Janet Jackson misses her big brother.
The 58-year-old performer told the BBC in an interview published Wednesday that she’s still grieving the death of her brother Michael Jackson. The late superstar died at 50 in 2009.
Janet said she thinks about her brother when she performs their duet “Scream” on her “Together Again” tour. She sings the song live with video footage of Michael.
She said it’s still emotional “listening to him every night, seeing him, remembering us.”
The Grammy winner recalled that she wrote “Scream” with her late brother in his New York apartment.
“So [I relive] that whole journey, listening to him sing it [and remembering] what he was going through at that time,” she said.
“And just me being his little sister, always by his side, and being that support system,” Janet added. “That’s always been my role.”
“Scream” came out in 1995 as the lead single off Michael’s ninth album, “HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.”
The song was about Michael’s public trials. In 1993, he was accused of sexually abusing 13-year-old Jordan Chandler at his Neverland Ranch. They settled out of court in January 1994 for a reported $25 million, according to Vanity Fair.
A decade later, the “Black or White” singer went to trial on child molestation charges. He was acquitted on four counts of molesting a minor in 2005, four years before his death. Janet publicly stood by her brother during the trial.
Michael faced further allegations of sexually abusing young boys in the 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland.”
Janet spoke out in defense of Michael at the time, saying she believes his legacy “will continue.”
“I love it when I see kids emulating him, when adults still listen to his music,” she told the Sunday Times in June 2019.
“It just lets you know the impact that my family has had on the world,” she added. “I hope I’m not sounding arrogant in any way — I’m just stating what is. It’s really all God’s doing, and I’m just thankful for that.”
In her 2022 documentary, “Janet,” the “Nasty” singer admitted that the allegations against her brother affected her career.
“Guilty by association,” she said.
In the doc, Janet also revealed that there was a divided production when the siblings made “Scream.”
“Michael shot nights, I shot days,” she recalled. “His record company would block off his set so I couldn’t see what was going on. They didn’t want me on set. I felt like they were trying to make it very competitive between the two of us.”
She added: “That really hurt me because I felt I was there fighting the fight with him, not to battle him. I wanted it to feel like old times between he and I, and it didn’t. Old times had long passed.”
Michael died by acute propofol intoxication in 2009. The King of Pop’s physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 for recklessly doping him with dangerous levels of the anesthetic propofol and other sedatives.
