Paula Abdul blames injury for keeping her away from musical arena

Paula Abdul blames injury for keeping her away from musical arena

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Paula Abdul, who has a new song with fellow "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, blames a plane mishap for keeping her out of the musical arena for more than a decade.

"I've been really really blessed and fortunate and it's really really poignant for me to come back now," Abdul, who is one of the pre-Super Bowl performers, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Abdul is featured on the first single off the new album from Jackson, due next month. The song is titled "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow."

But Abdul says an emergency plane landing that caused her injury in 1992 - she calls it a "plane crash" - was a key reason why she abandoned her multiplatinum singing career (she hasn't released a new album since 1995).

"I had four plates and fourteen cervical spinal surgeries," Abdul told The Associated Press while she picked up items Saturday at The Retreat at Super Bowl XLII, a celebrity gifting suite. "It all happened during the time that I disappeared and no one knew where I went. For five and a half years, I went through paralysis, the worst experience, and then I came back on 'American Idol,' that was my first time back out there."

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