American Idol panel
Mariah Carey (second left) served as a judge on American Idol in 2012.

Mariah Carey has revealed that her time on the American Idol judging panel was "like working with the Satan".

During a no-holds barred interview with Hot 97 Radio station, the Hero hitmaker recalled her time on the US talent show with little fondness and said that working with Minaj was like going to hell every day.

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

"But it wasn't that. It was like going to work every day in hell with Satan."

She quickly added: "I'm just playing. It didn't affect me that much but I was disappointed."

Carey's time on the show quickly descended into disaster when she fell out with the Starships hitmaker during auditions.

Their infamous explosive bust-up was captured by TMZ.

Minaj can be heard saying: "If you say one more disrespectful thing to me, off with your head!. I'm not f**king putting up with your f**king highness over there."

Carey responded: "Why do I have a three-year-old sitting around me?"

She said, however, that it was not a complete waste of time.

"You know what I loved? I loved the contestants," she said. "And some of them that were so good - and also really good people, you could tell - it was disappointing when the judges would, for political reasons, not put people through."

Carey is currently promoting her new single, The Art Of Letting Go.