Actor Riley Keough — the granddaughter of rock legend Elvis Presley who is embroiled in a legal battle with grandmother Priscilla Presley over his lucrative estate — is back in the spotlight to promote her new Prime Video series, “Daisy Jones & the Six.”
While she remains mum on the brewing dispute catalyzed by the January death of her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, and opted out of an event last week for her new show, Keough is now forging ahead with her music-adjacent acting career, even joining TikTok to give it a little boost.
The “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Zola” actor told “Entertainment Tonight” on Wednesday that despite her family’s impressive recording pedigree, she and co-star Sam Claflin had to work hard to develop their own musical abilities for “Daisy Jones,” which is an adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2019 breakthrough novel and stars the duo as 1970s California rockers Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne.
“It’s pretty amazing. I think we really came from not being able to play anything on a guitar or sing really, to having a full record going out, which is like it’s crazy to us, I think,” Keough said. “We had months of jam sessions, so we had months of rehearsals, so we were basically in band practice for, I don’t know, a year.”
When asked what it means to be continuing her family’s musical legacy in the series, which premieres March 3, the 33-year-old actor downplayed that notion.
“I certainly wouldn’t put that pressure on it. I don’t know if there is continuing my grandfather’s legacy, it’s its own sort of thing to me. But it was a really fun experience for me,” she said. “I’m not a musician — or I am now I guess.”
She added, “I’ve listened to music and my whole family are musicians and I’ve been around this world a lot and been on tour and all that kind of stuff. But I’d never really done it myself. So for me, it was more about my personal relationship with getting to play music, which was fun.”
Notably less fun is Keough’s impending drama with her grandmother, who challenged Lisa Marie Presley’s will in late January. The “Dallas” star, 77, is contesting “the authenticity and validity” of her daughter’s appointment of Keough and her late brother Benjamin Keough as co-trustees of Lisa Marie’s trust in 2016. (Lisa Marie was the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Priscilla later had a son with producer Marco Garibaldi. Lisa Marie had the kids with musician Danny Keough, her first husband.)
Legal experts have said Priscilla Presley has a strong case in the dispute over the the trust — which includes Elvis’ iconic Graceland property in Memphis and Lisa Marie‘s remaining 15% ownership of his estate. However, Keough and her representatives have not yet responded to Priscilla’s petition or publicly addressed the drama.
Friends close to Lisa Marie said she entrusted Elvis’ legacy to her children because she believed “they would look at it exactly the same way she did.” But those sentiments came along with reports of a family rift, as well as a rumor last week that Priscilla Presley and Keough are only communicating through lawyers.
Before that, Priscilla attempted to shut down rumors with a Feb. 3 statement that said believing “the noise” would be “a travesty of the family legacy and would be disrespectful of what Elvis left behind in his life.”