Daisy Jones & The Six, based on the bestselling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, is now streaming on Prime Video. The book takes the form of an oral history of a rock band in the 1970s, and the series adopts a similar mockumentary style as it follows Daisy (Riley Keough), Billy (Sam Claflin), Camila (Camila Morrone), Karen (Suki Waterhouse), Graham (Will Harrison), Warren (Sebastian Rojas), and Eddie (Josh Whitehouse) through years of jamming, infighting, and romantic entanglements—not to mention a triumphant rise to rock ‘n’ roll stardom.
In order for that kind of ascent to be believable, not only did the songs in Daisy Jones & The Six really need to bang, but the cast had to have genuine charisma and chemistry on stage together—and lead singer Daisy Jones needed some genuine rockstar vocals.
Actress Riley Keough, previously known for her performances in Logan Lucky andA24’s Zola, has some real-life music industry pedigree: she is the granddaughter of the King of Rock’n’Roll himself, Elvis Presley, and the daughter of the late musician Lisa Marie Presley. However, when it came to auditioning for the role of Daisy, Keough admits to having stretched the truth regarding her own musical talents.
“I think I blacked out on that meeting. I don’t really remember what happened,” Keough said during a recent press event for the series. “And then I auditioned like everybody else, and lied to them and told them l could sing.”
Riley Keough and Sam Claflin in Daisy Jones & The Six.
Is Riley Keough really singing in Daisy Jones & The Six?
It turns out, Keough wasn’t lying as badly as she thought when she claimed that she could sing in her audition: that really is her singing in the show. Although getting to that point was a process.
After submitting a self-tape of herself singing a song by Fleetwood Mac (on whom Daisy Jones & The Six are loosely based), Keough was told by producers that she needed to learn how to “belt” her way through a song.
“I was like, what does that even mean?” she told Vanity Fair. “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.”
Part of her singing education involved yelling her own rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Shallow” from A Star Is Born in her car. “I sounded so bad that I started crying,” she said. “I was like, I can’t do it, and when I can’t do something it lights a fire in me to be able to do it. I was like, I have to do it. I’m gonna go to this vocal coach, and he’s gonna teach me how to fucking belt, whatever I need to do to get this. It really became about pushing myself to do things I’ve never done before.”
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
