(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Sun 23 November 2025 22:30, UK
Since he rarely ever talks about anything other than movies, hearing Tom Cruise being so insistent that the smartest thing you can do with your money is buy tickets to see a musician on tour can only mean that he’s a huge fan of the performer in question.
Even before his infamous couch-jumping shenanigans and decrial of psychiatry in the mid-2000s saw him close up shop even more than usual and refuse to entertain any questions about his personal life, nobody has ever really known what kind of tunes the A-lister listens to behind closed doors, whether he’s doing a Risky Business-esque slide in his underpants or not.
If it’s based on the people he’s professionally endorsed and recruited to record songs for his movies, then it’s an odd mix. Lady Gaga’s Top Gun: Maverick track ‘Hold My Hand’ joined Mission: Impossible attaches Metallica, Limp Bizkit, and Kanye West in laying down a song for a film that Cruise acted in, produced, and built from the ground up, making for a motley crew if ever there was one.
He belted out a few numbers when showcasing his questionable pipes in the flop jukebox musical Rock of Ages, and Tropic Thunder‘s Les Grossman boogied down to Ludacris’ ‘Get Back’ during the end credits, but unlike his endless obsession with cinema, which he’ll talk about until the cows come home, it’s rare to see the tiny daredevil celebrate his favourite singers.
Of course, rules are made to have exceptions, and for Cruise, it’s Janet Jackson, randomly. When speaking to Entertainment Tonight while promoting Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, the three-time Academy Award nominee revealed that he’d used one of his rare days off to go and catch her live show during the Together Again tour.
“That was my night off, that was my last break,” he said. “I just want to tell you, go see Janet.” He wasn’t interested in getting the celebrity treatment, either, with Hollywood’s most famous Scientologist adding that he prefers being in the thick of the action, at least when Jackson is on stage: “I’m right in there, yeah, come on! It’s Janet, she’s a legend.”
Clearly, this wasn’t his first rodeo, since Jackson posted an image of the two together on social media, where she referred to him as ‘T’. People who have three-letter forenames generally don’t have nicknames, but even though she couldn’t be bothered with the ‘o’ or the ‘m’, he didn’t mind the abbreviation.
“She can call me whatever she wants; she’s Janet Jackson,” he gushed, outing himself as a total fanboy. “She’s a goddess. She’s amazing. I love her. I love her music. She’s also just an extraordinary person.” It’s hard to think of a time when Cruise has described anyone, let alone a musician, in such glowing terms, which no doubt emboldened Glen Powell to try an impress his mentor even more.
Jackson’s Together Again tour spanned almost 100 dates across ten countries, selling over a million tickets, which means a lot of people saw her live. However, if you didn’t, you should know that Tom Cruise is very disappointed in you.
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