Matty Healy expressed lament over his questionable behaviour in the past days after announcing an indefinite hiatus of his band, The 1975.
The 34-year-old singer has been mired with controversies for his racist impression of Ice Spice during a podcast earlier this year, as well as for a slew of other remarks.
Speaking to the crowd on a Monday show of the band’s ongoing tour, Healy sent out a public apology to all those he “hurt,” noting he’s been “playing pretend” to embody the “character role of the 21st century rock star.”
“Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologize to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward,” he said in the video surfacing on the internet.
“You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally,” continued the Somebody Else singer.
Describing it as “complicated,” Healy noted, “Sometimes playing pretend is the only way you can truly find out who you are.
“And you could probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy,” the rock star added.
Healy’s apology follows Ice Spice reaction to him calling her a “chubby Chinese lady” on a podcast.
The Bronx rapper told Variety she was left feeling “so confused” by the rapper’s remarks, recalling, “Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some s*** like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’”