T-Pain Reveals Why His Michael Jackson Collab Got Shelved

A leak ruined T-Pain’s opportunity to work with Michael Jackson. The singer/songwriter recalled how one person prevented the world from hearing him collaborate with Jackson in a clip from T-Pain’s Twitch streams.

“We were about to listen to a song that I wrote and produced that was meant for me, Usher and Michael Jackson,” he explained. “And then the person that was in charge of doing the references and the person that sang it got too excited and was like, ‘N####, I’m on a song with Michael Jackson and Usher and T-Pain.’ And then he released it. And then Michael Jackson was like, ‘Nah, never mind. I don’t wanna do it anymore.’”

The leaked version surfaced online more than 15 years ago. Jackson was missing from the track, which featured a portion with no vocals where the King of Pop’s contributions were meant to be.

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T-Pain didn’t get to make a song with Jackson, but he received a ringing endorsement from another legend in the music industry. Earlier this month, Ozzy Osbourne praised T-Pain’s cover of Black Sabbath’s classic song “War Pigs.”

“This is the best cover of ‘War Pigs’ ever,” Osbourne wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Why didn’t you guys call me?”

T-Pain responded, “You’re always invited. Top of the list, every time!! Thank you so much. Means a lot coming from the greatness himself.”

The next day, T-Pain reflected on Osbourne’s approval. The hitmaking artist was honored Osbourne liked the cover version so much.

“First thing I said was ‘wow,’” T-Pain wrote. “This is an honor and the greatest form of validation. Thank you brother @OzzyOsbourne.”

T-Pain covered “War Pigs” and more on his latest project On Top of the Covers, which dropped in 2023. He released a live performance of the songs a week before Christmas.

Watch his set below.