Riley Keough Felt 'Obligated' to Finish Late Mom Lisa Marie Presley's Memoir: 'Very Healing'

Finishing From Here to the Great Unknown was no small feat for Riley Keough.

According to an insider, the eldest daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley, 35, had a hard time completing her mother’s memoir following her death in January 2023.

"Working on it was very emotional but also very healing,” the source dished. “Riley felt obligated to see the memoir through, knowing it was important to her mother.”

The confidante noted how difficult the death of the matriarch was for the Daisy Jones & The Six star due to their extremely close bond, which strengthened in the wake of son and brother Benjamin Keough’s suicide.

“In the years after Benjamin’s death, Riley and Lisa Marie leaned on each other as they dealt with the crippling grief,” the source said. “In many ways, Riley cared for Lisa Marie — their relationship was not typical for a mother and child. But no one knew Lisa Marie better than Riley.”

The memoir, which will hit the shelves on October 15, dives into all of Lisa Marie’s life, from the death of her father, Elvis Presley, when she was just 9 years old, to her romances with ex-husbands Michael Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Michael Lockwood and Riley’s father, Danny Keough.

In the introduction of the book, Riley shared the story of how she was tasked with telling the “Idiot” singer’s story.

“In the years before she died, my mother, Lisa Marie Presley, began writing her memoir. Though she tried various approaches, and sat for many book interviews, she couldn’t figure out how to write about herself,” she penned.

“And yet, she felt a burning desire to tell it,” she continued. “After she’d grown exceedingly frustrated, she said to me, ‘Pookie, I don’t know how to write my book anymore. Can you write it with me?’”

“I got the tapes of the memoir interviews she’d done. I was in my house, sitting on the couch. My daughter was sleeping. I was so afraid to hear my mother’s voice — the physical connection we have to the voices of our loved ones is profound. I decided to lie in my bed because I know how heavy grief makes my body feel,” Riley remembered.

“I began listening to her speak. It was incredibly painful, but I couldn’t stop. It was like she was in the room, talking to me. I instantly felt like a child again and I burst into tears. My mommy. The tone of her voice,” she confessed.

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Despite the sadness finishing the project brought her, Riley told People what she wanted readers to get from the tale.

“What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope I’ve done in finishing it for her, is to go beneath the magazine headline idea of her and reveal the core of who she was. To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving, everything that she was throughout her remarkable life. I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive,” she explained.

Life & Style reported on Riley's sense of obligation to the memoir.