photo: Troy Paul
Though her father remains the reigning king of rock and roll, Lisa Marie Presley hasn’t forgotten her Southern folk roots.
“Nothing was planned or contrived in any way and out of it came a very organic record that was always inside of me,” Presley says of Storm and Grace, her first album in 7 years. “It’s this bluesy-folksy record I’m incredibly proud to have made.”
Produced by 12-time Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett, the Americana-tinged Storm and Grace marks a departure from the hard rock sound of Presley’s previous albums, To Whom it May Concern (2003) and Now What (2005).
Lisa Marie Presley wrapped up a ten date tour this past month with a show at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and performed to packed houses in Nashville, New Jersey, and Ontario, Canada.
And though certain topics were off limits — such as ex-husbands (Michael Jackson, Nicholas Cage) and religion (media reports suggest Presley is no longer a member of the Church of Scientology) — Presley was forthcoming about the price of fame and fortune.
Rock Cellar Magazine: The first single, You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, from your new album is both ominous and beautiful — like you want to kick someone’s ass.
Lisa Marie Presley: It sounds maybe a little more confrontational than intended. But when I was writing that song, I had just found out what people — who I thought were my friends and well intended — actually thought about me and were saying behind my back.
It’s surprising, and it can really shake you when you wake up and realize the relationships you’ve built up over the years. And that the people you’ve come to trust are backstabbers and not at all who you thought.
RCM: So celebrities need to be especially careful about the company that they keep?
LMP: Absolutely. The people you surround yourself with can make or break you. I have seen it so many times and been around it. That’s kind of what I was going through when I was writing the whole record. So I completely got rid of everything, left the country, started from ground zero and then wrote this record throughout that process.
You don’t always realize it at the time, but certain people’s energy can be toxic and that toxicity can really mess with your life. And when someone is in your life and their intentions are not good, it can cause a lot of disturbance in your own life. For a while, you may think it’s just you, and sometimes it is, but sometimes it actually is the people around you.
