American Idol creator Simon Fuller turned down the chance to manage Michael Jackson during his ill-fated comeback after advising the pop icon not to tour.

Fuller, who guided acts like the Spice Girls to fame, was offered the chance to take charge of the singer as he prepared to return to the stage with a residency at London's O2 Arena in 2009.

The King of Pop died just weeks before the tour was due to kick off.

Fuller admits he now regrets turning down the job, and reveals he actually advised Jackson not to commit to a gruelling tour.

Speaking during a BBC Radio 2 documentary, titled The Fuller Picture: The Simon Fuller Story, he says, "There was a minute there where I was going to become his manager. I had lots of ideas, and I think about it actually every now and again about what I was going to do with him and they were very different to anything he'd done previously and it wasn't about touring for sure...

"I actually advised him not to do touring because I felt that he'd already been seen touring and I felt there was more to offer in a different way.

"It was quite a complicated situation and complication isn't something I crave in life, but the people around him would have made it challenging. If it had been just down to me working with Michael, I think we'd have done something extraordinary, but I thought better to just let it go; it was a shame."