"Late Late Show" host James Corden on Tuesday eulogized his British compatriot, George Michael, who passed away unexpectedly on Christmas day at age 53.
"I feel like I've loved George Michael [for] as long as I've . . . loved music, in a way," Corden began. "I can remember so many specific times in my life where I might have felt on my own. And George's music would feel like — it would feel like you would listen to a song and he would reach his hand out and tell you that you weren't on your own, and that these feelings were not particular to you."
Corden said Michael's death hit him "a bit harder" because the two did a sketch together for Comic Relief in 2011. The sketch — in which the men sang together in a car — ultimately laid the foundation for Corden's hugely popular "Late Late Show" bit, "Carpool Karaoke."
"And when we started the show here, we were trying to get people to do 'Carpool Karaoke.' And not many artists wanted to do it," he recalled. "And we would send them this clip of me and George. And we sent it to Mariah Carey and she was the first person to say yes, and her words were, 'If it's good enough for George, then it's good enough for me. I'll do it.'"
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