Taken from the review for Lisa Marie Presley’s Now What:

Anyone that doesn’t know the name Lisa Marie Presley has probably been living under a rock for the past decade or two. The daughter of the “King Of Rock And Roll”, Lisa Marie has been in the spotlight for quite a few years whether she’s wanted to or not – and often for reasons she’d rather not be.

After a couple of notable failed marriages and a lifetime of scrutiny simply due to who she was, Presley turned to music. Ironically enough, many thought the move to be ill-advised despite her pedigree. Presley released her first album in 2003, To Whom It May Concern – an edgy and angry record that took many off guard partly because it sold rather well.

After that initial outburst, Presley returns with Now What, an album that finds its feet more than the first one seemed to. The rawness and anger are still there, but now it is more focused as Lisa Marie pursues a proper music career.

After writing the above, it never occurred to me that I may have the chance to find out exactly what Presley’s life was like growing up and how her experiences came to shape her recordings. However, that opportunity was presented to me.

What follows is an exclusive 411Music interview where Lisa Marie Presley discusses her music and the effect it has on her fans, as well as her celebrity (and that of her own children). Leaving her past behind, Presley is glad to talk about the present and how her music keeps her going.

Michael Melchor: Hi, Ms. Presley?

Lisa Marie Presley: Hello.

MM: Hi, How’re you doing today?

LMP: Good, how are you?

LMP: It starts next week. [Editor’s Note: The tour starts on April 26 at Janus Landing in St. Petersburg, FL. Click here for more information on tour dates and venues.]

MM: Ahh. Are you doing rehearsals and everything?

LMP: Sure, we’re doing rehearsals for, like, 6 days. Not a lot of time.

MM: Oh, wow.

LMP: Touring is kind of a rehearsal, anyway. [Laughs] You kind of get good at it after doing it every night.

MM: “On-the-job training”, so to speak.

LMP: Yeah, it is.

MM: Okay, if you could, tell us a little bit about the new album, Now What. Were there any changes in particular or any statements you set out to make as opposed to the last record?

LMP: I don’t know. I didn’t intentionally put out any statements; the only strong statement is probably “Dirty Laundry”. The rest of the songs are kind of more about looking at how being an individual is okay rather than being what you’re thought of or should be, maybe something that you’re not. You can either throw up your middle finger at that or be vulnerable about that subject or be okay with yourself in spite of it. That’s the general view, I think.

MM: I noticed that, to me anyway, the album sounds a little personal and maybe confrontational and a little angry. Was it based on any past experiences or more coming from the mindframe that you just discussed?

LMP: Well, it’s definitely based on my experiences. I think they’re universal, which I consider my job as a songwriter to make them that way. I think it comes back to general subject matter that a lot of people can relate to. I don’t write about anything that I haven’t gone through.

MM: Understood. And the only strong statement was “Dirty Laundry” – nice choice, by the way. I love that song. What’s the statement you were making with that song in particular?

LMP: About the bloodbath we’re living. The sensationalistic bloodbath. The general state of affairs right now. Our current society and what it focuses on and what its only interest is. I don’t think it’s a specific attack on my life, personally; it kind of applies to everybody.

MM: I can see that, especially in so far as how the media plays their part as well.

LMP: Yeah.

MM: Excellent. So what was it like having Pink and Steve Jones on the album? Was that a lot of fun to do?

LMP: Yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun and uncontrived. It just happened, both of them. I didn’t seek them out and they didn’t seek me out; it was just “right place, right time”. I’d just met Steve and thought, “Hey, we found a song”. Pink happened to be there as I was walking into a chorus and she was humming along with it and I liked what she was doing. We were just hanging out one night.

MM: Anybody in particular that you may want to work with in the future?

LMP: I don’t know. I do like writing with Linda Perry because she’s fast. I have no patience. [Laughs] She makes it fun and it’s quick. She doesn’t like to dilly-dally and neither do I. But I don’t have anyone in particular...I’m not one of those people that go, “Hey, I wanna get with some hip writer” or whatever. [Laughs] I’ve written with people that I’d had no vibe with at all, and that’s no fun. I just like to have a personal thing with someone and that makes it a hell of a lot easier to write.

MM: Excellent. How was the reaction to the last tour? Are you noticing that people are taking more to your music than your celebrity?

LMP: Definitely. I’m not going to say that’s never out of the question but, predominantly, I noticed it was about the music when I was on tour. I kinda didn’t think I could have that happen and it did. I found that refreshing and that’s why I did the second record.

MM: I noticed it’s taking off. It almost seemed like people maybe disagreed with the idea when they heard that you were embarking on a singing career. Do you consider that a personal victory that the material and music were reasonably well received?

LMP: It’s great to have the music speak in the end, you know? In spite of whatever preconceptions or judgments or personal decisions. It’s nice; the personal victory, for me, would be just to have the music talk. To have people respond to that and have it affect them and helping them.

MM: Right, exactly. Now, I think I remember hearing that you’re involved in an organization regarding the over-medication of children?

LMP: Right. The organization is called the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights and I’m the spokesperson for the aspect of children and over-medication. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry to have schools diagnose that and get paid. It’s all a big business to come up with the disorders. Eight million children are on these drugs right now and I think they do a lot of damage. They ARE drugs. I don’t think it’s being looked at for what it is. I’ve been behind this since the early 90s.

MM: If I remember right, this has been a cause and a passion of yours for quite some time.

LMP: Yeah. It’s funny because I was talking about this kind of thing a long time ago. There are statistics. All the kids that shoot other kids in school right now? They’re all a product of these particular drugs because this didn’t happen before. People are just now reading the labels on the side of the boxes where it’ll warn that this could cause suicides. They’re finally realizing this now, slowly but surely. This is something I’ve been fighting for a long time.

MM: Does it feel like you’re finally making a little headway?

LMP: It does because, at this point, they’ve finally stopped enforcing parents to do it. Schools used to be able to make parents get these drugs and if they didn’t, they would be taken away. So I went and testified in Washington and that got banned. That stopped.

It was business for them to do that. Schools get money for this kind of thing as well, and the drug companies and the shrinks also. Half the time, they’re just not interested in what they’re studying and biting on their pencil is seen as s sign of ADD. Pretty much any behavior is a symptom. I would have it, everybody would have it. Doodling, daydreaming...anything a kid would normally do in school is now considered a disorder and it’s really crazy. The drugs themselves are really damaging.

It’s the easy way, you know? There are other things like allergies and education that’s used as a reason to force this stuff on them that they have no real purpose for. There are other things going on that have nothing to do with getting someone a drug for something. Drugs don’t fix anything.

MM: Going back a little to the subject of celebrity, would you maybe want your own kids to grow up out of that spotlight? I notice we don’t see a lot of them.

LMP: My daughter’s pretty out there because she’s doing a campaign for [Christian] Dior. She’s locked into that right now but she really does it overseas instead of doing it here.

MM: Right, that’s probably why I haven’t seen a lot of her, then.

LMP: Yeah, I don’t want her in the scene in America right now. I kinda like that she goes overseas, does her job, comes back here and goes to school. My son I don’t want out there until he knows what he wants to do. I don’t want him in the public eye and exposed since he hasn’t decided what he wants to do yet.

MM: If you were able to wake up without that pressure one day, would you?

LMP: Well, I can’t really say because I understand that there’s good and bad with that just like anything else. I didn’t actually have that when I was a kid. They left me alone, thank God. [Laughs] My mom really didn’t help me out; I was in a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, so I didn’t have my growing up period in front of everybody.

Right now it’s so crazy and people are so desperate to have you fail and take you down. It makes people feel better about themselves, I guess. I don’t know. I’m not interested in being a part of that at all. I got it more when the first record came out because it did well and I think that made me a target for attack and judgment. An unusual amount of...

MM: Backlash, per se?

LMP: Yeah. That’s when they’re going to come after you. They like to bring you up and then tear you down.

MM: Which goes back to the version of “Dirty Laundry” that’s on your album.

LMP: Right.

MM: Anything you hope to accomplish with the new album at all aside from getting it out there and hoping people get into the music?

LMP: I think I have a pretty good fanbase and I always want to know that I’m doing something for people. I get letters back saying that I am. Making the fans happy and making more fans, I guess. They usually let me know what my songs do for them and that’s what keeps me going.

MM: So you get quite a bit of feedback on that, then?

LMP: Yes, definitely. And it counteracts the other shit, you know what I mean? [Laughs] It really does. It keeps it so that the scales don’t completely tip.

MM: Right. Like taking the good with the bad that you were talking about. It all works out, then.

LMP: Exactly.

MM: Good. Anything you have planned for the future? Anything in particular you’d like to see as far as the next chapter in your story goes?

LMP: I can’t really say right now. I’m just going to focus on going on tour right now, which is my next step.

MM: Just getting on the road and getting the music out there.

LMP: Yeah. Doing it live and kind of take what’s coming in the future on and see what’s coming.

MM: Excellent. Just to let you know, I’ve enjoyed the album quite a bit, really, since I’ve gotten it.

LMP: Thank you.

MM: Hopefully I’ll get to see you on the road. Take care and good luck with everything, Lisa.

LMP: Thank you.