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Mariah Carey almost got Prince to guest on the Glitter soundtrack.
Ahead of her Merry Christmas One and All! tour, the Songbird Supreme stopped by the Jennifer Hudson Show this week where she discussed having an unfinished collaboration with the Purple One. As her 2001 semi-autobiographical musical film was set in the 1980s, Carey visited Prince at Paisley Park for permission to sample Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl," which he wrote and produced.
“He didn’t think that was a great idea because he really didn’t like people sampling other people’s songs," Carey recalled.
Carey then offered a melody to Prince in an unwritten song, which intrigued the "Purple Rain" musician. "We kind of like worked on it…I was so nervous because it was Prince in the studio,” she continued. “We didn’t finish the song and I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
The unfinished song was one of the many curses that plagued the Glitter rollout, when it was released on September 11, 2001. The film was a critical and box office bomb, grossing $4 million against a $22 million production budget, with Carey's acting also ridiculed. Nearly 20 years later, a #JusticeforGlitter campaign was held on social media, and Carey would perform a medley of songs from the soundtrack during her 2019 Caution Tour.
Four years before Glitter came to theaters, Carey collaborated with Dru Hill for a cover of Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" on her sixth studio album Butterfly, which the 7-time Grammy-winner wasn't sold on.
“He did not like [covers], nor did he believe in the concept,” Carey confessed to Variety last September. “I only found this out years later, around the time I was doing Glitter, when he told me so. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God.’”
But the musician later praised Carey for another Butterfly classic. “Then Prince told me how much he loved my song ‘Honey,’ and I was dying,” she recalled. “For him to have even known that song was major to me.”
