The singer was given an eight-week sentence and fined after driving into the front of a photo shop in London.
In an interview with Chris Evans for BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show, he said going to jail had been karma for repeatedly breaking the law.
Michael has recorded a cover of New Order’s True Faith for Comic Relief.
It is the first song he has released since 2008.
In the interview, the singer says he is “ashamed” to have broken the law, and says he is now having treatment for his drug problems.
He describes himself as “the poster boy for cannabis”.
In 2007 he admitted another charge of drug-driving and carried out community service.
“This was a hugely shameful thing to have done repeatedly,” he told Evans. “So karmically I felt like I had a bill to pay. I went to prison, I paid my bill.”
But the singer denied reports that he had been distressed during his time in north London’s Pentonville prison.
“Remarkably enough, I know people must think it was a really horrific experience – it’s so much easier to take any form of punishment if you believe you actually deserve it, and I did.”
He said: “It wasn’t a weekend break, put it that way. I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I thought, ‘Oh my God, this place is absolutely filthy, because it was Pentonville’. I just thought, you get your head down.”
Michael was later transferred to Highpoint open prison in Suffolk.
He said that while he was there he gave his autograph to every single staff member and prisoner.
