The pressure to continue the Elvis Presley family legacy was too much for the legendary rocker’s grandson, a friend said in a new interview.
Musician Brandon Howard told People magazine that 27-year-old Benjamin Keough’s struggles with being from a famous musical lineage “absolutely” contributed to his death Sunday night of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“That kind of pressure is definitely part of what happened,” Howard said of his friend, who was the son of Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
He continued: “It is a difficult thing when you have a lot of pressure with your family and you live up to a name and an image. It is a lot of pressure. It’s almost as if you’re under pressure to have to be a musician, to have to be an actor. It was good for him to go around the world and discover himself and have his own friends. You never know what triggers it. You never know … it’s so random. “
Howard also revealed that his friend dealt with depression.
“Sometimes he had problems with depression, which is a serious thing with (the current pandemic) and everything that is happening right now and everyone is locked in the house. It takes a lot. I wish I was there. “
Yet despite that, Howard said Keough was a devoted friend.
“He has always been there for everyone,” he explained. “In any kind of situation, he would be the one who would crash with you on the couch for weeks until you really feel better.”
Howard was an old friend of Keough’s. The two met when Lisa Marie, 52, married Michael Jackson in 1994. Jackson’s father, Joe, had directed Howard’s mother, singer Miki Howard.
Despite the fact that Lisa Marie and Jackson divorced in 1996, the boys remained close friends and even doubled their circle, which included child actor Corey Feldman, “The Lost Boys.”
“As adults, we had a brotherhood and a kind of respect,” said Howard. “We always feel that we are who we are and we just have to be the best we can be for the different people around us.
“He was the one I was talking to when there were a lot of things about me and questions about who I am and where I come from.”
Howard called his friend “an excellent chef” and a “wonderful” person with “the craziest laugh”.
“I want people to know about his humility. He was not a spoiled child. He was very humble, very generous, very loving, especially with his friends. It is just wild. There is nothing like this, ”he said.
Earlier this week, Keough’s ex-girlfriend Alexa Rohde shared a poignant tribute on Instagram by writing, “Benjamin Storm, YOU. Always happy in the sun and in the water. And a laugh that made everyone happier. You gave love to anyone who needed it. You were wise as a thousand-year-old man, but foolish as a 5-year-old boy.
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