He was in Wham! when I was in school, and I used to love “Careless Whisper.” My friend Rene and I would sing it in gym class. We used to sing that song all the time. That was before I really knew about George, about Wham! It was Faith that became my favourite of his albums. It was a masterpiece, and it inspired and influenced me. I loved it so much.
I was a new artist on Sony when all the drama around Listen Without Prejudice happened, when there was the issue of him not wanting to appear in any of the music videos. I was behind the scenes [Carey's then-husband, Tommy Mottola, was head of Sony in the 1990s, when Michael sued the label]. I would hear the executives behind closed doors, and I didn't like what I heard them saying because I was a huge fan of George.
We first met in England, somewhere in London. We went for a three-hour dinner, and we had a lot in common: we both had these big issues with Sony. I love Sony now, it's a totally different place, but at the time we'd both gone through our own situations with the label, and we had quite the conversation about it. It was a little traumatic.
He was very kind. We both loved music. We both loved writing and making music. And I loved him. We had a long talk about a lot of things that I'm sure many people would be interested in knowing. It was a really nice experience for me. When you've grown up listening to somebody, and really admiring them and their artistry, it's nice to be able to sit down and have a proper conversation with them. Some of his songs are my favourite songs ever. I was so happy we were given the opportunity to get to know each other.
When he passed away I was devastated. I was in Aspen for Christmas, and I didn't really believe it at first. People make up so many rumours. It seemed surreal. I put on Faith again and just sat and listened to it, and thought again about what a masterpiece it is.
Way before he passed away, I decided to remake “One More Try,” one of my favourite of his songs. I had wanted to do a duet with him, and I was told that he would have loved to, but it was difficult at the time because he wasn't doing too well. I wanted to do a live version, like when he and Elton did the duet [of “Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me”].
A lot of people loved his music. He was one of the top artists we had. I wasn't surprised by the reaction to his death — I was going through it, too. It was tough, and it's so sad that we're not going to get any new music from him now. He made a great contribution to the world.