Collective Soul has a new retrospective documentary out on Blu-ray and video on demand, and the film centers around the recording of their 2024 effort, Here to Eternity, which took place at Elvis Presley’s Palm Springs house in late 2022 and early 2023. As it happens, the band was there when the news broke that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, died in January 2023.
I had a chance to speak to Collective Soul’s bass player and co-founder, Will Turpin, about the event and how it impacted the band ahead of the documentary, titled Give Me a Word: The Collective Soul Story, hitting the 2025 movie schedule. Turpin told me Lisa Marie’s presence was very much felt that day..
‘It Never Rains In Palm Springs’
January 12th, 2023, was a tragic day for the Presley Family and their fans. Lisa Marie was only 54 when she died from a bowel obstruction, a side effect of bariatric surgery, leaving behind four children, including her daughter Riley Keough. Many Elvis fans had followed Lisa Marie’s entire life, from her birth to Elvis and Pricilla in 1968, through the end, and her death came as a real shock to everyone.
At Elvis’ Palm Springs house, where Collective Soul was laying down the tracks of their new album, they had set up the control room for the recording in Lisa Marie’s childhood bedroom. On the fateful day, Turpin explained, it rained, which is rare in the high desert of California. He said of the day,
We were right in the middle of recording. That was January. So we were right in the middle of recording, and it doesn't rain a lot in Palm Springs. It rained that night, and a first-time leak came through what was her bedroom, where our engineering room was.
A gloomy day in Palm Springs was like an omen for the band. Not a bad omen necessarily, but a sign to the musicians that Lisa Marie’s presence was felt. Turpin said of the surprise storm,
We'd set up engineering in Lisa Marie's old bedroom. I don't know how this story didn't really slip into the documentary, but a leak came through the roof. It didn't get on any of the gear, but it rained that night, and water came through her ceiling, where her bedroom was.
Fortunately for the band and those working with them to make the record, what could have been a disaster resulted in a happy and almost heartfelt ending. If it was Lisa Marie's spirit hovering about, she wasn't upset about her childhood bedroom being used as a studio.
Water And Recording Equipment Is A Bad Combo, But Again, Lisa Marie Was There With Them
When you hear something about a leak in a control room, one that had, according to Turpin, never appeared in the bedroom before, would be a recipe for disaster, as water and electrical equipment obviously don’t mix. However, Lisa Marie’s presence was again felt when the expensive equipment was spared. As Turpin explained,
And then on top of that, it didn't touch any of the computers or any of the gear, so it's almost like she didn't want to hurt us.
Lisa Marie Presley was not only the daughter of a musician, but she was also married to a couple, Michael Jackson and producer Michael Lockwood. She also recorded three albums of her own, so she would never want to ruin a great session!
Recording In Elvis’ House Sounds Like Quite An Amazing Experience
According to the documentary, this was the first time a band had recorded in Elvis Presley’s desert house, other than The King himself. The house has been preserved as closely to how it was when the current owner bought it. Turpin was amazed by all the little things that were still there from when Elvis last hung out there, almost 50 years ago. Not only was some of the plush bright red carpet still there, and other things that reminded him of Graceland in Memphis, but one bit of security, over the jacuzzi in back, was still there. Turpin says,
The Jacuzzi had this translucent kind of top put on it because he was kind of victim to one of the first paparazzi-type deals where guys were on a helicopter with a zoom lens and they got pictures of Elvis Presley in his Jacuzzi with some USC cheerleaders.
Apparently, Presley had the cover put over the jacuzzi to avoid this in the future, and it was all still there, as Turpin told me,
Literally, the translucent little tops that he put on top of the Jacuzzi, where all that stuff was still there.
This might not be the kind of story his wife, Priscilla, whose own story was recently told on screen in the excellent movie directed by Sofia Coppola, would want to hear, but she must be used to hearing stories about her late husband hanging out with cheerleaders, right?
Elvis Was Never A Direct Influence On Collective Soul, But He Is Still The King
When I asked about Elvis and his impact on Collective Soul, Turpin explained that being from Georgia, you can’t help by at least be indirectly influenced,
You know, being from the South, yeah, Elvis was a big deal, but indirect influence. You know, we never would have mentioned Elvis necessarily as a musical influence.
Of course, when you’re in the rock and roll business, Elvis is never that far from what you do. Even if The King isn’t a direct influence on many bands these days, or even in the ‘90s, you don’t have to go back too far to find some aspect of a band’s music that points to the first true rock star, as Turpin explains about his bandmates Ed and Dean Roland,
[Elvis] was really the only non-Christian type of music that Mr. Roland listened to. So when [Ed and Dean] were young, they were really influenced by it.
Elvis also dabbled in gospel music, so it makes sense that he would be one of the few rock stars the Roland brothers' preacher father would allow in the house. While Elvis himself might not have been a direct influence, the impact of spiritual music in general is obvious in Collective Soul's work.
Three Decades Later, It All Came Full Circle
In the Give Me a Word: The Collective Soul Story, the story of the Roland brothers and their partner, all these years, Will Turpin, comes full circle, and that music that so captivated them in their youth made its presence felt in very real ways on their latest album. You may not hear Elvis (or Lisa Marie) in their music, but the impact is clearly there.
Keep an eye out for Collective Soul, as they’ll be out on tour playing all their hits from the 1990s and songs from the new album, hopefully wth Lisa Marie Presley still looking down on them, proud of all they have accomplished.