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If you’re as obsessed with the music from the series as us, you may be wondering: Does Riley Keough really sing in Daisy Jones and the Six and how much of her real singing voice is used for Daisy Jones? The answer may surprise you.
Daisy Jones and the Six is a miniseries based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2019 New York Times bestselling novel of the same title. The show follows a musical group called Daisy Jones and the Six, a rock band in the 1970s from their rise in the LA music scene to becoming one of the most famous bands in the world and explores the reason behind their split at the height of their success.”
In an interview with Marie Claire in 2019, Reid explained the inspiration for Daisy Jones and the Six and revealed that the book was based on several “complicated” throughout music history, including Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. “It was a lot of things. First, I was really taken with how often in culture there are these men and women who write incredible songs together, but also have somewhat complicated personal relationships,” she said. “The most obvious example is Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac, but there’s a lot of them—The Civil Wars, who broke up in 2014, and other group bands who have had difficulty in their relationships and broke up very abruptly. Take Beyoncé and Jay-Z for example (even though it’s hip-hop and not rock), who have this incredible relationship. They take their personal life and make art from it. I’m fascinated by it, so I wanted to create a band to explore that further.”
She also told the magazine about what it was like to create the show with executive producer Reese Witherspoon.”Who doesn’t want to see their world come to life in three dimensions? It’s incredibly exciting anytime you think your book is going to become a TV show,” she said. “The thing about this project that got me even more excited? On top of the fact that they’re going to cast all of the characters and create this world, they’re also going to create an album. The Aurora album is going to be a big part of this show—the music that I’ve created in my head and that hopefully feels real to you as you’re reading the book is going to become real music. Reese Witherspoon is so good at understanding how to tell women’s stories. I’m thrilled about the TV show—not just because of the actual show, but because she’s paying attention to the right things. I feel very confident that I’m handing over a book to someone who’s going to make it truly great.”
But back to Riley Keough’s singing in Daisy Jones and the Six. So…does Riley Keough really sing in Daisy Jones and the Six? Read on for what we know about if Riley Keough really sings in Daisy Jones and the Six and how much of her character’s singing voice is hers.
Image: Ballantine Books.
Does Riley Keough really sing in Daisy Jones and the Six?
Does Riley Keough really sing in Daisy Jones and the Six? The answer is yes. Every cast member in Daisy Jones and the Six—including Keough (Daisy Jones); Sam Claflin (Billy Dunne); Camila Morrone (Camila Dunne); and Suki Waterhouse (Karen Sirko)—sing and perform their own instruments in the show, according to Vanity Fair.
In an interview with 92nd Street Y in February 2023, Keough revealed that she “lied” about her singing ability before her audition for Daisy Jones and the Six. “I think I blacked out on that meeting. I don’t really remember what happened,” Keough said. “And then I auditioned like everybody else, and lied to them and told them l could sing.” Daisy Jones and the Six producer Lauren Neustadter also confirmed to Vanity Fair in December 2022 that Keough, who is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, hadn’t sang publicly before Daisy Jones and the Six. “We talked about her singing and we talked about her grandfather and she sort of said, ‘You know, I know I have it in me, but I really don’t sing outside the shower,’” Neustadter said. “This is not a thing that I’ve done before, but I’m ready to do the work, and she really did.”
Image: Lacey Terrell / Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection.
Keough, whose only musical experience was playing piano when she was 10 years old, told Vanity Fair that she recorded a video of herself quietly singing a Fleetwood Macsong for her audition, and was told she needed to belt if she wanted the role of Daisy Jones.“I was like, what does that even mean?” she said. “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.”
Her agent suggested that she sing “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from 2018’s A Star Is Born to get into the mood of the character. “I was like, are you out of your mind, it’s not an easy song to sing. I sounded so bad that I started crying. 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,” she said.
After working with her vocal coach, Keough taped second audition, in which she performed Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” “Seeing her come alive in that role is just, I mean, it’s mesmerizing, it’s magical,” Keough’s Daisy Jones and the Six co-star Sam Claflin told Vanity Fair.
Keough also confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in March 2023 that, despite who her family is, she didn’t have much experience singing or playing the guitar before Daisy Jones and the Six. “My whole family are musicians, so I certainly have a lot of experience around musicians,” she said “I dated a few musicians (laughs). I’ve grown up with a lot of that in my life. So, I’m very familiar with musicians, but I’m also very not familiar with singing or playing guitar. Like at all.” She continued, “It was an interesting thing coming to work and telling my guitar teacher that I’ve never picked up a guitar. He was like, ‘What? That sounds crazy to me.’ And it is kind of crazy. But I always have been more interested in films. So, me and Sam had to start from the bottom and learn everything.”
Claflin, who plays Billy Dunne, also told Vanity Fair in December 2022 that he had no experience playing the guitar before he was cast in Daisy Jones and the Six. “I have to say, I’d never picked up a guitar before I got this part,” he said. “And, you know, having read the book, it wasn’t overly clear that I was due to be playing because we took some creative freedom and slightly shifted the parts a little bit, meaning that I was going to be playing not lead guitar, thank God, but rhythm guitar. I had to learn how to hold the guitar, how to strum a guitar. I had the biggest journey to go with the singing as well.”
Daisy Jones and the Six showrunner Scott Neustadter also confirmed Claflin’s lack of musical experience to Vanity Fair. “We found out he wasn’t as musical as he might have [said].” Claflin told Vanity Fair that he chose Elton John’s “Your Song” for his audition, which he was told wasn’t “quite rock and roll” enough for Daisy Jones and the Six. “It wasn’t long before the music producer came in like, ‘Right, okay. We’re gonna try a different thing because this isn’t quite rock and roll. Have you heard this song?’” Claflin said, admitting that he mistook The Beatles’ “Come Together” for a Michael Jackson song. ”’Come together, right now.’ And I go, ‘oh, I know that song, that’s Michael Jackson!’” He continued, “Yeah, So I had that much of a journey to go on. I knew nothing. But thankfully, they saw something in me and knew that I was sort of pliable and flexible and willing to learn and wanting to learn and willing to sacrifice myself for, like, three years.”
Like Keough, Claflin worked with vocal coaches and guitar teachers over Zoom to improve his performance as Billy. “I get misty thinking about the transformation and the dedication,” producer Lauren Levy Neustadter said. “During COVID he was in England with his kids, and he was homeschooling them during the day, and he would take care of them, and then he would put them to sleep and he would get on a Zoom to [learn how to] play the guitar. And he also really changed. He transformed his body to really be like a ’70s rock star. He would get on the Zoom and get on the guitar and he would work with his vocal coach. It was nonstop. He was really transforming into Billy, and Riley did the same.”
Daisy Jones and the Six is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. Here’s how to watch it for free.
Image: Ballantine Books.
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