
Diane Sawyer Interview with Lisa Marie Presley (2003)
|   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 Diane
      Sawyer: We have spent a lifetime looking at her and never really known her at
      all. The shy daughter of "The King" of rock 'n' roll. But now,
      in a stunning move, the girl we've only known from the photos is finally
      speaking out on her own. At the age of 35, she has a new album, her first.
      It's called To Whom It May Concern. Lisa
      Marie Presley: Very, yeah.  Diane
      Sawyer: Not surprising, when you're the daughter of Elvis Presley, but for
      everyone out there who's wondered if she has a voice, well listen. This is
      her answer. But you can't help thinking, she looks like Elvis. Lisa
      Marie Presley: Honestly, yes, I've seen it ... but it's not something that I've tried
      to do. But I have gone, like, "Oh my!" sometimes I would do
      that, like, "Stop that, what are you doing?" But it's not like
      I'm trying to fight it either but I can definitely see it.  Diane
      Sawyer: Does Graceland seem like another world away or does it still seem like
      home?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Graceland is like a time capsule. Nothing has changed, nothing's been
      touched. It's kind of a sad thing, a life that existed there at one time,
      and the history, and there was so much life but it's still home to me,
      very much, when I'm there.  Diane
      Sawyer: So who is the dad you remember?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Just a very special ... I remember him as my dad but he was a very
      exciting dad.  Diane
      Sawyer: You talk about his coming down the stairs with jewels.  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Chains, yeah. And he'd sing all the time.  Diane
      Sawyer: Did he want you to sing? Do you ever ...  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Oh yeah, he'd always wake me up to sing in the middle of the night,
      "Get on the table and sing."  Diane
      Sawyer: So what was his schedule that you would keep?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: 4am sleep ? go to bed, 4, 5, get up at 2, 3 in the afternoon.  Diane
      Sawyer: Do you have the great sandwiches, the great fried banana sandwiches?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: God, that will never end. No, that's such a ... it's a haunting
      nightmare that. I never saw him eat one of those, to be honest with you,
      and I finally just had one. Like, I took a bite about a year ago.  Diane
      Sawyer: Even now, when she hears her father singing, something seems to flicker
      across her face. Something that takes you back to the four and
      five-year-old little girl who loved her glittering dad, but was haunted by
      the shadows behind the light. Lisa
      Marie Presley: All the time. All the time.  Diane
      Sawyer: What would you say?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: "Don't die." You know, things like that. Like, "Are you
      going to die?", and I would just, like, in the middle of whatever say
      that. He would ... "No, I'm not going anywhere, nothing's going
      happen to me, don't worry about it" type-thing.  Diane
      Sawyer: She remembers time with him as magical days. He'd hire a jet to take her
      just to see the snow or hire a whole amusement park so she could ride the
      carousel. Lisa
      Marie Presley: You know, with him no, because it was his heart that was permeating more
      than ... I'm in a jet and it's, like, this man loves me.  Diane
      Sawyer: He even recorded lullabies. But as time went on, his sweet daughter
      became a kind of wild child. Lisa
      Marie Presley: Not at all. Not at all. No, we're like black and white, she and I. I'm
      so, like, rahhh and so not ... I'm so the opposite of her. Like, I just
      broke every social barrier she's ever had. I'm pretty unsolicited,
      unedited, no-holds barred in my speech patterns and my behaviour. She's a
      beautiful person, you know, and she's very soft spoken and very sweet and
      very this ... and I'm just like this, like a bull in a china shop.  Diane
      Sawyer: Though nothing Lisa Marie Presley would ever do to her mum would equal
      this. Lisa
      Marie Presley: Oh, God.  Diane
      Sawyer: Michael Jackson!  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I thought you were going to go here first. I was hoping you'd forgot.  Diane
      Sawyer: Why did you marry Michael Jackson?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Okay, can I just, well ...  Diane
      Sawyer: What were you doing?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Um, let me, let me now ... I've been trying to go through this. I
      haven't thought much about this, what I was going to say and I just
      figured it would fly out of my mouth. Okay, first of all, he was very
      quick to ... the first time I met him, sit me down and go, "Listen,
      I'm not gay. I know you think this, I know you think that", and he
      started cursing and started, you know, being a normal person. And I was
      like, "Wow!" So I get caught up in that I'm pulled in right
      away. Like, "Wow, you're so misunderstood. Oh my God, you're this
      guy." I fell into this whole, "You poor, sweet misunderstood
      thing, I'm going to save you." I fell into that. I fell in love with
      him, I did.  Diane
      Sawyer: In love?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yes, I fell in love at the time. Now ...  Diane
      Sawyer: Sexual attraction?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I told you everything I said was the truth.  Diane
      Sawyer: Sexual attraction?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: At the time. Yeah.  Diane
      Sawyer: What did your mother say?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: She called me and said, you know, "Oh Lisa, there's helicopters
      outside the house and they're saying you married Michael Jackson",
      and I go ... I was just quiet and she goes, "You didn't?" She
      goes, "You didn't?" And I go, "Yeah, I did" and then
      it was just, you know, that was that was game on for me. Whoo! Mum doesn't
      like it, let's go!  Diane
      Sawyer: She didn't you know you were going to get married?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: No, no that was quick, that was like run away and do this quick thing.  Diane
      Sawyer: And you did live together?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yeah.  Diane
      Sawyer: I didn't believe that.  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Well, let's just put it this way, if he was in town, he was at my house.
       Diane
      Sawyer: Which was how often?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I don't know. It started to get less and less towards the end.  Diane
      Sawyer: Again, you can slug me on this question but I've got to go back. So
      these were, like, romantic nights?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Mmm, mmm, yeah. I don't remember them very well, but yes. I mean, it was
      normal. I wasn't going to get married if it wasn't that.  Diane
      Sawyer: By the time Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson, Jackson
      reportedly had been treated for addiction to painkillers. He was also
      under siege. He had been investigated for child molestation with a
      12-year-old boy. Jackson settled a civil suit with the family reportedly
      for millions of dollars and his camp implied he was the victim of
      extortion.  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I was already friends with him, there was already some romantic stuff
      going on a little bit before that happened. So it was like, I was already
      like, you know, I was the only one he would be calling so I felt all
      privileged and, you know, that he was trusting me and telling me what
      happened and it was very convincing and I believed him, at the time.  Diane
      Sawyer: But she says her mother looked at the timing of the marriage and tried
      to make her see something else.  Lisa
      Marie Presley: That's what my mum was trying to point out like "Hello, are you
      awake? Can you see this might be co-ordinating or coinciding with
      something else?" And I didn't see that, like, I was young. I don't
      know. I mean, it looked a little suspicious but at the same time I know
      that he loved me, you know, as much as he can love someone, I think he
      did.  Diane
      Sawyer: What do you mean as much as he can love someone?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I just mean, you know, as much as he can be capable of doing that. It's
      not something he's used to doing is having relationships with women, you
      know? He's sort of been a one-man show his whole life.  Diane
      Sawyer: How did it end? What happened?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: It just kind of went really sour, really fast.  Diane
      Sawyer: But you filed for divorce from Michael?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yes.  Diane
      Sawyer: And how did you tell him that was it?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: It was when he was, you know, it was over the phone. I'd had enough.
      There was a lot of stuff going on then. It got really ugly at the end. It
      wasn't pretty but I don't want to get into it.  Diane
      Sawyer: Did he fight you getting a divorce?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: No, he ... I think he got on to, you know, getting somebody else
      pregnant, right? Or having a baby. That's what he wanted. He seemed to get
      on that pretty quick. You know, I don't know.  Diane
      Sawyer: Did it shake your confidence?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yeah, I was pretty much needed to be mopped up off the floor after that
      one.  Diane
      Sawyer: And then 108 days of nuptial nitroglycerine with actor Nicolas Cage ...
      a relationship so tempestuous she reportedly threw her $65,000 engagement
      ring into the ocean. Lisa
      Marie Presley: With which one?  Diane
      Sawyer: With Nic Cage?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yeah, I was.  Diane
      Sawyer: All right, but did you throw a $65,000 ring into the ocean on a boat
      trip?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I did not.  Diane
      Sawyer: Oh, you didn't?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: No, I was not the one that threw it. It did go in the water but I wasn't
      the one who threw it ... and it was more the $65,000!  Diane
      Sawyer: Okay, so he threw it.  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I didn't say that, I just said I didn't throw it but we honestly were
      joking thinking we are the new millennium version of Richard Burton and
      Elizabeth Taylor at this point. I mean, we are going to knock each other
      off bar stools.  Diane
      Sawyer: Why do you marry them when it's like this?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: You know what it is? It's I get attracted to artists. I'm attracted to
      artists. I like it when someone's shaking it up, when they're different. I
      don't know why, I'll never know why but it's just what I get attracted to.
       Diane
      Sawyer: Anyone out there who says "she's loony" ...  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yeah.  Diane
      Sawyer: I mean, how do you explain to them?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I'll say it loud and say it proud, I'm completely insane.  Diane
      Sawyer: Have you figured out why?  Lisa Marie
      Presley: Um, God ... no. No,
      I think when I figure out why I might stop and that might be boring.  Diane
      Sawyer: And she says the wild child has finally grown up. No more impulsive
      marital adventures. Lisa
      Marie Presley: Well, does this answer your question on my finger?  Diane
      Sawyer:
      What is this? I can barely ... (laughs)  Lisa
      Marie Presley: These are two wedding bands and they're on my wedding finger.  Diane
      Sawyer: Would you like to tell everyone what it says on the wedding bands?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I can't.  Diane
      Sawyer: No, "'blank' you."  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Yeah. That's kind of where I stand right now.  Diane
      Sawyer: That like the string on your finger to remind you ...  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Exactly.  Diane
      Sawyer: So, inside how old are you?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Twelve. That was quick, wasn't it?  Diane
      Sawyer: Even though her children are now 14 and 11, on the album there is a song
      for them, too. It's called 'So Lovely' and has a lyric saying "Don't
      do as I do".  Lisa
      Marie Presley: I wrote that in my lyrics too. I wrote that song 'Don't Do as I Do'.
      Please, God, don't let them ... but anyway, yeah. I don't know. I think
      it's a DNA problem or something, I can't tell. But my own children had to
      be, like, "Mum, stop it", you know. They're like ...  Diane
      Sawyer: Oh, really?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Oh, yeah!  Diane
      Sawyer: About what?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: Because I act like a teenager and they're usually, like,
      "Stop". I'm just not your average mother, I guess.  Diane
      Sawyer: So what is it you most want people to say about this album?  Lisa
      Marie Presley: That it was good, that it was honest, that I have actually some minute
      talent of my own.  Diane
      Sawyer: Five years from now, imagine a perfect day for me.  
 | 
ENTREVISTA ENVIADA POR JACQUELINE ULMO
