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Janet Jackson previews her Essence Fest performance and more
http://www.nola.com/essencefest/index.ssf/2010/06/janet_jackson_interview.html
Janet Jackson’s public and private lives have been inextricably intertwined for her entire existence. Along the way, she managed to step out of the massive shadow cast by her older brothers and build a remarkable career of her own.
Janet Jackson headlines the opening night of the 2010 Essence Music Festival in the Superdome on Friday, July 2.
Her most recent CD of new material, 2008’s “Discipline,” was a commercial disappointment; she is currently without a record deal. Yet her iconic status is undiminished, her schedule as jam-packed as ever.
She made a surprise appearance on this year’s “American Idol” finale. She recorded a new single, “Nothing,” for New Orleans-born producer/director Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married Too?,” in which she co-stars.
She’s currently shooting “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” Perry’s screen adaptation of the 1975 play of the same name. And she has a self-help book, “True You,” coming out this fall.
A year and a week after her brother Michael’s death shocked the world, Jackson will stage her first full concert since 2008. On Friday, July 2 in the Superdome, she closes the opening night of the 2010 Essence Music Festival. Look for a high-energy, highly choreographed show, complete with special-effects illusions.
Jackson arrived in New Orleans on Tuesday; we spoke over the phone that evening. Between bites of melon (“can you hear me chewing?”), she was soft-spoken, pleasant and occasionally playful. A publicist monitored the call to insure no forbidden subject — her family in general and Michael in particular — was broached.
Any bad memories from her 2004 Super Bowl halftime show “wardrobe malfunction” with Justin Timberlake did not prevent her from watching the Saints beat the Colts this year. “You guys deserved it,” she said of the Saints’ victory. “Very well done.”
To prepare for tonight’s show, Jackson has trained throughout the “Colored Girls” shoot. “We’ve been really sweating,” she said, “for about five weeks.”
TP: So what is your regimen to get back in performing shape?
JJ: Running. Run, run, run. You run every day. Even on days when you’re dancing, you run. Unless your schedule just does not permit it and your workload is too heavy and you have stuff to do for the tour that needs to get done and takes priority.
Has running always been your preferred form of exercise?
My preferred form of exercise is no exercise. (laughs). You know what I love? I love sports. That’s my thing. I love to play games. So if it’s tag football or going to the batting cages or getting a game of softball going…that’s what I prefer. But you can’t always do that with your schedule, so you’ve got to go to the gym.
And I have such a wonderful trainer, Tony Martinez, that he makes it fun for everybody. All the dancers and myself get together and we’ll train while we’re in rehearsals. I’ll run before we start dancing, then we’ll lift while we’re dancing, and he gives them stuff to get their heart rate up.
You sound like you need a specific goal, like a show, to get serious about exercising again.
Not really. It’s really on me. Whether I really want to or not is where it begins and ends.
So why are you performing at Essence?
They’ve been asking me for a very long time. My schedule never permitted it. It actually didn’t permit it this time. But I wanted to do it and figured out a way to do it. And I thought it would be fun.
I’m shooting a film and on my days off from filming, I’m at rehearsals. It’s been 7 days a week for over a month for me. I haven’t had any days off since May. It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours, sometimes from 12 in the afternoon until 1 or 1:30 in the morning. We’re getting it done, though.
You auditioned dancers way back in April.
I had to, because once I started filming, I did not want to have to deal with anything relating to the show, only on my days off. (So) there were certain things I needed to get out of the way.
A scene from Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too?" features, from left, Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal and Jill Scott.
We auditioned dancers in New York, because we started filming for “Colored Girls” in New York. Then filming (moved to) Atlanta, so I had to take everybody, the band and all the dancers, and fly them to Atlanta, and we set up shop there for rehearsals.
Tyler Perry has attended Essence many times.
He says he’s going to be there front row center (for Jackson’s show). I said, “Tyler, front row center?” He said, “OK, four rows back, center.”
He accommodated your schedule so you could perform.
Which I’m very appreciative of. And what makes (Essence) special for me, too, is the fact that it’s in New Orleans, with all the devastation in recent years. With the oil spill and Katrina, it’s nice to try to bring some joy and a little bit of positive light and energy to the city.
You haven’t been here since the storm?
No I haven’t.
Will your Essence show be similar to what you did on your Rock Witchu tour in 2008?
It is going to be similar. The Rock Witchu (show) was two hours and 15 minutes. They wanted me to do 45 minutes or an hour (at Essence). I actually asked if I could do an hour and a half. And they said sure. I guess they thought maybe I wasn’t up to it, or didn’t want to. But we were happy to.
It’s pretty much the same set. I’m also doing the new single, “Nothing.”
Will you pull a guy from the audience at any point?
Are you kidding me? I’m gonna pull you! But I don’t know what you look like.
I’ll be right next to Tyler Perry.
(laughs) On his left or on his right? I definitely will pull someone from the audience. That’s my favorite part. It’s fun for me.
Will you do any sort of tribute to your brother Michael in the show?
I’m assuming you mean by doing a set of his songs or… No. It’s still hard for me.
So overall, the show will have a similar pacing and energy to the Rock Witchu tour?
Very up, up, up.
When you revisit your catalog, what material still feels as powerful now as when you recorded it?
All of it, actually. I’ve been very fortunate that people have told me that it’s timeless. It’s so many things. It’s all still very powerful for me.
I guess it’s different when you write it, when it’s something from you, from your heart, from your soul. So all of it, especially the stuff I wrote.
I didn’t write anything on the “Discipline” album, so that’s what I’m getting at. I’m not excluding that body of work at all, but just bringing more focus to the things I’ve (written). I’ve written them, so it’s closer to my heart.
Your musical arrangements don’t sound dated, even going back 20 years.
And it rings true when you see other artists sampling your music. There’s something to be said for that.
Have you started writing for your next project?
I’m not recording an album. All the majors (record labels) have called and they want to talk. I haven’t decided if I want to take that route and be with a label, or if I want to do something independent.
For that reason, I want to take some time and really think about it. That’s why I’m not making an album at the moment. If it’s a single here or a single there, like I did for “Why Did I Get Married Too?” with “Nothing”… I’m enjoying that, and being able to have my acting career, for right now.
What is the message of your forthcoming book, “True You”?
It’s about self-esteem. It’s about weight loss, weight gain. It’s about nutrition. It won’t just appeal to adults, but also kids as well as teens.
I start it in my childhood. It’s not an autobiography but there are anecdotes from throughout my entire life, from when I was a kid until now, to help people understand why things happened the way they did for me with my weight loss, my weight gain, what brought about certain self-esteem issues I had.
I wanted there to be something for kids to read and understand. If they had similar experiences, something they could relate to.
It’s not an autobiography, but will still be deeply personal.
It is. It definitely is.
http://www.nola.com/essencefest/index.ssf/2010/06/janet_jackson_interview.html
Janet Jackson’s public and private lives have been inextricably intertwined for her entire existence. Along the way, she managed to step out of the massive shadow cast by her older brothers and build a remarkable career of her own.
Janet Jackson headlines the opening night of the 2010 Essence Music Festival in the Superdome on Friday, July 2.
Her most recent CD of new material, 2008’s “Discipline,” was a commercial disappointment; she is currently without a record deal. Yet her iconic status is undiminished, her schedule as jam-packed as ever.
She made a surprise appearance on this year’s “American Idol” finale. She recorded a new single, “Nothing,” for New Orleans-born producer/director Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married Too?,” in which she co-stars.
She’s currently shooting “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” Perry’s screen adaptation of the 1975 play of the same name. And she has a self-help book, “True You,” coming out this fall.
A year and a week after her brother Michael’s death shocked the world, Jackson will stage her first full concert since 2008. On Friday, July 2 in the Superdome, she closes the opening night of the 2010 Essence Music Festival. Look for a high-energy, highly choreographed show, complete with special-effects illusions.
Jackson arrived in New Orleans on Tuesday; we spoke over the phone that evening. Between bites of melon (“can you hear me chewing?”), she was soft-spoken, pleasant and occasionally playful. A publicist monitored the call to insure no forbidden subject — her family in general and Michael in particular — was broached.
Any bad memories from her 2004 Super Bowl halftime show “wardrobe malfunction” with Justin Timberlake did not prevent her from watching the Saints beat the Colts this year. “You guys deserved it,” she said of the Saints’ victory. “Very well done.”
To prepare for tonight’s show, Jackson has trained throughout the “Colored Girls” shoot. “We’ve been really sweating,” she said, “for about five weeks.”
TP: So what is your regimen to get back in performing shape?
JJ: Running. Run, run, run. You run every day. Even on days when you’re dancing, you run. Unless your schedule just does not permit it and your workload is too heavy and you have stuff to do for the tour that needs to get done and takes priority.
Has running always been your preferred form of exercise?
My preferred form of exercise is no exercise. (laughs). You know what I love? I love sports. That’s my thing. I love to play games. So if it’s tag football or going to the batting cages or getting a game of softball going…that’s what I prefer. But you can’t always do that with your schedule, so you’ve got to go to the gym.
And I have such a wonderful trainer, Tony Martinez, that he makes it fun for everybody. All the dancers and myself get together and we’ll train while we’re in rehearsals. I’ll run before we start dancing, then we’ll lift while we’re dancing, and he gives them stuff to get their heart rate up.
You sound like you need a specific goal, like a show, to get serious about exercising again.
Not really. It’s really on me. Whether I really want to or not is where it begins and ends.
So why are you performing at Essence?
They’ve been asking me for a very long time. My schedule never permitted it. It actually didn’t permit it this time. But I wanted to do it and figured out a way to do it. And I thought it would be fun.
I’m shooting a film and on my days off from filming, I’m at rehearsals. It’s been 7 days a week for over a month for me. I haven’t had any days off since May. It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours, sometimes from 12 in the afternoon until 1 or 1:30 in the morning. We’re getting it done, though.
You auditioned dancers way back in April.
I had to, because once I started filming, I did not want to have to deal with anything relating to the show, only on my days off. (So) there were certain things I needed to get out of the way.
A scene from Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too?" features, from left, Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal and Jill Scott.
We auditioned dancers in New York, because we started filming for “Colored Girls” in New York. Then filming (moved to) Atlanta, so I had to take everybody, the band and all the dancers, and fly them to Atlanta, and we set up shop there for rehearsals.
Tyler Perry has attended Essence many times.
He says he’s going to be there front row center (for Jackson’s show). I said, “Tyler, front row center?” He said, “OK, four rows back, center.”
He accommodated your schedule so you could perform.
Which I’m very appreciative of. And what makes (Essence) special for me, too, is the fact that it’s in New Orleans, with all the devastation in recent years. With the oil spill and Katrina, it’s nice to try to bring some joy and a little bit of positive light and energy to the city.
You haven’t been here since the storm?
No I haven’t.
Will your Essence show be similar to what you did on your Rock Witchu tour in 2008?
It is going to be similar. The Rock Witchu (show) was two hours and 15 minutes. They wanted me to do 45 minutes or an hour (at Essence). I actually asked if I could do an hour and a half. And they said sure. I guess they thought maybe I wasn’t up to it, or didn’t want to. But we were happy to.
It’s pretty much the same set. I’m also doing the new single, “Nothing.”
Will you pull a guy from the audience at any point?
Are you kidding me? I’m gonna pull you! But I don’t know what you look like.
I’ll be right next to Tyler Perry.
(laughs) On his left or on his right? I definitely will pull someone from the audience. That’s my favorite part. It’s fun for me.
Will you do any sort of tribute to your brother Michael in the show?
I’m assuming you mean by doing a set of his songs or… No. It’s still hard for me.
So overall, the show will have a similar pacing and energy to the Rock Witchu tour?
Very up, up, up.
When you revisit your catalog, what material still feels as powerful now as when you recorded it?
All of it, actually. I’ve been very fortunate that people have told me that it’s timeless. It’s so many things. It’s all still very powerful for me.
I guess it’s different when you write it, when it’s something from you, from your heart, from your soul. So all of it, especially the stuff I wrote.
I didn’t write anything on the “Discipline” album, so that’s what I’m getting at. I’m not excluding that body of work at all, but just bringing more focus to the things I’ve (written). I’ve written them, so it’s closer to my heart.
Your musical arrangements don’t sound dated, even going back 20 years.
And it rings true when you see other artists sampling your music. There’s something to be said for that.
Have you started writing for your next project?
I’m not recording an album. All the majors (record labels) have called and they want to talk. I haven’t decided if I want to take that route and be with a label, or if I want to do something independent.
For that reason, I want to take some time and really think about it. That’s why I’m not making an album at the moment. If it’s a single here or a single there, like I did for “Why Did I Get Married Too?” with “Nothing”… I’m enjoying that, and being able to have my acting career, for right now.
What is the message of your forthcoming book, “True You”?
It’s about self-esteem. It’s about weight loss, weight gain. It’s about nutrition. It won’t just appeal to adults, but also kids as well as teens.
I start it in my childhood. It’s not an autobiography but there are anecdotes from throughout my entire life, from when I was a kid until now, to help people understand why things happened the way they did for me with my weight loss, my weight gain, what brought about certain self-esteem issues I had.
I wanted there to be something for kids to read and understand. If they had similar experiences, something they could relate to.
It’s not an autobiography, but will still be deeply personal.
It is. It definitely is.
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