Nicki Minaj wasn't Mariah Carey's 'Idol' Satan, Nick Cannon says

Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Nick Cannon said his wife, Mariah Carey, wasn't specifically referring to Nicki Minaj when she said her time as a judge on "American Idol" was like "going to work every day in hell with Satan."

Carey sparked rumors she was calling Minaj Satan during a radio interview Tuesday on Hot 97.

"Honestly, I hated it," she said. "Honestly, I thought it was going to be a three-person panel. They gave me a nice dangling monetary moment and I was like, 'OK ... Randy Jackson will be there' -- you know he used to play bass for me -- 'This isn't a big deal, this will be nothing.'"

"But it wasn't that," Carey continued. "It was like hell going to work every day in hell with Satan," Carey joked. "I'm just playing; it didn't affect me that much. I was disappointed."

But Cannon told Access Hollywood Live Friday that Carey wasn't specifically calling Minaj Satan.

"I don't think [her 'Satan' comment] was about the people on the panel. It's about when someone tells you something and paints a picture one way, and then that's not the case," Cannon said Friday. "If she's used to being treated a certain way and then you have a network that says, 'No, we're gonna do this,' then..."

Carey and Minaj have both left the show, replaced by Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban.

[OMG! Yahoo!]