Has he ever disclosed that himself? It’s the first time I’ve ever heard about it. Even if it was one of Michael’s favorite songs at that time, it doesn’t mean it almost made it onto “Bad”.
The song selection was a group effort. Quincy had a say in it, Bruce most likely also had a say in it, and obviously Michael. But it wasn’t solely Michael’s decision.
Michael was very fond of Buffalo Bill in late- 1983 and ”knew” it would be a big hit. Yet we still haven’t heard it, til’ this day. He also preferred ‘Streetwalker’ over ‘Another Part of Me’, yet the latter made the album.
And again, ‘Cheater’ was written very late during the ‘Bad’ sessions and it couldn’t have been considered for the album. They would have had another 4 months to record and still had to do a lot of work on the existing songs chosen by Quincy and Michael for proper recording with the A-team. Not to even mention that Michael was filming ‘Chicago Nights’ a.k.a ‘Smooth Criminal’ at the same time.