Matty Healy took time out from his 1975 concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday night to issue an updated apology for “some of my actions that have hurt some people”.
Healy has been under fire for controversial comments and behaviour many times throughout his musical career, but he sparked a mass hate storm when he appeared on an episode of “The Adam Friedland Show” earlier this year. The episode featured racist jokes, some of which were directed at rising star Ice Spice.
Host Friedland poked fun at Ice Spice by sparking a debate about her ethnicity, before imitating an Intuit and a Chinese accent. Although Healy didn’t take part in the mockery, he giggled along with the podcast hosts. The episode has since been taken down.
Speaking on the podcast on Monday night, Healy said he had “played exaggerated versions” of himself on “other stages, whether in print or on a podcast… in an often misguided attempt to fulfil some kind of character role of the 21st century rock star”.
“Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologise to those people and I promise to do better in the future,” he told the audience. “You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself where not everything I do is taken literally.”
Ice Spice recently addressed the offence in an interview with Variety, admitting she was “confused” by the comments. She said she has been a fan of the 1975 since she was a teenager, but “when I heard that little podcast or whatever, I was so confused. Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some shit like that and I was like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean? First of all, I’m fat. What do you mean Chinese? What?”
She also said that “they apologised or whatever”, although she never really cared about the controversy in the first place. “He apologised to me a couple of times. We’re good,” she concluded.
Healy’s comments at the Hollywood Bowl show ended with him saying that “men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy”. He then began to read an advertisement for the online therapy service BetterHelp.
This isn’t the first time Healy has been in the firing line, having previously addressed the recent backlash during an outdoor show in London’s Finsbury Park. “I’ve always tried things. And some stuff I got right and some stuff I got wrong,” he said. “What I mean is, I really only do it because I want to make you laugh and feel good. That’s what my favourite art does and that’s what I’m trying to do. I get a bit excited”.
