes facing Jackson, she replied: "I will just say that at one point I did say: 'This is like I'm on the Titanic and it's sinking.' . . . I said: 'I'm either going to jump now, or I'm going to go down with you. So I'm going to get out.' He said: 'Am I sinking?' I said: 'Yeah.' And then I walked. And he is sinking."
|
(July 9, 2003)
|
Lisa on "Top Of The Pops"(UK)
"Lights Out" will be shown TOTP on BBC1, Friday 11th July. |
(July 7, 2003, Thanks to elvis4life)
|
The kid from fame ; She is Elvis's daughter and heir to his fortune, but things have not been easy for Lisa Marie Presley. Here, she talks about life in her father's shadow, marriage to Michael Jackson, and how she finally confronted her demons by making her own music. Interview
by Nick Duerden, "Independent, The; London (UK)," 2003-07-05 MUCH HAS been made of Lisa Marie Presley's face. The sharp profile that seems to consist almost exclusively of angles; the deep- set chocolate- brown eyes; the full top lip that can, at will, curl into a world-famous sneer; and the overwhelming sense of familiarity it conjures. In photographs - especially in black and white - she smoulders like a 1940s movie siren. It is not a beautiful face - it's far too handsome for that - but it is a striking one. And while she may have a lot of her mother about her, it is her father's features that win out. When you look at Lisa Marie up close and in the flesh, you are staring at a living, breathing Elvis. It is an unnerving, and rather thrilling, sight. "Anyone who knows me properly will tell you that I'm not a vain person," she says at one point during our conversation. "I make the effort when I have to, but most times I don't give a shit." If any other star made such a claim, you probably wouldn't believe them. But Presley speaks the truth. In London to promote the imminent release of her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, she is exhausted. In the last couple of weeks, she has travelled throughout Japan and the US. She arrived from the latter yesterday, unable to recall whether she flew in from LA or New York, and this afternoon looks decidedly unfresh as she sinks into the plump hotel sofa, stifling a yawn. "I just want to sleep," she says. The jetlag has taken its toll around her eyes, which are bloodshot. On her lids she has painted kohl so heavily you almost feel sorry for the extra weight they have to carry, while the grey colour underneath them is nature's own. Her skin is pale, and although the pink lipstick tries hard, it affords her little colour. She is dressed in a loose-fitting purple sweatshirt, and faded jeans so long and flared they cover most of her feet, revealing only black- painted toes. As she talks, answering questions with such laboured sighs you feel it pains her to do so, she fiddles constantly with her hair which, when washed, is shiny and lustrous. Today, it is not washed. And yet even in this near narcoleptic state, she exudes a formidable aura, the kind only one born into extreme fame and fortune can possess. Lisa Marie Presley has been an A-list celebrity for all her 35 years, but never has she been famous for herself. Until now, it has been because of her father, her mother, her drug abuse, her reliance upon Scientology, and her unusual choice of husbands. And while she is surprisingly polite and down-to-earth, she is also fiercely self-protective and wary. As a consequence, the room's temperature is set to Antarctica, and the scowl she shoots my way as introductions are made suggests that she doesn't suffer fools gladly. After 13 years of writing songs for no other reason than that she enjoyed it, Lisa Marie Presley has decided that 2003 is a good time to unleash an album onto the world. To Whom It May Concern is a surprisingly strong record that paints the singer - whose cigarette- ravaged voice brings to mind Cher covering some of Sheryl Crow's darker work - as a troubled soul now quite prepared, for the first time in her life, to wear her heart upon her sleeve. "It's not been particularly designed to reveal just how fucked up I am, although I do tend to write songs from a fucked-up place," she says. "It's just a record about me: who I am, the way I think, the way I feel. I felt it was time to put something out there that was a completely honest depiction of me, because let's face it, nobody knows who the hell I am. Sure, I've been the subject of a million tabloid sensations during my life, but that's hardly an accurate representation, is it? Before the record came out in the US, I think a lot of people were expecting something lightweight, poppy and completely insubstantial from me. Their reaction since has been surprise and shock." She smiles thinly. "That pleases me." Although she says she values her privacy above all else, many of the 11 tracks read like stark, deeply personal diary entries. For the most part, these are angry songs - the word "fuck" abounds, employed always as a slur - sung by a woman seemingly suffering from a great many demons. The first single, "Lights Out", for example, is a lament to her father's death and her eventual one: "Someone turned the lights out there in Memphis/ That's where my family's buried and gone/ Last time I was there I noticed a space left next to them/ In the damn back lawn." She also sings about misery and drugs, and specialises in character assassinations of former lovers. "Perhaps I should go on record now and say that there are no songs on this album that refer in any way to [second husband] Michael Jackson," she says, impatiently. "Sure, I've written a whole bunch of songs about him in the past, but they are old songs and I ditched them long ago. "I write about subjects that are close to my heart, but not every one of them is necessarily about the men in my life. Maybe two or three at most." Which? "I won't say. That's why I called it To Whom It May Concern. Go speculate." OK, how about "Gone", an unambiguously sour song about a man who likes his girlfriends to call him daddy. Could this be about her third husband, the Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage? Big shrug. "I don't know. I'm not answering questions like that," she barks, and then immediately relents. "Put it this way. I've been writing this record for the past five years, and I've written about things that happened during that period." She married Cage last year; he filed for divorce 107 days later. "I do like to write nasty songs," she admits. "It's a useful weapon to have, and it's cathartic as well, because I create art out of anger, something positive out of something negative." She says, coyly, that she recently played "Gone" to the "person concerned". His reaction was this: "Ouch." Slowly, Presley starts to grin. "It hurt him, but he had to admit that it was a pretty good song." The album was released in America back in April and debuted at number five in the charts. "It's up around 800,000 sales now, so I'm told," she recounts, without emotion. "Am I happy about that? I don't know. Should I be? I never had any real expectations for it, to be honest. Sure, I'm glad people like it, or seem to like it, and I will say that it's a relief to finally have something out there that's all about myself rather than my father." A pained expression crosses her face. "Other than that, I really don't know what to say." The record has, she says, completely changed the public perception of her - for the better. Beforehand, she was a two- dimensional tabloid monster. Now, gradually, she is revealing her personality and, for the first time, is willingly meeting the press. "I find it very unnerving and scary, to be honest, because I am a very private person," she says. "Facing the press is endlessly daunting for me. But I am learning to use it to my advantage. If the tabloids come up with the latest ridiculous lie about me - and they always do - then now I can rectify it the following week in a proper interview with a serious newspaper. That's a novelty." To date, the US tabloids have shown little interest in Presley's music. The only time they pricked up their ears was when she made the rather unexpected decision to appear on radio shock jock Howard Stern's show. This is something she would never have ordinarily done had Cage, during the couple's acrimonious divorce, not challenged her to do so. "I like a challenge, and so I went on," she says. "It was good fun, Howard's a funny guy, but I ended up talking about sex, of course, and the tabloids went crazy, much as you'd expect." What exactly did she say on the subject? "Oh, I don't know, I can't remember." Her eyelids come down heavily, and it's like the cinema's house lights going out. "Move on. Next question." She won't be doing Stern's show again. "I'm not interested in attention and I don't like being gawked at. I have no interest in standing out from the crowd whatsoever. If anything, my instinct is to hide, to be reclusive." So why release a record at all? "Because I love music. Simple as that." LISA MARIE Presley was born on 1 February 1968, the Chinese year of the monkey. By the time she was four, her parents had divorced and she moved, with her mother, to Los Angeles, but continued f to pay regular visits to her father's Memphis home. She was leading two very separate lives, with mother Priscilla desperate to instill order into her young daughter's life. But order didn't sit very well with Lisa Marie. A daddy's girl, she loved spending time in Gracelands where Elvis would indulge her every whim, showering her with gifts. Lots of girls get ponies for their birthday, but very few get private jets named after them. "It's true, I was quite the spoiled brat," she admits. "I have quite a temper, obviously inherited from my father, and I became very good at ordering everyone around. I was the princess; the staff were absolutely terrified of me. Ha." But her father spent most days sleeping, and so when she grew bored of the many distractions within the house, she would drive a golf cart around the grounds, deliberately running over frogs. Even better, she would drive up to the front gates and taunt the fans that forever congregated there. She hated the fans. "I was very protective of my father," she says, "and I didn't like these people who hung around outside all day. They creeped me out." She was nine when Elvis died, and in the house when it happened. Her life started unravelling almost immediately, and by the time she was 14, she was heavily into drugs. "I had anything but a happy childhood," she says, with blunt matter of factness. "Two words: lonely and deep. I was very lonely and way too deep for someone so young. My head was full of all these big, terrible questions. You know, what is life, what is death, why are we here? It affected me badly. I had no interest in hanging out with other celebrity kids, and I was certainly no cheerleader, so I started mixing with outsiders. I was very into all kinds of experimentation." She developed a taste for painkillers, marijuana and cocaine, which she would mix with alcohol, and then stay awake for days, pondering the meaning of life and coming up empty. By 17, she was out of control and her mother kicked her out of the house and into a so-called Celebrity Centre, run by the local Scientology Church. "Scientology has helped me so much," she says. "It's difficult to explain in a soundbite, but basically Scientology is an encyclopaedia for life. It's non-denominational, it doesn't judge, it's a lot about self-discovery, and it helped me so much for one reason: it works. It helped me through my drugs, and it helps me still. It's my main anchor in life." It was here that she met her first husband, musician Danny Keough. They were married at 20, and she had two children with him (Danielle Riley, now 14, and Benjamin Storm, 10). But constant harassment from the tabloids put their marriage under unsustainable pressure, and they divorced after six years. Come May 1994, Lisa Marie Presley would do something very strange indeed, something that would further propel her into the limelight she claimed to so loathe. As news was reverberating around the world of Michael Jackson's alleged paedophilia, she married him in a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic, before subsequently announcing it to the world's media with a full kiss on stage at that year's MTV Video Music Awards. The very mention of Jackson now causes the atmosphere in the hotel room to plummet further still. Her decision to enter into wedlock with the King of Weird is something she no longer wishes to discuss. "It was a moment of madness, old news, boring," she says. But then, in the ensuing heavy silence, she decides to explain herself. "Look, my whole life has been a constant battle of trying to find my own way. I have never met a man who could cope with me - who I am, the Presley name. I was always the dominant one in any relationship, and it's unnatural for the woman to be the bread maker, the bread ... whatever." Winner? "The breadwinner, exactly. Which is why I ended up marrying someone even more famous than myself. Being Elvis Presley's daughter is a whole lot of pressure. It's been a constant burden in my life. Believe me, I had no idea just how great the pressure would get sometimes. Ultimately, it made me too chickenshit to step out of the shadow and into my own identity. Hiding behind someone else's was, I guess, easier, although not necessarily the right thing to do ..." The marriage remained a bizarrely public one - the couple being interviewed on US TV, seemingly happy to answer even the most intimate of questions (yes, they were a regular couple; yes, they had sex) - but Presley became increasingly wary that she was merely a pawn in Jackson's PR rebuilding exercise. Exasperated by his increasingly erratic behaviour, she divorced him three years later, and promptly fell ill with stress. She suffered from panic attacks, suspected asthma, hypoglycaemia, and had her gall bladder removed. The tabloids were convinced she was trying to kill herself, and her depression deepened, she lived on a diet of chicken and broccoli, and lost a lot of weight. Eventual salvation came from some unlikely advice: a homoeopathic doctor told her to have the fillings in her teeth removed because mercury fillings, as she now so succinctly puts it, "can make you go fucking crazy". As soon as she had them taken out, her health started to improve. Her taste in men, however, remained eccentric. In 2001, she met Nicolas Cage, a self-confessed Elvis obsessive. This was bound to cause friction and, sure enough, it did. Their relationship was tempestuous, and they split up twice before reconvening on 10 August 2002, to be married. Less than three months later, Cage filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Presley doesn't want to talk about Cage either, although she does let it slip that they are talking again. A further reconciliation may be on the cards. Then again, it may not. The day after our interview, America's latest confessional singer- songwriter is due to appear on Top of the Pops alongside such musical luminaries as Evanescence and Fast Food Rockers. It is a prospect - her first live British TV performance - that phases her little. "A couple of months ago I hauled my white ass on stage alongside Chaka Khan and Stevie Wonder for [the cable channel VH1's] Divas Las Vegas, singing in front of a celebrity audience," she states. "If I can hold my own there, I can hold my own at Top of the Pops, trust me." Then, she returns to the US for two back-to-back tours with country singer Chris Isaak and rock act The Goo Goo Dolls, and won't be free to return home - a secluded Los Angeles house she shares with her children, three dogs and a peacock - until the autumn. She is counting the days. "I've been thinking about giving up smoking for some time, but recently I haven't even bothered with the pretence of it. I'm under way too much stress right now," she says. "I had no idea all this [promotion] would be so intense." Will she make another album? "Well, I'm contracted for another two, so I'll see how I feel when the time comes." If today's mood is anything to go by, then it's unlikely she'll be in any hurry to do so. As the head of Elvis Presley Enterprises and sole heir to his $300m fortune, she certainly doesn't need the money, and as she has gone to great lengths to illustrate, fame is the only f-word that really causes this woman offence. "I didn't make this record to set the record straight or anything. I just wanted to put something out there, and I'm glad I have. I'd be having much more fun with all this if I was in the least bit vain or desperate for attention, but I'm not, so, you know ..." She trails off and looks in quiet desperation out of the window, counting the moments towards temporary respite when this journalist, at last, has left the building. E `To Whom It May Concern' is released on 14 July on Capitol |
(July 3, 2003)
|
Lisa Marie Presley! (04/20/03, This is not a real interview ?)
Bob: Greetings Lisa Marie. It's really a thrill to be next to someone who's been next to so many thrilling people herself. The daughter of Elvis, the former wife of Michael Jackson, and now your singing career really starting to blossom, your life must be a dream come true.
Bob: Tell me more about your childhood memories of your father.
Bob: Did Elvis ever sing around the house?
Bob: What do you mean?
Bob: Well he certainly was a great entertainer who provided us with music that many future generations will enjoy. Let's talk about your marriage to Michael. You basically hated your mother, didn't you?
Bob: So give us your assessment, how many html tags short of a web page was he anyway?
Bob: Like what?
Bob: Did you have trouble keeping help?
Bob: Well between Elvis and Michael, those are giant shadows to come out from, especially your father's. Do you think you'll ever lose the subtitles of daughter and ex-wife.?
Lisa Marie Presley Interview, Q94 FM, Winnipeg, Canada (04/03/03) |
(July 1, 2003)
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More tour dates added
Aug.4, Jackson, MI, Jackson County Fair Sep.20, Puyallup, WA, Puyallup Fair (with the B-52's) |
| http://LisaMarie.tripod.co.jp |
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| http://LisaMarie.tripod.co.jp |
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