1993-2000 Lisa Marie Presley

LMP, 15 February 2004


Presley said she fell “totally in love” with Jackson. Their 1994 marriage lasted 20 months.

Jackson, she said, had the power to intrigue, capture and engage.

Critics say Jackson married Presley to counter bad publicity. In 1994, he was charged with child sex offences.

But Presley said her motives for marrying Jackson were real.

“He is very smart and he knows what he is doing,” she said. “He didn’t get to where he is today by not being shrewd with people.

“At the time, I was quite young. So, I’m not going to disclaim the fact that it was a growing thing for me.

“I was naive. I’d never been subjected to anything like it, but I learned fast.”

Even today, Presley refuses to criticize Jackson directly.

“Honestly, it was such a long time ago,” she said. “It was a big learning process for me.”

LMP, March, Enough Rope – 2004


Andrew Denton: Ha ha. You, you’ve said that your taste in men is psychotic, what do you mean by that?

Lisa Marie Presley: Has been. You know.

Andrew Denton: Has been.

Lisa Marie Presley: What I mean is if you lined everybody up that I was ever with in a row, that it would never make any sense. They’re all very different you know.

Andrew Denton: Yeah.

Lisa Marie Presley: There’s two that are when I was up but there’s also others that still would be, you know, there’s no pattern of sanity. And there’s no method behind the madness.

Andrew Denton: Are you attracted to people that are a bit like you, that like to be wild at heart?

Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah, but see those are the, that’s the not good match ups, cause you have to have somebody that sort of counteracts that. You know, you can’t have both people doing that.

Andrew Denton: Your producer Glen Ballard, when you went to do this album, he said to you, he said you asked him for advice. He said, “Write about your life”. So it’s interesting to look at the lyrics and and particularly SOB and it says, “I lost my trust in you, you were dangerous and scary and you poisoned me with sweets, everyone was intrigued by”. Why did you fall in love with Michael Jackson?

Lisa Marie Presley: Oh see, I knew this was a segue.

Andrew Denton: Yeah. Well look, it’s the word dangerous, it’s a giveaway.

Lisa Marie Presley: Right, right. Why did I?

Andrew Denton: Yeah.

Lisa Marie Presley: I have no idea, why does anyone fall in love with anyone. Um, it was 9 years ago, can’t really remember you know.

Andrew Denton: Really?

Lisa Marie Presley: Just, just hung out, we were friends. And um, he wasn’t anything like he is right now, I don’t know what’s happened, but I don’t know. Same reason anybody falls in love with anybody.

Andrew Denton: He was different to what you expected though wasn’t he?

Lisa Marie Presley: Yes.

Andrew Denton: In what way?

Lisa Marie Presley: Just more normal. Not the things that he sort of puts out about himself.

Andrew Denton: Cause you’ve said that he is the opposite of how he appears. The Michael Jackson we saw last year, you know dangling the baby over the balcony, putting veils over the kids faces, is that him?

Lisa Marie Presley: Okay. Um, no, I don’t know, I don’t know anymore.

Andrew Denton: You, when you talk.

Lisa Marie Presley: I never saw anything like that, is what my answer is.

Andrew Denton: When you talked about him, you described a man who was very smart.

Lisa Marie Presley: Yes.

Andrew Denton: Pretty ruthless, pretty manipulative. Now as a strong woman, you clearly are, was it difficult to be in a relationship where to some extent you felt powerless?

Lisa Marie Presley: Ah it was, that’s why I left. I mean only powerless in a lot of ways, in terms of, you know, realising that I was part of a machine, and seeing things going on that I couldn’t do anything about. You know and don’t ask me what sort of things, cause I’m not going to answer. But just stuff.

Andrew Denton: So what sort of things?

Lisa Marie Presley: You know what, I watched interviews of you, like two of them before and I saw where you were going to go in on me. Um, what were we saying?

Andrew Denton: I’ll just read back my question. Ah what sort of things?

Lisa Marie Presley: Of what? You mean that I noticed.

Andrew Denton: Okay I’ll…

Lisa Marie Presley: And that I had no control over?

Andrew Denton: Yeah, I got the sense that you ah, and believe you me I’m not going to spend the next half hour talking about Michael Jackson, we’ll move on.

Lisa Marie Presley: Thank you.

Andrew Denton: But, I got the sense, cause I know that this is a tender area, but I got the sense that you had become a part of Michael Jackson Incorporated. That you had an Access Most Areas ticket, but you didn’t have access to the board room necessarily. Would that be a fair way to describe the relationship?

Lisa Marie Presley: I didn’t want access, I mean I wasn’t in it for any other reason than I had fallen in love with someone, so it wasn’t like I was trying to find access to something. Like for some, ah I don’t quite understand the question maybe.

Andrew Denton: It must be very difficult to have a sense of being used in full public view.

Lisa Marie Presley: Right. I don’t think I was aware of that so much at the time.

Andrew Denton: And now?

Lisa Marie Presley: I have a different take now.

Andrew Denton: And what do you think?

Lisa Marie Presley: I look back at anything and look at my own responsibility in it and so I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it was all, I’m a victim, and there’s this whole bad stuff or whatever, but I will, I mean I, I look, when I look back now I look at what I was doing, where was I coming from, and what did I do to cause that on myself as well.

Andrew Denton: And when you look at that man now, and I’m not asking you to say what’s going on now because you can’t possibly know, but when you look at him, how do you feel about him? Do you feel sorry for him, do you feel for him still?

Lisa Marie Presley: I, I you know ta- I can’t, it’s really bizarre, I feel nothing. It’s just, I watch just like anyone else when anything’s going on and I have the same reaction and wow or you know holy shit or what ever, it’s whatever people are doing I’m doing the same thing. That’s, well with nothing attached any more, which is, it took a long time but that’s where it’s at now.

Andrew Denton: You’ve seen fame and you’ve experienced it in a way very few ever will. What does fame do to people?

Lisa Marie Presley: Um, it depends on the person. It kind of puts you in a position where you will immediately show you’re either expand it or you’ll become an arsehole and lose it. You know and there’s one, there’s not really in-betweens on that one I don’t think. You’ll either become a real jerk and abuse it and become obnoxious and unrealistic, and fall down the chute or you’ll learn how to deal with it.

[…]

Andrew Denton: Do you have a pretty good bullshit meter?

Lisa Marie Presley: Yes, you know but every once in a while I get a challenge and something happens that I wasn’t ready for and you know throws it off. It’s not perfected yet.

Andrew Denton: Ha, ha. For example?

Lisa Marie Presley: For example people that get close to me that are there for the wrong reasons and have a whole another thing going.

Andrew Denton: Which means what, people that are basically trying to get money or vicarious publicity out of you?

Lisa Marie Presley: Something yeah, or you know even closer, even deeper than that, not so much monetary things, just deeper, betrayal.

Lisa Marie clarifies remarks she made about Michael which incited negative media speculation about Michael, The Associated Press, March 17, 2004


LOS ANGELES – Lisa Marie Presley clarified her remarks in an Australian TV interview, saying in a statement Wednesday that she never saw her ex-husband, Michael Jackson, engage in inappropriate behavior with kids.

Elvis Presley’s daughter, on a concert tour in Australia, said in an interview broadcast Monday that she saw things she “couldn’t do anything about” during her 1994-96 marriage to Jackson.

“I was in no way referring to seeing something inappropriate with children, as I have stated publicly before. I never have,” Presley said in a statement released by her Los Angeles publicist, Paul Bloch.

Without elaboration, Presley said during the talk show interview that she felt powerless during the marriage to Jackson, who is charged in Santa Barbara County with child molestation. The interview aired on Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s “Enough Rope.”

“Unfortunately, due to the recent media frenzy surrounding Michael Jackson, my comments during a recent TV interview in Australia regarding him were completely taken out of context and erroneously read into,” Presley said in the statement.

“In saying I saw things, I was specifically referring to things in that relationship with us that went on between us at the time as husband and wife,” she said.

Her interview comments led to widespread speculation about the 45-year-old pop star.

Presley said she felt “powerless in a lot of ways, in terms of … realizing that I was part of a machine, and seeing things going on that I couldn’t do anything about,” she said. “And don’t ask me what sort of things, because I’m not going to answer. But just stuff.”

Jermaine Jackson responds to Lisa’s comments, MSNBC, Mar 19, 2004


MSNBC: I know that you don’t want to talk much about your brother and his current problems, but I must get your thoughts on a couple of things.

JACKSON: Go ahead. Just a couple of things.

MSNBC: During a recent interview with an Australian television reporter, Lisa Marie Presley, intimated that she knew things, which, of course, was easily interpreted as perhaps she saw inappropriate behavior between Michael and young children. Today, she released a statement that read, in part, “Unfortunately due to the recent media frenzy surrounding Michael Jackson, my comments on a recent Australian television interview regarding him were completely taken out of context and erroneously read into. In saying “I saw things” I was specifically referring to things in that relationship with us, that went on between us, at the time as husband and wife and that dynamic.” Jermaine, what do you make of her comments?

JACKSON: Why would she say any of that stuff in the first place? I don’t understand why would she do that. I think everybody wants attention and they are using my brother where they can to get the attention.

MSNBC: And Lisa Marie Presley’s comments come on the heels of former CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff’s new book “Howling At The Moon,” where he calls Michael “weird” and says your brother “was a strange guy, a little baby.”

JACKSON: I don’t know why these types of books continue to get published. All this negativity. Why can’t they publish a book that’s positive? That’s what I’d like to do, a positive story. Yetnikoff is obviously just trying to sell his book with those comments. What is sad is that everybody is trying to kick Michael while he’s down. I will say that once this (molestation case) is over, he’s now got to know without a doubt who his real friends and enemies are.

Joe Jackson’s Autobio, roughly translated from German, December 2004


“After the allegations he married Lisa Marie. In their first TV interview the two newlyweds were asked if they have sex. Can you imagine a reporter asking Paul McCartney the same question shortly after he married Linda? Would any reporter ever ask newlyweds if they have sex? Why else should two people marry – to not have sex? The question was an insult but Lisa the little jewel answered, ‘yes, yes, yes’ – I love her for that. And so does Michael.”

“Michael never had to be afraid of Lisa marrying because of money. She had enough herself. He knew that all she wanted was his love.”

“Lisa Marie was and still is Michael’s big love of his life. When I think about them I always have to smile to myself. Her love for him warmed my heart.”

“Contrary to all the rumors they are still near to each other. During the time Michael had two children with Debbie Rowe she was a good friend to him. But of course the media just reports the bad stuff and so nobody could read about Lisa Marie and Michael meeting in South Africa, or that they were going out very often. Debbie too, knew that Michael will always love Lisa Marie, and I see it the same way. We never met Debbie, but with Lisa the family stayed in contact even after the divorce. She has a special place in Michael’s heart.”

Lisa Marie says not following Michael’s trial, Roger Friedman, Tuesday, January 18, 2005


I know you’re wondering what had she had to say about former husband Michael Jackson, so I’ll tell you: Nothing.

“I’ve been away from him for almost 10 years. I’m not following the case at all,” she said.

Lisa’s comments on Oprah 2010 about the last time she spoke to him:

O: When was the last time you spoke to him?

L: Coherently good conversation? Sometime in 2005. It was a very long conversation. I was so removed from him and he could feel it and he could hear it. And I think that’s one of the things that killed me in the end too was that I was very distanced and he was checking to get a read, he was trying to throw a line out to see if I would bite emotionally and I wouldn’t. I was pretty shut off at that point. I don’t even know how I managed to be like that but I was. He was asking me, he wanted to tell me that I was right about a lot of the people around him, that it had panned out to be exactly what he and I had talked about years ago. He asked if I still loved him and we went into a whole thing about that and I told him I was indifferent and he didn’t like that word and he cried. He was trying to find out where I was at and how I could become so detached. Then the final part of the conversation was him telling me that he felt that someone was going to try to kill him to get a hold of his catalogue and his estate.

O: So he actually gave you names?

L: He did. And I’d rather not say them. But he expressed to me that his concern over his life.

O: You know, I’ve asked you this and I have to ask it again, even though it’s an uncomfortable subject, but whether or not you had ever seen any inappropriate behavior between Michael and young children?

L: Are you asking me again?

O: I’m asking you again.

L: The answer is absolutely not, in any way. I did not see anything like that.

O: By 2005 was when he was on trial with the second charge. Your feelings at that time were what?

L: He was calling me about it and I said “Please keep your head together, please. If this goes to trial, please hold it together.” He said, “What are you talking about, what do you mean?” And he said, “You mean drugs?” And I said, “Yes.” Because all I saw was random things coming out, whether it was Martin Bashir and all these interviews, and in those interviews I saw him intoxicated. I didn’t see the Michael that I knew in that Martin Bashir interview. He was high as a kite, from what I saw and from what I knew.

O: Really?

L: He was either too speedy or he was sedated. It wasn’t the Michael that I knew.

LMP, LA Times – March 15th, 2005


No matter how much friends and advisors prepared her for the media curiosity she would encounter in the 2003 interviews,

Presley wasn’t prepared for the relentless questioning about her father and the short-lived marriages to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage.

In “Now What,” she examines relationships and self-esteem in ways that are both personal and revealing. The moods range from the snarling “Idiot” (which she swears is not about Michael Jackson even though a reference to “fairytale lines” might suggest the king of Neverland) to the self-affirmation of “I’ll Figure It Out” and sweet optimism of “Thanx” and “Shine.”

[…]

Meanwhile, she’ll do a few interviews to promote the album, including a TV appearance with Oprah Winfrey on March 28, but she’s not going to repeat the marathon interview run of 2003. She’s also going to keep a tight lip when it comes to Jackson and Cage.

When Jackson’s name is raised, she winces. “I’m prepared not to talk about anything that has to do with Michael,” she says. “He’s too much of a hot stove, and there’s a trial going on now.” (She hasn’t been approached by either side to testify at Jackson’s child-molestation trial.)

Lisa Marie, Oprah Winfrey show, March, 2005


OPRAH WINFREY: What do you say to yourself when you look at that period in your life [with Michael]?

LISA MARIE PRESLEY: Holy mother of God!

(LAUGHTER)

WINFREY: You said you loved him.

PRESLEY: Yes.

WINFREY: Do you think he loved you?

PRESLEY: Wow. God, it`s hard for me to answer that question. I don`t know the answer to that.

WINFREY: You obviously said, I`m out of here. So what was that? Was there a defining moment or a series of moments?

PRESLEY: Series. Just enough. You know, I just had enough. And none of that had anything to do with, you know, anything happening now. That`s a whole other — I don`t even know anything about that subject. I`m just saying between he and I, I was, like, you know, This is not — you know, I`m done.

WINFREY: You said you loved him.

PRESLEY: Yes.

WINFREY: Do you think he loved you?

PRESLEY: It’s hard for me to answer that question. I don’t know the answer to that, to be honest with you.

WINFREY: Do you think that he loved you as much as he could?

PRESLEY: Yes, as much as he was capable of loving somebody.

WINFREY: Do you think he used you?

PRESLEY: This seat is hot, let me tell you! Do I think he did? All signs point to yes on that. I can’t answer for him.

LMP, Toronto Sun – April 1st, 2005


Ironically, she says she’s mainly asked about someone she claims to seldom think about — Michael Jackson, to whom she was married for 20 months in the mid-’90s. She’s owned up to feeling used in that marriage, and claims to know nothing about the behaviour that led to his molestation trial.

“It’s not so much the interviews, it’s the take on them after,” she say. “It’s running me into somebody else’s problems, you know what I mean? My ex-husband happens to be fouled up right now for whatever reason. I have nothing to do with that.

“It’s been 12 years and it seems to be that every time I put a record out I’m conglomerated into his thing and I can’t focus on what I’m doing.”

How does she avoid media coverage of the Jacko trial? “It’s really, really easy,” she says. “For one thing, I’m very busy. I’ve probably slept six hours in the last four days. If the radio’s on with it, I don’t listen. If it’s on TV, I don’t look. I’m so bored with it, I’m so done with it, I can’t even look — I’m not with him, nor have I been for a very long time.”

The two most important men in her life now are in her band — her bass player is her ex, Danny Keough (father of her kids Riley and Benjamin). Her new beau is guitarist Michael Lockhart — to whom she writes in her liner notes, ‘It took me 26 years to find you and DAMMIT if your (sic) not perfect in every way!’

[…]

There’s also a shout-out in the liner notes to her good friend, shock rocker Marilyn Manson. It occurs to me that Lisa Marie is attracted to people who tend to be misunderstood.

“With my history? Yeah!” she says. “I’m attracted to people who don’t go with the status quo, who don’t conform to mediocrity, who don’t conform to broad, widespread popular ideas. I’m attracted to artists who are artists.”

They also tend to share the morbid sense she displays in her lyrics. “Oh yeah,” she says, when I mention her dark muse. “Definitely, when I’ve gone through something, I’ve written songs that have got me through. I purge by writing; it’s a puke thing. I’m addressing things other than butterflies and dandelions.”

LMP, Associated Press – April 4th, 2005


AP: When you first came out, you were very honest talking about your father, Nicolas Cage and Michael Jackson. Do you think that took attention from your music?

Presley: Well, that was a really hard fence to walk, and it was a fence, because I knew there was so much that I needed to explain to some people. I understood the human nature and needing to fill that gap of all the voids that had been happening or all these questions marks. But at the same time, when I did talk about them, that’s all that would be discussed in the interview, and that’s what would be blown up … you don’t know whether or not you should say something, but you understand you need to explain yourself a little bit, but you don’t want to then have the whole focus of the damn thing being on that — which it ends up being.

AP: It is difficult releasing this record now with Michael Jackson on trial?

Presley: To be honest, it makes it really easy for me to deal with, because I just say it’s too hot of a stove. Anything about that subject is going to be way blown up out of proportion, so I don’t even touch it.

LMP, 15 April, 2005


And then there are songs like Turbulence and Idiot, in which she lets loose some intense anger against someone — but not ex-husbands Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage, if that’s what you were thinking.

“I can tell you right now that not one song on this record has anything to do with any high-profile husband I’ve had,” she said. “Those songs are about no one anyone knows about, and I’m going to keep it that way. I mean, why would I write about them? They’re not on my mind. It’s been years and everyone’s moved on, but people still want to associate me with them, which is hard.”

LMP, St. Petersburg Times – April 26th, 2005


While the subject of Jackson – or any aspect of her personal life – was repeatedly forbidden by her publicist, Presley, who performs tonight at Jannus Landing, spoke candidly about her public image.

LMP, Orlando City Beat – April 27th, 2005


When your dad is the King and your mom stars in the Naked Gun movies, your life would seem to be pretty set. So set, that only a marriage to Michael Jackson could screw things up. Whoops.

A decade after her short-lived marriage to the King of Pop, Lisa Marie Presley is still faced with almost daily reminders of her mistake. Then again, if your ex-husband had a chimp named Bubbles, dangled his infant child over a second-story railing and came to his child molestation court case in pajamas, it’d be hard not to be.

Surprisingly, Presley seems to have turned out just fine.

[…]

OCB: How sick are you of questions about your dad and your marriages?

LMP: I don’t mind answering questions about my dad. I now refuse to answer any further questions on my personal marriage thing. It’s funny because I just went to Canada and did all this press and it was so refreshing, because I’d done so much here. They’re so actually into the music there. A couple times, but not much, they’d brush over something … but very briefly. And it was really refreshing to see they’re music lovers and they’re serious about music and they love the record over there. And I was like, “Wow, this is really refreshing.”

LMP, Press Journal – April 29th, 2005


Presley’s bloodline, as well as her brief and well-publicized marriages to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage, are the stuff of endless gossip, finger-wagging and rumor-mongering.

(She does not talk about her famous ex-husbands; any mention of Jackson, in particular, brings a quick change of subject.)

LMP on Larry King Live – April 29th, 2005


KING: What do you make of the coverage of your ex-husband?

PRESLEY: That I pretty much — it’s so delicate and it’s such a hot stove that, you know, it’s one of those things I’d love to chat with you about but anything you say at this point is going to add.

KING: Does it annoy you to see the focus on someone you cared about, probably still care about?

PRESLEY: To be honest with you I’m kind of — it’s kind of a blessing this is happening in that I don’t have to say anything right now, because there’s a trial going on. You know it’s…

KING: No, you don’t have to — I mean, emotionally though to see?

PRESLEY: Emotionally it’s never easy to watch anybody go through, no matter what, you know, something really difficult.

KING: Because you’ve been a staunch defender of him, right?

PRESLEY: Well, I’m not going to talk about it. KING: I’m mean as a person and a husband — we aren’t dealing with the charges or anything, you have been…

PRESLEY: I at one point was.

KING: A supporter? And now you’re neutral?

PRESLEY: I’m just benign really.

[…]

KING: You see any continuum in your own life, Lisa Marie, you’re the daughter of the most famous singer in the world, who then marries the most famous singer in the world.

PRESLEY: Right.

KING: See a connection?

PRESLEY: Yes.

KING: And.

PRESLEY: You know, probably, you know, I’m not into psycho- analysis, you know, but there’s probably…

KING: Go ahead.

PRESLEY: There’s probably something in my, you know, looking — I had to experience that. And I think that there was some of that in the back myself mind probably.

KING: No regrets over it?

PRESLEY: No.

KING: No regrets?

PRESLEY: No, I don’t have any regrets.

KING: The decision you made — a couple other quick things on Michael. Do you feel sorry for him?

PRESLEY: I can’t answer. Larry, don’t do this to me.

KING: OK.

PRESLEY: Please.

KING: You don’t want to talk about it.

PRESLEY: I don’t want — I just want to stay out of it.

KING: But you could be sorry.

PRESLEY: Well — like I said, I don’t like to — I don’t like to see anybody go through anything horrendous like that. I’m sure he’s not having a good time.

KING: People bug you about it a lot.

PRESLEY: Yes.

KING: I’m going to stop bugging but. I don’t want bug you.

PRESLEY: Every time. Usually it’s at last question but, yes.

KING: Because it’s an emotional thing and I would try to…

PRESLEY: I understand.

KING: We’d try to put ourselves in our place, how would I deal…

PRESLEY: Right.

KING: … if an ex of mine who was famous was going through this.

PRESLEY: I totally understand what you’re doing, but at the same time, if I say anything, it’s going to be blown up and taken — you know, anything about him right now is such a hot — it’s a hot subject.

KING: So, no matter what you say it’s misconstrued.

PRESLEY: Good or bad, it will be taken out of context right because anything about him…

KING: One other thing, do you follow the story?

PRESLEY: No.

KING: You remove yourself?

PRESLEY: I’m completely removed from the whole thing.

KING: Lisa Marie Presley, good girl. “Now What” in stores as of April 5th. We’ll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: How did you handle when she got all of that attention being married to Michael Jackson? How did you as the mother handle that?

P. PRESLEY: Concern. Concern. I think any mother would be concerned, you know. Obviously, if my daughter’s happy, you know, then I don’t have any problem. But she’s very strong willed.

KING: Wonder where she got that from?

P. PRESLEY: I don’t know.

KING: Was she happy for a time?

P. PRESLEY: I think so. I think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We’re back with Lisa Marie Presley. The newest CD is “Now What?” What’s your favorite song?

PRESLEY: I think there’s a song called “Idiot” that I like.

KING: Idiot?

PRESLEY: It’s not a nice song.

KING: Who were you — were you referring to anyone in writing it?

PRESLEY: I was but I don’t like to talk about who I was writing about.

KING: You mean, there is someone who will know who you’re writing about.

PRESLEY: I hope so.

KING: Is it a he? I will go no further than that question.

PRESLEY: Yes, it’s a he.

KING: And when he hears it, he’ll know.

PRESLEY: I hope so.

KING: Dedicated to him, the idiot.

PRESLEY: Everyone wants to know who that song is about, which is really funny. But it will ruin it for other people because it’s a good song.

[…]

KING: Wouldn’t you bet that your dad would have been rough on guys you dated?

PRESLEY: Whew, yes, yes.

LMP, Boston Herald – May 2005


If the daughter of Elvis Presley and former wife of Michael Jackson doesn’t know about gossip journalism, who does?

“It makes me ill,” Lisa Marie Presley says. “People are celebrities now for God-knows-what. It’s completely insane. It’s more out of control than it’s ever been. And I’m talking to you as one. It’s disgusting.”

Standard Times – May 7th, 2005


Presley has lived her life not only under that considerable familial shadow, but also in the glaring spotlight shined on her marriages to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage. Both marriages were brief (20 months and three months, respectively) and both are off-limits interview topics.

Lisa Marie, Asbury Park Press – May 13th, 2005


Presley spoke about the road, her recent Vanity Fair cover shoot and her diverse audience — but not about ex-hubby Michael Jackson — during a static-filled cell-phone call.

Lisa Marie, Blender Magazine – June 2005


WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PRAYED?

There was a time in 1996 when I was having chronic panic attacks. They were brought on by my divorce [from Michael Jackson]. And I probably begged somebody to make it stop, because it was pretty bad. It took a while, but ultimately they stopped.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE YOUR BODY, WHAT WOULD BE DIFFERENT?

God, where do I start? I’d have a twelve-pack and fuller lips – that model-fake kind of full. I’d never have surgery on my face, by the way. I’ve never seen that work out for anybody. You should leave your face alone.

Priscilla Presley, Larry King Live, June 22, 2005


KING: Let’s get into some things. First, the obvious, your reaction to the Jackson acquittal.

PRESLEY: Oh, you’re going to go there?

KING: No, I won’t press it. Your former son-in-law.

PRESLEY: You know, I don’t know, Larry. That’s was — that’s something that, you know, I wasn’t, obviously, in the courtroom. I really don’t have a whole lot to say about it, because there’s certainly a lot of rumors and certainly a lot of gossip. We all have our own thoughts and you know, he came out and obviously, I think the jury did a good job. You could see they truly wanted to do a good job. It was on this particular case and they stressed it that it was about one case.

KING: Were you rooting for him?

PRESLEY: Oh, gosh. I hate to see anybody suffering and it was hard to see him suffer. I know that I’m sure, you know, going through what he went through and sitting down, having to listen and face people who betrayed you is very, very difficult, if that’s the case.

You know, he’s very talented. There is no doubt.

KING: One other thing: Were you close to him, during your daughter’s marriage?

PRESLEY: I was not that close to him, you know. Michael was very private.

KING: Very.

PRESLEY: Very, very private and had people that he was comfortable with. He wasn’t around that much, really. Even around my daughter that much and he was off doing his things.

KING: Why does Elvis –

PRESLEY: Let me just point — he was off doing recording — just clarify that.

KING: Lest that be taken the wrong way and played on the comedy tonight.

PRESLEY: No. He was, you know, making records.

LMP, The Journal Gazette – November 18th, 2005


“Nowadays, a lot of celebrities want that whole, like, machine going on,” Presley said in a phone interview. “Or they both want it and don’t want it. That’s why I think they get a bit confused.

“They feel hounded by the press, but their publicists get antsy if they don’t make the cover of People magazine.

“I was never a part of that. It was just happening to me. I didn’t realize anyone even knew of me. So I had all that crap I had to combat. There was this whole persona prior to me coming out on my own.”

[…]

And matching the Elvis legacy – in terms of its impact and influence – is not something Presley aspires to.

In fact, it’s something she seems to want to avoid.

One of her greatest fears is overexposure, which is understandable, given her propensity over the years for generating sensational press.

“I admire careers that aren’t too out there,” she said. “Like Radiohead’s. It’s not overly done. They just do what they do. They’re not overhyped.”

There are many aspects of her past that Presley will not address. She won’t share memories of her father. She won’t discuss details of her high-profile and short-lived marriages to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage.

But she will say what she learned from her earlier relationships.

“Mostly just keeping it out the public eye as much as possible,” she said. “I’ve been in the same relationship (with her music director Michael Lockwood) for several years now. I learned the hard way to keep it to myself. He’s not a high-profile person, thank god. It’s simple, quiet and happy. There’s nothing to report on.

“You get two high-profile people together and it’s a tornado.”

Spinner – August 16th, 2007


How do you feel when you see some of your dad’s songs commercialized — like the current ‘Viva Viagra’ commercial?

I find that revolting. Some songs we have no control over. I know we didn’t license that one.

Being that your ex-husband Michael Jackson owns the rights to a lot of the Elvis Presley catalog, do you ever have the inclination to call him up and ask him to stop the commercialization of these songs?

I don’t know if he owns that one [laughs]. But have I thought about it? Yeah. I get mad all the time. If I see something wacked out, I’ll definitely yell and say, ‘What the hell is that?’ or ‘Get rid of this!’

LMP, NWI Times – September 28th, 2006


A tabloid princess since birth, Presley steadily fueled the “freak show factor” with some admittedly wild years, filled with a series of bizarre marriages and erratic behavior.

“Everybody does some stupid things in their life that they look back on with regret,” said Presley, referring to among other things, the infamous Michael Jackson kiss on MTV.

“I have done my share. We all have things we’d go back and change, but we can’t, so we just put it behind us and move on.”

LMP, Toledo Blade – September 28th, 2006


Let’s start with what you probably don’t know about Lisa Marie Presley (and don’t worry, we’ll get to Michael Jackson, her dad, and some of that tabloid stuff soon enough):

[…]

Finally, she can quickly work herself into an profanity-laced lather when asked about her ex-husband Jackson, especially the notorious kiss on the Video Music Awards in 1994, but she doesn’t whine.

So get off her case.

“It’s one of those things like, I don’t like to say I have regrets but I definitely regret that time period,” she said in a telephone conference call with about a dozen journalists.

“And what are you going to (expletive) do, to be honest with you? You’re young, you’re stupid, and you’re blinded, and you do something really dumb, and you can’t ever live it down? How many people do that on their own and don’t necessarily get it advertised? I know that was kind of enormous, but I’m just saying it’s not something I’m proud of.”

Clearly exasperated, she wrapped up the answer with a question and a blunt demand.

“What am I supposed to say at this point? Get over it. It was a long time ago and I made a mistake.”