Janet Jackson comes from one of the most famous families in pop music. But in an interview with BBC Radio 2’s Scott Mills on the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, the singer revealed that in addition to being the little sister of late pop superstar Michael Jackson and musical siblings Marlon, LaToya, Randy, Jermaine, Rebbie, Jackie, Tito and Brandon, she also has some seriously A-list cousins on her family tree.
“Are you related to Stevie?” Mills asked Jackson of the fellow Motown legend Stevie Wonder before cueing up Wonder’s “Do I Do” as a teaser. “He’s our cousin,” Jackson said. “Not a lot of people know that. He’s our cousin on our mother’s side.” Having properly blown Mills’ mind, Jackson then casually noted that four-time Grammy winner Tracy Chapman is also a cousin and “so is Samuel L. Jackson,” though she stressed that despite their shared last name “he’s not my brother.”
While it is not clear what the exact family relations are — and Jackson did not elaborate — there are some family ties we know of. Wonder wrote songs for Jermaine (“Let’s Get Serious”) and recorded two duets with Michael (“Just Good Friends” and “Get It”) and he performed at Michael’s 2009 memorial service. The Jackson 5 and Wonder were both signed to Motown Records in the 1960s and 1970s and in 2008 Janet was one of the presenters at Wonder’s NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame ceremony.
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Jackson just finished the North American run of her Together Again Tour and gearing up for her fall European swing, which will kick off in Paris at Accor Arena on Sept. 25 and keep her one the road through an Oct. 13 gig at OVO Hydro in Glasgow.
Watch Jackson’s family tree revelation below.