Paris Jackson got candid about her childhood and the values her dad, the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, instilled in her.
Paris Jackson’s childhood was anything but typical. The Wilted singer, who lived all over the world with her superstar dad Michael Jackson has revealed that she’s grateful for her “privilege” but she learned from a young age not to feel entitled.
“My dad was really good about making sure we were cultured, making sure we were educated, and not just showing us like the glitz and glam, like hotel hopping, five-star places. It was also like, we saw everything. We saw third world countries. We saw every part of the spectrum,” she told Naomi Campbell, 50, on the supermodel’s YouTube interview series No Filter, on March 30.
The talented 22-year-old, who recently teamed up with Stella McCartney to model her new sustainable fashion collection, revealed during the interview that she doesn’t feel “entitled” to anything in life and she credited her dad Michael for teaching her and her siblings that lesson at a young age.
“I’m also a full believer that I should earn everything. I need to…I go to auditions, I work hard, I study scripts, I do my thing,” Paris told Naomi after the Supermodel told her she “shouldn’t be doing [model] castings,” due to her immense fame.
“Even growing up it was about earning stuff,” Paris insisted. “If we wanted five toys from FAO Schwarz or Toys “R” Us, we had to read five books. It’s earning it, not just being entitled to certain things or thinking oh I got this. It’s like working for it, working hard for it, it’s, it’s something else entirely. It’s an accomplishment.”
Although Michael passed away in 2009, Paris is still deeply influenced by him and she told Naomi that his broad range of musical taste made her the artist she is today. “I’m obviously a fan of his music…I know all the lyrics to all of the songs and, you know, I will definitely jam out to them. But I feel like when it comes to influences, I feel like every part of my childhood will always influence how I am today. Whether it was like experiences or like all of the music we listened to.”
“He loved classical music and jazz,” she continued. “And Hip Hop and R&B and obviously the Motown stuff. But also like radio’s Top 40 and he loved rock music, soft rock. The Beatles. So we grew up around all of that and I feel like all of that somehow influences my stuff and if you listen to my album even there’s some movie soundtrack like influences as well like Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, as well as like rock bands like Radiohead, and Manchester Orchestra.”