Nile Rodgers reveals 'heart-breaking' George Michael collaboration

Chic star Rodgers had been at Michael's house just two days before the singer was found dead, and the two musicians had arranged to speak on the phone on Christmas Day due to their respective busy schedules.

He had remixed a song of Michael's and was keen for him to hear it before anybody else, and was trying to arrange a time for this to happen.

But instead of the planned message from Michael on December 25, Rodgers saw a news bulletin pop up on his device alerting him that Michael had been found dead at home at the age of 53.

When asked who he would like to collaborate with, Rodgers said: "That's a tricky question because I always go to the people that I almost work with and it didn't work out because they passed away and that emotion is so strong.

"I was just working with George Michael. I was here on December 23, and I had come over to remix one of his songs, and while I was here working on the remix I was also doing a Chic concert that night.

"But then George Michael was doing a film, because he was planning a big comeback.

"So they had me come over to his house to shoot the film, and I still hadn't played the demo yet because I thought it was so cool and fairly drastic, I wanted to just play it for him first."

Rodgers, who is starring in a new three-part documentary on BBC Four in April looking back at his successful decades-long musical career, said he did not want the record company to listen to his remix before Michael himself.

He said: "So I get a message from (Michael), a text - 'So Nile lets talk tomorrow'."

He explained how he told Michael he would be flying that day, and how he asked the former Wham! star to message him on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve.

Rodgers added: "(On) Christmas Day, instead of getting a text I get an alert : 'George Michael found dead.'

"It was heart-breaking and he never got a chance to hear what I did, so now I'm ambivalent about the work because I wanted him to hear it, not the record company necessarily.

"Not that I have anything against them, it's just he was such a genius and he created and produced his own work."

Rodgers, who in recent years has had a slew of popular hits with artists such as Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams, said that it "breaks his heart" that Michael died, particularly because he was the only person Michael wanted to work with.