Navarone Garcia is no stranger to struggling in the spotlight.
While the 37-year-old musician may not exactly be a household name, his famous family members certainly are. Garcia is the son of Priscilla Presley and computer programmer Marco Garibaldi, who were together from 1984-2006 — making him the half-brother of Priscilla’s only other child, Lisa Marie Presley.
With almost a 20-year age difference and vastly disparate life experiences, Navarone told ET that his relationship with his late half-sister had its up and downs.
“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.”
Navarone spoke with ET amid his time on the Steered Straight speaking tour with founder Michael DeLeon — aimed at educating school-age children about the realities of substance abuse. It’s a cause close to his heart, as someone who’s battled addiction from a young age — unfortunately not an uncommon plight in his family tree.
“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 was candid about her history with opioid addiction, writing in 2019’s United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain that she was prescribed the drugs following the birth of her twin daughters in 2008 and became dependent upon them. The daughter of Priscilla and Elvis Presley died after suffering cardiac arrest at her Calabasas, California, home on Jan. 12, 2023.
Despite their struggles, Navarone recalled his connection with his sister persisting even on the day of her funeral.
“Somebody sent me a picture from the sky in Alabama that day… and it literally looked like there was an angel that has my sister’s face made out of the clouds,” he said of the “remarkable” memory.
He has a much stronger bond with his mother, whom he credits with helping him through some of the lowest moments of his own addiction and recovery. Having started smoking weed in high school, by 2015 Navarone says was using heroin up to “40 times a day.” What’s worse, upon entering rehab, a drug test confirmed 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,” he admitted. “I would try to keep it from her, you know, what I was going through, but after a week of withdrawals alone I’d [call and say], ‘Mom, I’m a week into it, but I got to come to your house, and I’m going to be there for another 2 weeks’ and she says, ‘OK. You need some soup?'”
“I would need help crawling to the bathroom… she would be assisting,” he recalled. “She was amazing the whole way.”
In recovery for the last few years, Navarone confirmed to ET that music has been vital to his sobriety. He laughed as he described his band, Them Guns, as “Muse with balls,” also citing influences like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails.
The band put out their first album, From the Shadows, in 2017 and are releasing its follow-up, Dark Horizon, this year — much of which was crafted amid Navarone’s recovery journey.
“I was in the midst of it when I wrote a lot of it and going through a lot,” he reflected. “I was married and divorced within the past two years, and so going through a lot of that struggle as well.”
And yes, Priscilla is a fan. “She likes it. You know she’s used to the best so…” Navarone said with a laugh when asked if his mother has heard his music.
But he’s found peace with any connections that critics might try to make between him and other musical members of his family — Elvis, in particular.
“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.”
The group is planning a tour for this fall, but for now, Navarone said he’s enjoying his time on a different kind of tour, using his real-life experience to help educate kids about the dangers of substance abuse.
“The response from the students that we’ve had has been so strong,” he marveled. “They contact me afterwards — a lot of them are going through a lot. A lot of them are musicians, they send me some of the lyrics or they send me some of the music they’ve made. I try to support them and respond to all of that as well.”
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