From a Memphis newspaper: Lisa Marie's most at home with herself Performing her own material sheds light on Elvis and all that April 24, 2005 The last time Lisa Marie Presley sang in front of a Memphis crowd, she threw up backstage. Not that the crowd could tell, but she was feeling a little pressure -- you know, daughter of the King of Rock and Roll following in his footsteps kind of thing. And in the family's hometown, no less. "For me, it's just another show," says the celebrity scion of Elvis Presley, talking by phone on Friday to The Commercial Appeal. As for that hurling episode, it was 2003 and she was opening for Chris Isaak at the Memphis Botanic Garden. She had released her first album, To Whom It May Concern, and was put on the road promoting it. Back then, Lisa Marie had a lot to prove: She decided in her mid-30s to launch a music career, an audacious move when your dad happened to be the biggest selling solo artist of all time. What Lisa Marie discovered, however, was while some in the audience were there for the novelty factor -- "That's a certain energy I can feel and that I don't necessarily like" -- others came because they genuinely liked the music, enough to make her entree disc a gold record for sales of 500,000 copies. That didn't make playing Memphis any easier, especially in an uncomfortable pairing with the neo-rockabilly, Elvis-loving Isaak. "That match-up was so bizarre," she says. "But I was doing it to get my feet wet and pay my dues and get out there. And when we did Memphis, I did feel a little pressure and I did definitely lose it in the bathroom maybe 10 minutes before we went out." Lisa Marie, 37, now has a sophomore album, the cocksure-titled Now What, released this month on her label Capitol (home to current acts such as Coldplay and Chingy, not to mention Elvis-level icon the Beatles). The album debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 album charts, boasting such guest-star appeal as Pink and A-list pop-star collaborator Linda Perry, formerly of 4 Non Blondes, who co-wrote much of the album with Lisa Marie. The lead single, however, is a cover of the '80s Don Henley tune "Dirty Laundry," one that has been airing in promos for the television hit "Desperate Housewives." Read all you want into her version of the topical tune. The refrain "Kick 'em when they're up/Kick 'em when they're down" could certainly apply to the tabloid-fed passion some folks have for Presley's life, from her string of exes, including Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage, to her espousal of Scientology. She currently dates her music director, Michael Lockwood, while first husband, Danny Keough, plays bass in the touring band. Yet Lisa Marie says she didn't do the song as any sort of self-reflective commentary. She sees the song in larger, more global terms. "I think our state of affairs is pretty outrageous right now in terms of what is entertainment and how crazy things have gotten. I thought I should point that out." Still, other songs on the album carry a good deal of personal weight (though nothing quite so overtly confessional as debut single "Lights Out" and its Graceland burial plot imagery). The tune "Raven," for example, was written for mother Priscilla, and is framed by a cassette tape sample of 3-year-old Lisa Marie piping the Partridge Family song "I Think I Love You" after being prompted by mom to "sing it right" for dad. An added dimension to all this is that Lisa Marie feels connected more than ever to her late father, who died in 1977 when she was only 9. She didn't get into performing to feel closer to him, but that's what has happened, and she says she can now empathize all too well with the demands a music career made on Elvis. "I don't know how he did it," she says. "He had quite a cross to bear, people hating him and loving him. I can relate to that and to him more than I ever have. I don't have it nearly as bad, because now in society you can't shock anybody anymore." Still, empathy goes only so far, so don't expect her to start interpreting the Elvis canon anytime soon. "Don't Cry Daddy," which she sang in a video-synched duet with her father at Mid-South Coliseum's "Elvis in Concert '97," is about all she's willing to share with the public for now. She has an "aversion," in fact, to covering anything by Presley pere if only because she wants as much as possible to make her own way in the music world. Watching people react warmly to her songs, in fact, was something she frankly thought would have been impossible a few years back. "I have fans who respond to my music, and that makes me satisfied internally. It's not like I would hate (singing Elvis songs) because it would be fun. But it's just not in my nature." home | new | the man | lisa marie | priscilla & others | fun | clothes | photos | records | movies | concerts | gifts | web | guide | e-cards | today | facts Click here for more info on the book The Girls' Guide to Elvis Click here to check out sister book The Girls' Guide to Country Click here to check out the latest sister book The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks