Riley Keough Finds Her Voice in Daisy Jones & the Six

Nabiyah Be: Hey, sis! How are you? 

Riley Keough: I’m good, honey. Where are you? 

NB: I’m home. I’m in my little studio/office/bedroom. How are you feeling? The show comes out tomorrow. Today’s officially the last day we can talk about this without people knowing what we’re talking about. 

RK: I know, and the record came out, and apparently, it’s gone number one on iTunes. 

NB: Yes, it has!

RK: It’s so crazy. I can’t believe it. 

NB: How did you first hear about the show? How did it come to you?

RK: I heard about it through my agent, Ali Trustman. She said there’s a show called Daisy Jones & the Six. I didn’t know what it was about, but I liked the title so much that I just had this feeling I was going to do it. I was like, “I want to do it,” and she was like, “You don’t even know what it is.” And then she was like, “Okay, I think it’s based off of a band in the ’70s. And I was like, “I want to do it—get me all the info,” which I don’t typically do. Typically, I need to read a script, and I need to meet the director before I’m like, “I want to do this,” but I don’t know. There was something about it that just felt like I knew that I was going to be cast. So it was very weird. 

NB: You mentioned this feeling a few nights ago in our panel, this cosmic feeling. It’s probably your explanation behind the phrase that’s going around that you are born to play this role. But I’ll let you put your own words to it. Do you want to expand on this feeling? 

RK: I think a lot of artists feel this way, but when a role comes to you, there’s something very spiritual and magical about it, and it feels like … everything’s coming at a certain time. And it’s the exact right time for that thing, or there’s a part of me that I’m feeling like I want to explore, and then I’ll get a role that matches that somehow. I’ve done a lot of very intense, dark independent films, and I was really feeling like I wanted to do something that was fun and big and entertaining and not super dark. 

Of course, there are moments in Daisy that are more serious, but as a whole, it felt like something you could put on to escape your life, and that’s just what I really felt like doing in that exact moment. Then we pushed because of the pandemic and everything. When we ended up shooting in 2021, it was even more so that I needed it because I had a really hard time in the pandemic with losing my brother, and it was such a gift to be able to come out of that and my first job being with all these people who felt like family to me, who I knew already so well, and who I felt so supported and loved by. The universe allowed me to have this thing to help move through a really hard year for the country, for the world. 

NB: I can attest to you fully embodying this wounded healer transforming rocks into diamonds. I definitely learned a lot from you and your sense of humour and being able to stay in your light. I‘ve been hearing everyone’s audition stories, but I don’t know what you did. Did you sing for your audition? 

RK: Yeah, I sang. Well no, I acted first. They were like, “Let’s make sure you’re right.” I did three or four scenes, and then I re-taped again, and then I went in, and they were like, “Okay, we like your acting for Daisy, but can you sing?” I sent a video of me singing really softly. I was singing “Wild Horses,” I think, and they were like, “That’s cute, but it’s too soft. You have to belt and sing louder.” I had only ever sung falsetto with my husband for fun, so I was so frustrated because I thought, “I’ve come this far down this road. I’ve auditioned like five times, and now, I’m not going to make it through to the last round because I can’t project my voice, and I don’t know how to belt.” I sat in my car, and my agent called me, and she was like, “Just try. Just try and sing a Lady Gaga song,” and I got mad. I was like, “You can’t just try and sing a Lady Gaga song. I’ve never sung in my life. I don’t know how to fucking belt!” Coming from having zero experience, I didn’t even know how to get my voice up loud, you know? So I sat in my car, and I think I tried to belt something. I don’t remember what it was, and it sounded so bad that I just sat there and started crying. 

NB: Oh, sweet lord!

RK: I really don’t like not being able to do things, so I was frustrated. I sat there, and I was just like, “I can’t belt, and it’s so annoying because if I had time, maybe someone could teach me,” and my agent said, “Well, why don’t you just go to a vocal coach?” I always had it in my mind that you either have it or you don’t. So in my mind, I was like, “I don’t have it.” Surely, people who can belt know they can belt or just sing loud or project more. They gave me a list of songs to try, and it was so bad. [The coach] was like, “Push from here and use this and breathe here and do that.” And I was like, “Fuck man, I can’t do this. I don’t understand.” I went home, and all of a sudden, the universe dropped Lynyrd Skynyrd into my head, and I started humming it. It was the song “Simple Man.” It just came into my head as I was walking around my house, and I said to my husband [Ben], “Can you play ‘Simple Man’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd?” The next day, I went back to the coach. Ben learned the song, and we recorded it. And I was able to belt or project loudly. So I sent it in, and they were like, “Okay, great. She can come into Sound City Studios for the last round.” And I was like, “Ah!”