Elvis Presley’s Granddaughter Reveals His Spirit Is ‘Imprinted’ in Off-Limits Graceland Bedroom
Elvis Presley‘s granddaughter, Riley Keough, has revealed little-known secrets about one of Graceland’s most mysterious rooms: the King of Rock and Roll’s off-limits bedroom. Riley pulled back the curtain on this secretive space in the book From Here to the Great Unknown, saying her grandfather’s spirit is “imprinted” in his bedroom.
Riley Keough reveals secrets of Elvis Presley’s bedroom
Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s only child, was in the process of recording her life’s recollections at the time of her death in January 2023. Subsequently, her eldest daughter, Riley Keough, took those recordings, added her thoughts, and finished her mother’s memoir.
In the book, From Here to the Great Unknown, Lisa Marie talks about life at Graceland. Keough shares her recollections of her grandfather’s infamous estate, including private secrets about Elvis’ bedroom.
“Upstairs at Graceland is just as Elvis left it. So you can really feel his presence.” She spoke of the many books that lined the walls of the bedroom. These included spiritual or self-help titles; Keough claimed Lisa “loved” to go through them to understand Elvis better.
Elvis would often underline passages in the books, and write commentary in their margins. “He was searching to fix himself, searching for a deeper meaning something she would then search for in her own life too.”
“You can still feel him in that room. His spirit is imprinted there.”
Lisa Marie would sometimes sleep with her children in Elvis Presley’s bed
Lisa Marie Presley longed to reconnect with her father, Elvis Presley. Visiting his bedroom allowed her to do so privately.
“Sometimes we would all sleep in his bed. My mom loved being in her dad’s bed,” Keough revealed.
“It made her feel close to him, and we felt it too, that closeness. But because Elvis’s bedroom isn’t a part of the tour, no visitors are allowed up there.”
Keough continued, “If we woke up late and the tours had a ready started, we’d be stuck in his room until late afternoon when the tours stopped. We’d have staff members bring food up, usually McDonald’s, and just hang out all day. Trapped in Elvis’s bedroom.”
“My grandmother’s hairdryer was still up there so we’d sit under it and pretend we were in a salon. He had a little plaque on the wall up there with a poem that always broke my heart. It’s titled, ‘Why God Made Little Girls.'”
Elvis Presley’s bedroom remained a place of solace for his only daughter
Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine, Lisa Marie admitted Graceland was always a place of solace. Additionally, she explained that being in Elvis Presley’s bedroom provided her with a sense of safety and calm.
“It’s the one place I feel safest ever. I keep the key to upstairs with me. It’s just his room and my room, [it was Elvis’] sort of sanctuary. If I take the key and just shut that door. I feel the safest and the calmest that I could possibly feel.”
Lisa’s recollection of Elvis’s bedroom room mirrored her daughter’s. She said, “He always had books stacked up high next to his bed and they were all religious.”
“If you go up to his bedroom, there’s a little office connected. And there’s just nothing but books of every religion, a million bibles. He was constantly searching.”
Additionally, Lisa Marie revealed the sanctuary feeling of the room was almost upstaged by its showiness. “Oh, it’s showy,” she admitted. “It’s got a long shag carpet, black bed, red walls. Gold everything here and there.”
Elvis Presley died in August 1977. Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023. Both are buried in Graceland’s Meditation Garden along with her son, Benjamin Keough, and Elvis’s parents and grandmother, Vernon, Gladys, and Minnie Mae.
