Every grandmother has a little speech ready about her grandkids. Katherine Jackson had one too, and she gave it on national TV.
Katherine is Michael Jackson’s mother. In 2010 she sat down with Sonia Lowe, who was working with her on a book of family memories called “Never Can Say Goodbye.” NBC bought that interview and aired it on “Dateline” on June 25, 2010.
Most of what she said that night is for another day. But when the talk turned to Michael’s three children, she sounded like any proud grandma.
At the time Prince was 13, Paris was 12 and Blanket was 8. She was clearly proud of all three.
“Kids are doing fabulous. They’re doing good and they’re straight A students,” she said. She also mentioned that cousins came over to visit every day.
Then she went down the line, one child at a time.
She started with the oldest. Prince, she said, had been working right alongside his dad. “Prince loves the camera, and they were doing this with Michael before Michael passed because he wanted to be behind scenes and doing movies and things like that, so Prince was working with him.”
So a 13-year-old was already learning from his dad what goes on behind the camera. That sounds a lot like the grown man Prince became.
Paris got a lovely description too. Katherine said her granddaughter loved the piano and could play by ear, without needing sheet music. “And she can pick out any song that she wants to, especially her daddy’s songs.”
It’s a sweet thing to think about. A 12-year-old at the keys, working out her father’s music note by note until it sounded right.
Now for the youngest, and the part that surprises people.
Blanket (who now goes by Bigi) was only 8. Today he’s the quiet one, the most private of Michael’s three children. So you might expect his grandmother to describe a shy, quiet little boy.
That’s not what she said.
“[Blanket], he loves to sing and he plays with his toys most of the time. He’s very young yet.”
And she wasn’t done. “And Blanket, he can carry a tune very well and he has rhythm. And he can dance.”
A singer. A dancer with rhythm. That was Grandma Katherine’s read on the boy fans now know for keeping to himself.
Bigi was born in 2002 and is 24 today. In 2019, at 17, he made his first public appearance in years, and it wasn’t on a stage. He showed up in a movie review video with his big brother Prince, talking about “Avengers: Endgame.”
To hear Bigi’s own voice for yourself, and to judge how much of that little boy Katherine described is still in there, this is the video to watch.
Prince and Bigi talk about “Avengers: Endgame”
These days Bigi is known for loving movies, not for singing.
Still, it’s hard not to wonder. Katherine heard something in that 8-year-old’s voice, and she said so out loud. He was “very young yet,” as she put it, and young kids have a way of keeping a few talents tucked away for later.
Maybe he still sings when nobody’s filming. Katherine, for one, was sure the voice was there.