ELVIS PRESLEY’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley spoke of growing up at Graceland in an unearthed interview, saying how The King was not a strict father.
Elvis Presley’s only child Lisa Marie was born in 1968 and grew up with him and her mother Priscilla at Graceland for much of her early years. Even after The King’s divorce in 1973, Lisa Marie had her own bedroom upstairs at Graceland next to her father’s for when she stayed with him. And in an interview with CBS’s The Talk a few years ago Elvis’ daughter opened up about living with him at the Memphis Mansion.
Lisa Marie said: “He and I spent a lot of time together upstairs; the upper part of Graceland is basically his room and my room.
“That’s when I got to be with him.
“He’d set up a little chair in my room and a TV.”
Asked if Elvis was a strict father, she replied: “He was not strict at all!”
While it turns out Priscilla was, as Lisa Marie added: “My mum was totally the opposite, she was really strict.”
And since Elvis lived and worked at night, his daughter could get up to all kinds of mischief around the Graceland estate.
She said: “He would sleep all day so me and my friends pretty much had the run of Graceland.
“And I knew that nobody was going to tell me what to do because they would get fired. I was, truly a terror to be honest.”
Asked what traits of Elvis’ she has, Lisa Marie replied: “His personality and intensity levels I can emulate pretty well.”
Tragically Lisa Marie was upstairs at Graceland the night that Elvis died there in 1977.
The King’s daughter was just nine-years-old when she lost her father.
Elvis left her the Graceland estate and the mansion was opened to the public in 1982 as a museum.
Despite being open for tours, Graceland’s upstairs remains off-limits as it was The King’s private area.
Nevertheless, it’s Lisa Marie’s requirement that the rooms are preserved just as Elvis left them.
Earlier this year, Graceland archivist Angie Marchese told fans in an Instagram Q&A: “We do go up there to maintain the space.
“The record on the record player is the last record he listened to.”
She said it was a fresh recording of JD Sumner and the Stamps.
While adding: “There’s a styrofoam cup that sits on a bookshelf.”
As for his bedroom, the archivist said: “The bed is made, so we really maintain it the way that Lisa wants us to preserve it.
“So, unfortunately, [fans] can’t see it, but it is taken care of.”