'They're going to find out I'm a fraud': Paula Abdul recalls getting discovered by the Jacksons
In a Q interview, the ‘80s pop star and original American Idol judge looks back on her career
When the chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Lakers asked to see Paula Abdul, she thought she was in trouble. It was 1984 and Abdul was the head choreographer of the NBA team's cheerleading squad the Laker Girls.
But rather than being scolded, the COO told Abdul that the Jackson family, who had courtside seats for the Lakers, had asked about her. They were planning a reunion tour with their superstar brother, Michael Jackson, and were looking to get some help with their dance moves.
Abdul agreed to meet with the Jacksons, but afterward, she wasn't sure she made the right move. In an interview with Q guest host Talia Schlanger, she recalls how she retreated to her white Jeep Cherokee in the Lakers parking lot to think about it.
"I was sobbing, crying, going, 'What am I going to do? They're going to find out I'm a fraud — I don't know what I'm doing!'" she says. "'How am I going to teach a family that are geniuses with movement and music?'"
But Abdul pulled herself together and worked with the Jacksons. She choreographed many of Janet Jackson's music videos, including her 1986 hit, What Have You Done for Me Lately.
"She became like my little fairy godsister. We became really close, like sisters," Abdul says. "I'm always humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude because I feel that it was the work I did with Janet that really opened up the doors for me to work with iconic legends."
Abdul went on to choreograph for Prince, ZZ Top, Duran Duran and more. During that time, she was also creating her own music and still working as the head choreographer of the Laker Girls.
"I was afraid of losing my day job," she explains. "I didn't tell anyone I was being signed to a record deal, in case it [didn't] work out. So I kept it quiet until I couldn't keep it quiet anymore. And then I had to leave, I had to quit."
When Abdul sold out three nights at the Forum — the home of the Lakers at the time — her old co-workers literally rolled out the purple-and-yellow carpet for her.
Lakers star Magic Johnson and talk show host Arsenio Hall retired her Laker girls cheerleader uniform, putting it behind a plexiglass case where it sat next to the jersey of the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
"Every usher, peanut vendor, janitor, executive — everyone was cheering me on," Abdul says. "It was like the homecoming."
Abdul, 62, was planning a 21-date Canadian tour called the Straight Up! to Canada Tour this fall, but recently cancelled it due to an injury that resulted in a minor procedure.
"I've endured lots of — as a dancer — injuries," Abdul says on Q, before she cancelled her Canadian tour. "As you get older, it affects your body and you have to constantly reinvent and have a different version of yourself."
The full interview with Paula Abdul is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Paula Abdul produced by Kaitlyn Swan.
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