Longtime pal Jerry Schilling talks Elvis Presley’s legacy amid Graceland legal battle

Elvis Presley’s estate is currently embroiled in a lawsuit between the late King of Rock and Roll’s ex-wife Priscilla and granddaughter Riley Keough.

Jerry Schilling, one of the legendary singer’s closest friends, told People Magazine how he hopes to see the singer’s legacy unfold in the wake of his only child, Lisa Marie Presley’s death.

According to Schilling, preserving Elvis’ Memphis home, Graceland, is key.

“I would like for Graceland itself to stay as it has for the last 45 years, as a piece of history captured in time,” Schilling, 81, said of the tourist attraction that has an estimated net worth of $500 million.

“I’d like to see it as Elvis left it, as he decorated it, for the generations of the Presley children. It’s the White House of rock and roll.

Lisa Marie Presley passed on January 12th, 2023, due to a sudden cardiac arrest, two days after she attended the Golden Globe Awards.

Soon after the funeral, Lisa Marie’s mother Priscilla, 77, filed a lawsuit against her eldest daughter, Riley Keough, 33.

The grandmother filed a petition querying the “authenticity and validity” of a 2016 amendment to the deceased’s living trust that ousted her and Lisa Marie’s former business manager as trustees. Instead, it gave control to her two eldest grandchildren – Riley and Benjamin (Lisa Marie’s son who died in 2020 aged 27).

Talking about Elvis’ legacy, Schilling shared that Elvis “wasn’t that kind of person” to think about the future.

“He didn’t think about longevity, old age,” he said. “He used to always say, ‘Look, I don’t want to hoard up this money. I want to spend it while we’re young.’ And he was known to give a lot of gifts.”

However, what was important to Elvis was his daughter, who “ruled Graceland” when she was just “6,7 years old.” Noting that Elvis spoiled Lisa Marie while Priscilla “had to be the disciplinarian,” he added, “They had a great chemistry. There was a real father/daughter love there.”

When Elvis died in 1977, his estate was only worth $5 million. He left his dad Vernon as his will's executor and Lisa Marie as his heir. But when Vernon died in 1979, Priscilla became the estate’s co-executor. And it was she – who divorced Elvis in 1973 – who turned Graceland into the profitable tourist attraction that it is today, according to People.