Mariah Carey was "almost killed" by the stress of the song sampling drama which forced her to completely rework her hit song Loverboy almost 20 years ago.
The superstar originally used parts of the 1978 Yellow Magic Orchestra song Firecracker in the 2001 single. However, she ended up having to scrap that version after discovering Jennifer Lopez had sampled the same tune in her release I'm Real.
Mariah ended up going back to the drawing board to overhaul the lead single from her Glitter album, after becoming convinced it was all part of her ex-husband and Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola's bid to derail her career. Although she is now much happier with the final product, which incorporates the classic Cameo tune Candy, the controversy took its toll on the legendary singer.
"I had to change the entire song, and re-sing and re-produce it," Mariah recalled on U.S. talk show Watch What Happens Live.
"I'm actually glad it happened because I like the version with Cameo better," she went on: "It almost ruined my life, it almost killed me that it happened, because then I had to work doubly hard... and it really, really, really was a horrible thing to have happen, but here we are!"
Considering the drama, Mariah said: "In retrospect, I don't even like that (Firecracker) version anymore. It's cool but... I love the Cameo loop so much that I'm happy that I did (it), but back then, as I say, it literally almost destroyed me that that happened because of the chain of events that happened afterward."
The "chain of events" which followed included a bizarre stunt on MTV's Total Request Live show, in which Mariah pretended to crash the set with an ice cream cart and then rip off her oversized T-shirt to show off a pair of gold hot pants and a tank top. Shortly after she suffered what was widely believed to be a nervous breakdown, ending with a stint in rehab.
Mulling over the incidents, Mariah mused that life in the spotlight has changed.
"People are (now) staging their own stunts, their own meltdowns and all that stuff just for the attention. Back then, if you did that, it lived on forever... We're lucky if they stay on one subject for 24 hours in today's world, so it's a different time," she reflected.
