Riley Keough's grandfather was the 'king of rock and roll'. She never listened to his music.

Riley Keough is standing in the centre of the world stage right now. 

She's the lead in the show that has everyone talking (and getting their corduroy out for), Daisy Jones & The Six - and that has most people frantically googling to find out more about her. Those curious searchers will have quickly come to realise that she is not just any leading lady, but the granddaughter of Elvis Presley.

Yep, that Elvis. The king of rock 'n' roll. The one you probably watched Austin Butler play (and maintain the accent of) last year. That Elvis. 

And while you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone on planet Earth with ears who hasn't listened to Elvis' tunes, it turns out Riley Keough has dodged classics like 'Blue Suede Shoes' and 'Can't Help Falling In Love' her whole life. 

In an interview with Marc Malkin on his Just for Variety podcast, Keough was asked if she ever plays her grandfather's music. She simply said, “I don’t put it on.”

She went on to explain that she doesn't actively avoid it, saying: “If it’s on, I’ll listen to it.” But it seems that it has been a move she's made to protect her mother - the late Lisa-Marie Presley. 

“There’s definitely emotion around it," Keough states. "There was definitely a lot of grief around it growing up, especially seeing my mom and my grandma. There was a sad thing, tragic kind of a thing… so there was definitely that relationship to it. And I could see from a young age that it would make my mom sad. And so I could feel that.”

It is music that drums up an emotional experience in the star, too, with Keough stating in the same interview that she really feels it, "if it’s one of the more emotional songs. The more gospel stuff, definitely makes me emotional. But I will listen to it if it’s on, I just don’t go putting it on.”

Regardless of how much of her grandfather's music she has (or hasn't) listened to, there's no doubt that some high expectations come as part and parcel of being a member of the Presley family - especially now Keough is starring in her first musical role in Daisy Jones & The Six.

The Prime Video miniseries premiered on March 3, and it has already become one of the most talked about shows of 2023 so far.

The show is an adaptation of the bestselling book from author Taylor Jenkins Reid and it follows the story of an iconic 1970s band, fronted by two feuding yet charismatic lead singers, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne. 

Watch: The trailer for Daisy Jones and The Six. Post continues below video.

Twenty years after mysteriously calling it quits after a sold-out show at Chicago's Soldier Field, the band finally agrees to tell the truth in a documentary. 

In case you've spent the last couple of episodes frantically googling away, we've popped the answers to all of the questions you've pondered while watching Daisy Jones & The Six.

Is Daisy Jones & The Six based on a true story?

The short answer is 'no'.

The long answer begins with, 'well, sort of'...

Okay, so what inspired Daisy Jones & The Six?

A '70s rock band derailed by very messy personal dynamics? Of course, Daisy Jones & The Six was absolutely inspired by Fleetwood Mac.

Fleetwood Mac in 1977 (Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and John McVie). Image: Getty.

Author Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote a blog post for Hello Sunshine explaining how she first saw a performance of 'Landslide' on TV when she was 13:

"As the song was coming to an end, Stevie [Nicks] and Lindsey [Buckingham] moved closer to one another, smiling tenderly, maybe even a little bit wistfully. Lindsey stopped strumming for a moment and Stevie let it fly as he watched from the sideline. And for one split second - truly, a slice of a moment - Lindsey put his fist under his chin and looked at Stevie as if she was a miracle.

"And I thought, 'Oh, they're in love with each other.'"

In 2017, when she decided she wanted to write a book about rock n' roll she kept coming back to that moment.

"How it looked so much like two people in love. And yet, we'll never truly know what lived between them. I wanted to write a story about that, about how the lines between real life and performance can get blurred, about how singing about old wounds might keep them fresh."

Does Riley Keough actually sing in Daisy Jones & The Six?

Image: Prime Video.

Yep! Every cast member in Daisy Jones & The Six sing and perform their own instruments in the show. No dubbing allowed.

Riley Keough plays Daisy Jones, and despite being Elvis Presley's granddaughter, said she "lied" about her musical ability before landing an audition for the part.

"I auditioned like everybody else, and lied to them and told them l could sing," she told Vanity Fair.

Producer Lauren Neustadter confirmed this story.

"We talked about her singing and we talked about her grandfather and she sort of said, 'You know, I know I have it in me, but I really don't sing outside the shower. This is not a thing that I've done before, but I'm ready to do the work', and she really did," she told the publication.

Keough sent in an audition video of herself singing a Fleetwood Mac song, but was told she needed to 'belt' if she wanted the part.

"I was like, what does that even mean? I didn't even know how one gets to be able to sing loud. I went to a vocal coach and I was like, 'They need me to belt.'"

She worked with a vocal coach and eventually sent in another video of herself singing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 'Simple Man', which earned her the part. 

"At the end of the day, it's not like I'm the best singer in the world. You know? Like, we're not phenomenal singers. But we were proud of how far we got."

Does Sam Claflin actually sing in Daisy Jones & The Six?

Sam Claflin, who plays frontman Billy Dunne, also exaggerated the truth during his audition process to land the part.

"We found out he wasn’t as musical as he might have [said]," producer Scott Neustadter told Vanity Fair.

For 18 months, Claflin worked with a vocal coach and a guitar tutor to learn the skills he needed to be convincing as his rock star character.

"I have to say, I'd never picked up a guitar before I got this part... I was going to be playing not lead guitar, thank God, but rhythm guitar. I had to learn how to hold the guitar, how to strum a guitar. I had the biggest journey to go with the singing as well," he said.

Who worked on the Daisy Jones & The Six music?

Image: Prime Video.

Sure, this is all based on a fictional band, but at least the music is real.

The show will feature 24 original songs, including the album Aurora, which in the story catapults the band to a whole new stratosphere of fame.

All 11 songs on that album, as well as the many others featured throughout the episodes are available on streaming.

The music was created with the help of many incredible real-world musicians, including Grammy Nominated producer Blake Mills, Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford and more.

New episodes of Daisy Jones & The Six drop weekly on Fridays on Prime Video.

This article was first posted on March 6, 2023 and was updated on March 10, 2023.

Feature image: Prime Video.

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