Kids with a famous parent tend to hear the same question over and over. Are you going to do what your mom or dad does?
Paris Jackson had a bigger version of that question than almost anyone. She’s Michael Jackson’s only daughter, born April 3, 1998, and her dad was the King of Pop. Whatever she chose to do with her life, people were going to compare it to him.
In 2017, Paris sat down with Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone for a cover story. She talked about being born with a platform. And she wondered whether she should use it.
That’s a fair thing to wonder when your father is Michael Jackson. Maybe she’d sing, or maybe she’d stay as far from a stage as she could get.
Then she remembered what her dad used to tell her.
It’s worth knowing a little about how Michael raised his kids, because it explains a lot about the man behind the answer. His kids were home-schooled. Their lessons happened at home, so Dad was never far away.
Paris told Rolling Stone that sometimes “your dad, who you love more than anything, will occasionally come in, in the middle of class.”
You can guess how that went over with a room full of kids.
So here’s what Michael said whenever the talk turned to her future. It started with a line about himself, and it’s not a line you’d expect from the biggest star in the world.
“If you wanna be bigger than me, you can,” he used to tell her.
Think about that for a second. Most famous parents would be happy to see their child do well. Michael told his little girl she was free to pass him.
And he didn’t stop there. The rest of his answer was even sweeter: “If you don’t want to be at all, you can. But I just want you to be happy.”
That’s the whole speech. He opened the door for her, told her she could walk through it or not, and made clear the only thing he really cared about was how she felt.
The home-school story shows the same dad from another angle. When Michael walked into the middle of a lesson, the kids knew exactly what it meant. Paris remembered their reaction like this: “Cool, no more class for the day. We’re gonna go hang out with Dad.”
He was the parent who ended the school day early. Every kid wants one of those.
Paris did end up choosing the stage. She grew up to sing and act, and she has toured with her own music. Here she is on late-night TV, singing her own song live, and it’s the best way to hear the voice her dad told her she could take as far as she wanted.
Paris Jackson singing live on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Whether she ever gets “bigger” than her father isn’t really the point, and Michael would be the first to say so. He’d already told her what counted.
She took his advice in her own way. She found something she loves and kept doing it.