Paris Jackson has no interest in becoming the princess of pop. Though the only daughter of the late music icon Michael Jackson plays in a band with off-and-on boyfriend Michael Snoddy, she doesn’t intend to make a career out of music.
“I write music for myself,” the CR Fashion Book Issue 10 cover girl explains in the magazine. “I use it as a way to get stuff out. It’s not something I see myself following careerwise. There are so many amazing artists in my family. If I were to do it as a career, it would change how I feel about music, and I don’t want that to happen.”
The 18-year-old, who was interviewed by Empire creator Lee Daniels, says she’s focused on modeling and acting and prefers to pen songs as a hobby.
“I never plan it,” she says of her songwriting. “Sometimes I’m in the car and I think of some lyrics and write it down, and then maybe put a melody to it later.”
Describing her band’s sound as “kind of like folk, like the Lumineers mixed with Johnny Cash,” Jackson says her lyrics are intense: “Most of my songs are just a bunch of metaphors. ‘Your ice cold words like bony fingers around my neck like a skeleton.’”
While she’s not driven to mimic her dad’s commercial success — the pop icon nabbed 13 No. 1 singles, 18 Grammy Awards and 19 American Music Awards before he passed away in 2009 — he does serve as her constant motivation.
“I would say 99 percent of my inspiration comes from him, because he has always been my world,” she tells the issue. “He is my roots.”