Paris Jackson appeared on Naomi Campbell’s YouTube series “No Filter” Tuesday and opened up about her childhood and how famous father Michael instilled a strong work ethic and eclectic music taste in his kids.
Paris said, “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."
The 22-year-old said she was conceived in Paris and born in LA but remembers growing up “kind of everywhere.”
“It was also like, we saw everything. We saw third-world countries. We saw every part of the spectrum."
The model-singer was 11 years old when her father died, in June 2009, but she acknowledges that his influence in her life continues to this day.
She said, “Growing up, it was about earning stuff. 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.”
When Campbell suggested that Paris was too famous to show up for model castings, she insisted that she is “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."
MUSIC:
Following her family into the music industry, Paris credits her father’s music and his wide range of musical interests with guiding her own taste and sound.
“He loved classical music and jazz. 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.”
