Navarone Garcia, the 37-year-old musician and half-brother of the late Lisa Marie Presley, recently opened up about his complex relationship with his famous sibling and his own struggles with addiction in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight
Despite not being a household name himself, Garcia is no stranger to the spotlight due to his famous family. He is the son of Priscilla Presley and her former partner, computer programmer Marco Garibaldi, who were together from 1984 to 2006. This makes him the half-brother of Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla’s only other child.
Garcia admitted that his relationship with Lisa Marie, who was almost 20 years his senior, had its challenges. “I think every family has sibling rivalry or, you know, they don’t always agree, and that was just kind of brought to the forefront with our family,” he shared. “We also had great times together, but our struggles were definitely brought to the forefront.”
One of the struggles that Garcia and Lisa Marie had in common was their battle with addiction. “It’s just funny because [Lisa Marie] and I, you know, had been struggling sometimes with the same thing at the same time,” he reflected. “It was never like we ever used together — we’d always do everything separate — but not even realize that we were both struggling with the same thing at the same time.”
Lisa Marie, who passed away on January 12, 2023, after suffering cardiac arrest, had been open about her history with opioid addiction. She had written about her experiences in the 2019 book “United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain,” revealing that she became dependent on the drugs following the birth of her twin daughters in 2008.
Despite their struggles, Garcia recalled a poignant moment during Lisa Marie’s funeral when he received a picture from the sky in Alabama that appeared to show an angel with his sister’s face made out of clouds. He described the memory as “remarkable.”
Garcia credits his mother, Priscilla Presley, with helping him through some of the lowest points of his own addiction and recovery. He shared that at the height of his addiction in 2015, he was using heroin up to 40 times a day, and later discovered that he had actually been using fentanyl for much of that time.
“That’s a lot on the body to handle, and it became intolerable and unsustainable,” Garcia admitted. When he entered rehab and experienced severe withdrawal symptoms, his mother was there to support him. “I would need help crawling to the bathroom… she would be assisting,” he recalled. “She was amazing the whole way.”
Now in recovery for the past few years, Garcia has found solace in his music. His band, Them Guns, which he describes as “Muse with balls,” has been a vital part of his sobriety journey. The band released their first album, “From the Shadows,” in 2017 and is set to release a follow-up, “Dark Horizon,” this year. Much of the new album was written during Garcia’s recovery process.
When asked if his mother, Priscilla, is a fan of his music, Garcia laughed and said, “She likes it. You know she’s used to the best so…”
Garcia has also come to terms with the inevitable comparisons to his famous family, particularly his late uncle, Elvis Presley. “It’s a weight that I’ve had my whole life,” he shared. “I’ve tried to run away from it for so long, and it’s something that I’m just kind of starting to embrace now, later on in life. It’s my family I came from, you know? It’s not something I need to run away from.”
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In addition to his music, Garcia is currently participating in the Steered Straight speaking tour with founder Michael DeLeon, which aims to educate school-age children about the realities of substance abuse. He finds the experience rewarding, noting that many students reach out to him after the presentations to share their own struggles and creative endeavors.
As he continues to navigate his own journey of recovery and personal growth, Navarone Garcia’s story serves as a reminder of the complexities of family dynamics, the challenges of addiction, and the power of music and purpose in the healing process.
The Information is Taken from AOL and Entertainment Tonight
