Akon: Working with Michael Jackson Was Surrreal

NEW YORK (CBS) Akon has fond memories of working with the late Michael Jackson.

The singer recalled collaborating with the King of Pop on the 2008 25th anniversary re-release of Jackson's hit album "Thriller" and the song "Hold My Hand," which is now featured on Jackson's posthumously-released final album, "Michael."

SPECIAL SECTION: Michael Jackson

[Watch the interview below.]

"He was a perfectionist," Akon recalled to CBS News in London. "He would never settle with one take, or with one ad-lib or with one idea. He would do thousands of those ideas and then we had to shuffle through them and find the best one. And if we didn't find it, he would go and do another thousand."

Akon described working with the King of Pop as being surreal.

"I never thought that I would be in the producer's seat, behind a mixing board telling Mike to sing the note like this," he laughed. "You know what I'm saying, it was crazy."

The singer said that he thought "Michael," which was released in December, is an indication to the direction Jackson was headed to before his death. 

"The way I look at this album is, this album is more something to commemorate him for his legacy - the little that he did leave behind for us before he could actually fully complete the project," he said. "So I wouldn't take this album and put it under pressure to even remotely try to compare it to a 'Thriller,' or an 'Off the Wall' or a 'Blood on the Dancefloor,' or whatever kind of album of Mike's before."

"We at least get a chance to understand where he is going. It's no different from 'This Is It' the movie - the tour wasn't done, they were still in rehearsal, but we just appreciated the fact that we got to watch what he was about to bring to us in progress. And that's all this is: its an album in progress," he continued. "We got to actually visit, hear and to understand where he was headed, but we will never know where the album eventually going because it wasn't done."

He also revealed the influence Jackson's music had on his own career.

"They're the reason why Im here," he said of Jackson's albums. "I was motivated by those records. The biggest artists alive today were all motivated by MJ and his records.... You're going to look back to the videos and be motivated. He has done everything that an artist can actually do to motivate music."