Lisa Marie Presley’s book tells why she kept her son’s body at home two months after his death

Lisa Marie Presley kept her son’s body at home for two months after his death in 2020.

Presley’s memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown,” released Tuesday, explains why.

The book was written by Presley and her actor daughter Riley Keough and was completed by Keough after Presley’s death using audio tapes recorded by her mother.

Presley, 54, died in January 2023 from a small bowel obstruction that was a complication of bariatric surgery she underwent years earlier.

According to a People report, Presley wrote that after her son Benjamin Keough’s death in 2020, she stored his body on dry ice in a bedroom in her Los Angeles home for two months.

Benjamin was 27 years old when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“There is no law in the state of California that says you have to bury someone immediately,” Presley said in the book.

According to the book, she kept the room at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Riley Keough, 35, said in the book that her mother “wanted enough time to say goodbye to him, just like she did her father.”

Presley was 9 years old when her father, Elvis Presley, died in 1977 at the age of 42.

“It was incredibly helpful to have my father in the house after his death because I was able to spend time with him and talk to him,” Lisa Marie wrote.

She had been thinking about where to bury Benjamin – either at Graceland, Elvis’ home, or in Hawaii.

“That was one of the reasons it took so long,” she said in the book. “I got so used to him, looked after him and kept him there. I think it would scare the hell out of anyone else to have their son there like that. But not me.”

Keough also recalled how, after Benjamin’s death, they got tattoos to match his tattoos of their names – he got Riley tattooed on his collarbone and Lisa Marie tattooed on his hand.

To this end, Presley invited a tattoo artist to look at the tattoos on Benjamin’s body.

“I’ve had an extremely absurd life, but this moment ranks in the top 5,” Keough wrote.

Later, both Benjamin’s mother and daughter got the “vibe” that he didn’t want to be there anymore.

He was buried at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

“I was so happy that there was a way to still raise him and delay it a little longer so I could agree to lay him to rest,” Presley wrote of the experience.