13 February 2014
Newsdesk
Mariah Carey claims “the real Mariah” was missing on American Idol.
The 43-year-old pop star sat on the TV talent show’s judging panel alongside Nicki Minaj, Randy Jackson and Keith Urban last year.
And she deeply regrets her American Idol season 12 experience.
"[The] real Mariah was so not there,” she declared during a radio interview on Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show.
"I should've been a mentor on the show and that's it. I should've been the Jimmy Iovine."
Jimmy is the founder of Interscope Records and Mariah has been a fan of his for many years.
He recently served as a mentor on American Idol and despite her love for him, Mariah confesses his critiques were brutal at times.
"There needed to be that person that was brutally honest, but the brutality didn't have to be so visceral," Mariah explained.
"We didn't need to be brutal to people just to make ourselves feel bigger."
Mariah engaged in very public feuds with co-judge Nicki during their stint on the programme.
And Mariah wasn’t pleased with the media furore surrounding their conflicts.
"I felt that going in the direction of making it a reality show was not something I signed up for," she said.
"We love everybody ... but we wish you would've tried it on a different season."
Mariah previously said in an interview with Hot 97 radio station’s Angie Martinez that being a judge on American Idol was like “going to work every day in hell with Satan”, referring to her relationship with Nicki.
