Paris Hilton Knows What People Want

Aspiring Singer Draws On Her Club-Hopping For Inspiration

(CBS)  Paris Hilton says she knows what people want, and she's about to give it to them.

The hotel heiress and star of the reality show "The Simple Life" releases her debut album, "Paris," on Aug. 22. "It's a very fun album, it's very eclectic mix of music," Hilton tells CBS News correspondent Drew Levinson. "I know music very well, and what people like. I want to incorporate hip-hop, rock, pop and dance all into one album."

Will it be popular? "I think everyone will enjoy it," Hilton says.

Hilton rose to fame as a party girl and red-carpet regular while still in her teens, and later gained a broader audience with her reality show. The underground release of a sex tape of Hilton made by her boyfriend only added to her popularity.

None of those credentials say "serious musician" to most people. But Hilton is confident that she has the skills to become a successful recording artist.

"I've been playing the piano and violin since I was six years old, and singing," she says. "Plus I travel all over the world and I go to the best nightclubs and hear the best DJs in the world and know what's going on in the music scene."

Hilton hopes that the album will give listeners insight into another side of her personality.

"I think that people don't really know me," she says. "They see me on 'The Simple Life' or they read about me in gossip columns, and that's not the person that I know I am. I think with this album, people will see there is a lot more to me than they thought."

The album's first single, "Stars Are Blind" is a reggae-pop song that's already reached a respectable No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this summer.

"I thought it was very unexpected for me to be releasing a reggae (song), and I like doing the unexpected," says Hilton. "It kind of reminds me of a Gwen Stefani feel, and I really love her, too."

Hilton says that Madonna was her idol growing up. Now Hilton is filling that role for a new generation of little girls.

"I meet a lot of mothers and they come up to me and tell me how much their daughters look up to me," she says. "I'm their role model. I think that I work really hard and I think I prove that if you believe in yourself then all your dreams can come true."