Lisa Marie was a Powerful Singer-Songwriter

Lisa Marie Presley leaves a legacy of not just fame and glamor, but also addiction advocacy.

Lisa Marie Presley, singer-songwriter and daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, died suddenly on January 13. Not just a talented artist, Presley was also a person in recovery from opioid use disorder, and she’d recently begun opening up about her experiences in order to shatter stigma.

According to People Magazine, Presley shared openly about her history with addiction in the forward of the 2019 book The United States of Opioids: A Prescription For Liberating A Nation In Pain.

"[It's] a difficult path to overcome this dependence, and to put my life back together," she wrote. "Even in recent years, I have seen too many people I loved struggle with addiction and die tragically from this epidemic. It is time for us to say goodbye to shame about addiction. We have to stop blaming and judging ourselves and the people around us… That starts with sharing our stories."

In a 2018 interview with Jenna Bush Hager, Presley discussed the beginnings of her addiction.

She told Hager, “I was not happy.” It’s a simple fact to which many people who’ve faced addiction can relate. Those who develop substance use disorders often feel that something’s not right in their life, and drug use can offer relief. 

That use can escalate to an addiction, especially for a person dealing with mental health struggles or trauma. Presley went through a difficult birth of her twin daughters in 2008, and wrote that after her opioid prescription ended, she still felt “the need to keep taking them.”

Like many people in recovery, Presley found strength and safety in family and loved ones. 

In The United States of Opioids, Presley wrote that she was grateful “to have four beautiful children who have given me a sense of purpose that has carried me through dark times.”

Presley was an advocate for others, too. She often connected her experiences to feelings of empathy for others who’ve experienced addiction firsthand, as well as for parents who’ve lost children to overdose. 

“I’m not perfect, my father wasn’t perfect, no one’s perfect,” she told Hager. “It’s what you do with it after you learn and then you try to help others with it.”