Don’t expect to get a song or a high kick out of Michael Jackson’s oldest son anytime soon.
“Everyone thinks I’m going to do music and dance,” Prince Jackson told the Los Angeles Times, admitting that he can’t do either.
The late King of Pop’s 19-year-old son is all grown up seven years after his passing, and has already carved out a career in entertainment — behind the scenes.
“I’ve always wanted to go into production. My dad would ask me what I wanted to do and my answer was always producing and directing,” he told the L.A. Times during a recent rare tour of his father’s Encino compound Hayvenhurst.
The teen launched King’s Son Productions, an homage to his father’s noble 1980s title as the King of Pop, and already produced his first music video for rapper Omer Bhatti’s “Automatic.”
When it comes to showbiz, Jackson is not naive. He remembers his father’s advice on navigating the industry he was warned about for years.
“Trust no one,” Michael once told him.
“It sounds bad, but … a lot of people are motivated by themselves,” Jackson said. “He said don’t trust someone just because it sounds like a good idea — do your research. There are a lot of people who want to interact with [me and my siblings] just because of who we are,” Jackson said.
The aspiring producer revealed that after his father died in 2009, he and his siblings, Paris and Blanket, were bombarded with scandals, particularly allegations his father faced surrounding child molestation, and acquittal of child sexual abuse.
When questioned about how he and his siblings managed to face it all, Jackson said: “It was a shock. It all came at once. But [we] learned how to deal with it by just kind of ignoring it.”
Jackson admitted that he’ll never get over his father’s passing, and is still struggling to cope with the loss.
“I don’t think it’s anything you ever get over,” he explained. “It’s always going to be a part of your life that’s missing.”
Jackson also acknowledged that he had far from a normal childhood. He did not have a relationship with his birth mother, Debbie Rowe, who terminated parental rights in 2001 and has little contact with her.
“I’m very lucky to have two mother figures in my life, my grandmother and my cousin Frances. As for my birth mother, she’s always been more of a friend, and that works for us,” he said.
“You could say my whole life has been unconventional. I really love that though, and it’s all I’ve ever known.”
Source: New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times
