Sam Claflin is the first to admit that when he got the part of Billy Dunne, the co-lead singer of a world-famous 1970s rock band in ”Daisy Jones & the Six”, he was no musician.
One might assume that, on the other hand, Riley Keough — inhabiting the titular role in the Amazon Prime limited series premiering Friday — had the music part in the bag. After all, as the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley, Keough practically has music in her genes.
“Daisy Jones & The Six” follows a band that skyrockets to fame, helmed by lead singers with amazing onstage chemistry and a tumultuous behind-the-scenes relationship. Decades after the band suddenly and inexplicably breaks up, they speak for the first time about their rise and demise. And expectations were high for the transcendent songs Keough, Claflin and the ensemble would have to belt. Enter Blake Mills, a Grammy winner who has worked with Alabama Shakes, John Legend, Bob Dylan and Jay-Z and was tapped as the show’s executive music producer. Mills wrote or co-wrote 25 tracks created for the series, alongside the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Jackson Browne and Marcus Mumford.
Suki Waterhouse, who plays keyboardist Karen Sirko, said all the work that went into their music scenes helped make her a better performer. “Everybody wants to be a rock star, but it takes a lot of work and hustle,” Chacon said. “To be able to just skip the line and pretend to be a big famous rock star, I was like, ‘Wow, amazing, fantastic.’”