Priscilla Presley's Son Navarone Garcia Breaks His Silence

02/02/2023 11:36 am EST

Priscilla Presley's son Navarone Garcia, the younger half-brother of Lisa Marie Presley, has broken his silence about growing up in the famous family. Many fans of Elvis and the Presleys may not even know about Garcia, as he has willfully chosen to stay out of the spotlight most of his life. Now, the 35-year-old musician has opened up to PEOPLE about his life, past substance abuse issues, musical journey with his band Them Guns, and the death of his beloved sister.

"A lot of people know about me. But they don't know me," Garcia told the outlet. Speaking about his childhood, Garcia added, "I got in trouble more than everybody else, because kids' parents would find out who my mom was, and they'd want a reason to talk to her. I wasn't very comfortable with it." Opening up about his father, producer Marco Garibaldi — whom he was not close with for many years — Garcia revealed that they wer not allowed to play the music of Pricilla's late husband, Elvis, around the house. "I think my dad had a bit of a complex about it," Navarone shared. "It wasn't until after he left that my mom started playing his music again freely."

Addressing the death of his sister, Garcia said that "It's still so surreal." He also shared how his nieces have been doing, telling PEOPLE that Lisa Maria's eldest daughter Riley Keough, 33, "has been so good" with her younger twin half-sisters, Finley and Harper, 14. Lisa Maria shared the girls with her ex-husband Michael Lockwood.

Garcia also spoke candidly about overcoming his addiction to fentanyl, confessing, "I was under the impression I was doing heroin, but then it'd turn out to be fentanyl. That was a whole different beast. I became so addicted that I'd need it every 45 minutes." He also explained that part of his motivation for beating his addiction was meeting family from Brazil — on his father's side — whom he previously hadn't known about. "My family there didn't know I had a drug problem, and I was so ashamed to tell them," he said. "I promised I wouldn't come back again until my problem was resolved."

In 2020, Garcia made the commitment to get sober for his now-wife, Elisa Achilli, but admitted that it was not easy. "When COVID happened, I wanted to go there and see her for more than three or four days. I didn't want to have to bring a pound of fentanyl with me anywhere I went," he said. "I buckled down and said, 'Let's see how bad this can get.'"

Recalling the experience, Garcia shared, "I was pretty much in my bed in the fetal position all day. It feels like a different lifetime, almost. The whole world got a lot better [afterward]." He also admitted that he does still smoke marijuana and drink alcohol, but one of his Them Guns bandmates, Kyle Hamood, noted, "It's a night-and-day difference."

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