Lisa Marie Presley had a hard time coming to terms with her son's death before he passed away.
“Since losing my son Ben Storm, [Keough]”Lisa didn't go out,” Jerry Schilling said. I was reminded of this in an interview with People. The first anniversary of the singer's death on Friday.
“I didn't know she was going to…survive.” [his death]”
Keough was 27 years old when she committed suicide in July 2020, ultimately rocking her mother's world.
“She survived for two years because of her love and care for her three daughters,” Schilling continued.
Presley shared Benjamin and daughter Riley Keough, 34, with her first husband Danny Keough.
She was also the mother of 15-year-old twins Harper and Finley with her fourth ex-husband, Michael Lockwood.
After years of grief, it wasn't until the 2022 production of Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Austin Butler, that Presley decided to step back into the spotlight.
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“I met her at the airport when I was flying back to Memphis for a screening. I hadn't seen her since Ben Storm's funeral,” the 81-year-old talent manager explained.
“She said to me, 'Jerry, I'll never be the same.' She looked weak. But she was really trying.”
Schilling also said he believes the support the “Lights On” singer received from Butler, Luhrmann and the film crew “brought her out.”
He explained that he was a close friend of Lisa's late father, Elvis Presley, and was at the hospital when Lisa's mother, 78-year-old Priscilla Presley, gave birth to Lisa on February 1, 1968.
At one point, Schilling said he was also Lisa's manager as she ventured into the music industry.
Schilling accompanied the “Lights Out” singer to the Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2022, to support his film “Elvis,” which was nominated for three awards.
This was one of the last times he would see Lisa, as she died just two days later.
“Two days later I got a call to rush to the hospital. I couldn't believe it. I still can't do it,” he said.
Presley died suddenly on January 12, 2023, due to complications from a small bowel obstruction following cardiac arrest.
An autopsy report obtained by the Post said traces of opioids and antipsychotic drugs were found in her system, but they did not contribute to her death.
The mother of four was buried alongside the King of Rock and Roll and his son Benjamin at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.
