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Thursday March 6, 2008

Chart topping singer Janet Jackson loves music so much she never wants to retire.

The sexy star, who has been in showbiz since she was a child, revealed she can never see herself sitting around doing nothing all days because she enjoys making records so much.

Janet said: “I’m not ready to retire. I enjoy what I do, and I don’t think it is time for me to kick back on an island and do nothing all day.

“I don’t want to do that just yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to do that. I just love music, just love working with the kids.

“I’m not bored with it. I’m not tired of it. That’s what keeps me going. When I hear certain music – whether it’s Brazilian music, whether its jazz, whether it’s something more hip-hop – it really moves me.

“And it inspires me to create.”

The singer made her comments during an interview with US magazine Ebony in between dance rehearsals.

The 41-year-old says in the April issue: “We [the dancers and I] have a lot of fun.

“They come in and do their job; they are the dancers, I am the star. They keep that separation…

“Of course you can get on each other’s nerves one moment and the next moment you are kissing and hugging.

“You are only human and because you’re family you move on.”

Jackson, who is on the front cover of the magazine speaks about her career, love life and getting older. She says: “I’m always trying to keep up with the kids [her dancers].

“Talent and stamina are important for dancers. I was never that kind of kid, really hyper. I was always a laid-back kid. I love the energy of the dancers.”

There’s something else that prevents Janet from giving up on her professional life – her famous last name.

Growing up she felt that she even had to compete with her own family, including older brother Michael. She says: “My family has always been very competitive.

“It’s always been a good competition, and I think that’s healthy. Being brothers and sisters, it’s just always been that in the family.

“And my parents are very competitive, that’s where it stems from. My father would say: ‘You’re a Jackson. You are supposed to be the best. You don’t get sick’. That’s my father. He’s very competitive.”

Something else – or rather someone else – is also batting in her corner, making it unlikely that Miss Jackson will retire any time soon. That’s her boyfriend producer Jermaine Dupri who is 35. The two have been together since Jackson’s secret marriage to Rene Elizondo ended in 2001.

Dupri says: “Janet is truly the definition of perfection. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard.

“She pushes me every day. It’s crazy. I see why she’s the best at what she does.

“I’ve got the baddest [sic] lady in the game wearing my chain. I never thought I’d meet someone so special.”

The feeling is mutual. Jackson says she loves Dupri’s “intelligence, how smart he is, how talented he is, his heart.”

She adds: “And not necessarily in that order.

“Obviously we have a lot in common. But these are the things that really make me smile.

“And when he really, really smiles his true smile, I just love it. It’s beautiful. He’s just a beautiful person.”

Claims that she left her long professional relationship with Virgin Records – whom she signed with in 1991 – because of Dupri, she says, are wide off the mark. Jackson is now at Island Def Jam, where her boyfriend is president of urban music.

But Jackson gently slaps down those claims saying: “I was with Virgin for so long, and they were really family.

“In the end it was not the same feeling or energy or ideas, and it was just not the place for me.”

Jackson insists she also didn’t get the “support of the entire company – support from both sides – urban and pop.”

While she intends to make an impact on the music charts, Janet is also keen to appear in more movies. Last October she co-starred in the film Why Did I Get Married? She says she is eager to get into other roles.

“I would like to do something action-packed, something that’s dramatic, some sci-fi stuff,” she says.

Jackson would also like to do a musical. She says: “It would be a challenge to try to pull people away from me and see me as a the character in song and dance.

“That intrigues me.”

Other creative people also fascinate Jackson. She says: “I love Al Pacino, and I sit back and watch him in certain scenes, or other actors in certain scenes and this electrifying energy goes through me and I know I can do that.

“Or I see a visual, and that’s when I start calling [singer Johnny] Gil.”