Television September 14, 2009
Kanye: Swift Incident Was 'Rude, Period'
Rapper Kanye West took time out of his scheduled performance on "The Jay Leno Show" to apologize yet again to country crooner Taylor Swift for his hijacking of her acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards.
"It was rude, period," Kanye admits to Leno. The hip-hop star then said that the pain from his mother's death in 2007 causes him to act out at times, such as the incident from the VMAs. "You know, I deal with hurt. And you know, so many celebrities, they never take time off. I've never taken the time off to really -- you know, just music after music and tour after tour."
Kanye continues, "I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt -- and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that's something I have to deal with."
When asked if his mother, Donda, would be disappointed in his behavior, West confessed, "Yeah."
Kanye said that he immediately regretted his decision to hijack Taylor's speech. "I immediately knew in the situation that it was wrong, and it wasn't a spectacle or just -- you know, it's actually someone's emotions, you know, that I stepped on. And it was very -- it was just -- it was rude, period."
Kanye concluded, saying that he'd like the chance to apologize to Swift in person.