Matty Healy of The 1975 has issued an apology to those that he has “hurt” while trying to take on the “character role of 21st Century rock star”.
The singer-songwriter expressed regret over his recent behaviour while on stage with The 1975, noting that he has been at the centre of controversy due to “playing pretend”, and trying to embody what he sees as a modern rock attitude.
A recent example of this controversy came after he participated in a discussion about New York rapper Ice Spice during an appearance on The Adam Friedland Show. On the show, Friedland and co-host Nick Mullen discussed the heritage of the rapper, debating whether she has Hawaiian, Inuit or Chinese, before impersonating the accents of those countries and regions.
While Healy didn’t participate in the mocking of accents, he did laugh along with the podcast hosts. The episode has since been taken down.
Now, the singer has issued an apology to all of the people he has “hurt” due to his behaviour, and promised to “do better” in the future.
“Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologise to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward,” he told the audience. “You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally.”
He also described the situation he faces as “complicated”, adding: “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.
Matty Healy apologizes for his past actions during The 1975’s show at the Hollywood Bowl:
“Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologize to those people and I pledge to do better moving forward.” pic.twitter.com/h9toN0f1m8
— Be A Positive Person (@ToddRoss_tross) October 3, 2023
The comments come after Healy originally apologised to Ice Spice while on stage in Auckland earlier this year as part of a show on the band’s ‘At Their Very Best’ tour.
“I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you. Ice Spice, I’m sorry,” he said at the time. “It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a dick. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”
More recently, Ice Spice admitted that she was left “confused” by the comments made on the podcast. Speaking during a recent interview, she said she had been a fan of The 1975 since she was a teenager, and added: “When I had heard that little podcast or whatever, I was so confused. Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some shit like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’
“First of all, I’m thick. What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologised or whatever,” she added. “The whole time, I didn’t really care… He apologised to me a bunch of times. We’re good.”
The band – who have recently announced that they will be taking a hiatus – were also at the centre of controversy after Healy’s comments led to backlash from Rina Sawayama, who dedicated her track ‘STFU’ to him at Glastonbury.
The 1975 perform in 2023. CREDIT: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Yungblud also called out the singer in the aftermath of the podcast interview, writing: “Love listening to three privileged white dudes sit around and objectify a young black female artist who’s blowing up. Welcome to your 30’s, I guess.”
Healy’s discussion about “playing pretend” and taking on the “character role of 21st Century rock star” follows similar comments he made during an interview with NME last year.
Speaking with NME’s Andrew Trendell, the singer recalled the reasons behind his controversial comments and “shit-posts” online, stating: “I’d rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero.
“We used to want our artists to be cigarette-smoking, bohemian outsiders. Now, we want them to be liberal academics. Well, on Twitter we do, but then I get really popular all of a sudden when I come back. Why’s that? Is that because I’m not pretending to be a liberal academic and there are real people who have actually got something to say instead of just continuing this infographic-sharing era of the same shit that we all fucking know?”
He continued. “This is the era where I’ll say whatever I want manically on the internet.”
You can view the original article HERE.
