Lisa Marie Presley’s sophomore album, Now What, is due April 5.
You’re rich and the daughter of a pop star. How come you didn’t turn out like Nicole Richie? My mom, myself and Scientology. With reality shows like [Richie’s], it’s so easy to become a celebrity now, isn’t it? It doesn’t take much work.
It didn’t take much work for you. When you made your first record, you were immediately booked on Letterman.Yeah, and my first live per-formance was on Good Morning America. I skidded through it. I had no chops yet.
Do you have chops now? I have my moments. Don’t expect perfection. The way it all happened for me, perfection isn’t in the cards.
Was this album easier to make than the first? There wasn’t as much pressure. With the first one, nobody really knew me. I had to answer for myself.
Do you think about your dad before you go onstage? I can’t say I think about him. Usually I just have terror stomach, which I know he had. I do the deep breathing and the pacing he did.
How often do you go back to Graceland? A few times a year. It’s a beautiful, sad place for me. I still have family there. We have Christmas dinner at the house. I find it my responsibility to still go there and inject some life into it.
Are you what your daddy would call a Hard Headed Woman? Not at all. That’s someone who’s stubborn. I’m rebellious.
Your single Dirty Laundry, a 1980s Don Henley song, is about the bloodthirsty media. Explain. I thought that song was more relevant now than ever. Our entertainment now–the reality-show thing–is about watching the demise, humiliation and darkest hour of others.
Have you been asked to be a witness in the Michael Jackson trial? That’s too much of a hot stove. There’s a trial going on, so I can’t say a word, and I’m pretty happy about that.
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