Published Thursday, 19 July 2012
The former Wham! star was keen to honour the Rehab hitmaker, who died from alcohol poisoning last July, at his fundraising concert in London in November, and he approached the soul star about the possibility of performing Winehouse's track Love Is A Losing Game.
Adele turned down the gig, and Michael reveals her grief was still too raw four months on from the tragedy.
Speaking on London's Heart 106.2 radio, he says: "We communicated by email... and initially what I wanted was for us to sing Love Is A Losing Game by Amy Winehouse at the Elizabeth Taylor tribute I did at Covent Garden.
"She was basically telling me she couldn't even... she tried to put one of (Winehouse's) songs in her own set and she couldn't even get through it. I think they knew each other from the Brits School (The BRIT School for Performing Arts).
"They're obviously musical goddesses but I think the tragedy would have been too much for her."
However, Michael - who donated the proceeds of his special November show to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Elizabeth Taylor Memorial Fund - is eager to team up with pregnant Adele when she makes her return to music after giving birth.
He adds: "I would love to do a track with her. I think she has no plans other than to have a baby right now and I think she wants to lay low for a while and gather herself and to then come back to us relatively soon with some more music and I'd love to be involved when that happens. She's lovely."