Music News

As they wind down their current run of their Still… At Their Very Best tour, The 1975‘s singer, Matty Healy, issued yet another apology from the stage. The latest mea culpa came during Monday night’s (Oct. 2) show at the Hollywood Bowl, in which Healy told the audience he planned to “be better moving forward.”

In fan video of the non-specific blanket atonement, Healy said, “I think it is important to take inventory of yourself so you become aware when your intentions and your actions don’t align. So, because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologize to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward.” When the crowd applauded, Healy added, “give it up for the old apology.”

“But I think it’s also important I express my intentions so everybody knows there is no ill will coming from me,” he continued, smoke and drink in hand. “You see, as an artist [air quotes], I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally.”

Healy then explained that he doesn’t “go around singing my songs and apologizing” when he’s not onstage in a seeming attempt to create daylight between his performance persona and his off-stage one.

In February, Healy stirred up controversy when he made racist and sexist remarks about rapper Ice Spice on the Adam Friedland Show, during which he and the hosts made jokes about the rapper sounding like an “Inuit Spice Girl” and looking like a “chubby Chinese lady” before performing racist accents. After one of the men suggested Healy should have asked the MC about her ethnic background while dropping an Inuit ethnic slur, Healy called Ice Spice “dumb.”

In a recent Variety interview, Ice Spice said she was “confused” when she initially heard the podcast. “Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some s— like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’ First of all, I’m thick,” she said. “What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologized or whatever. And the whole time, I didn’t really care.”

Healy issued a tepid apology for his Spice-related comments in April from the stage in New Zealand, where he said, “I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you. Ice Spice, I’m sorry. 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 d–k,” he added at the time. “I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry. I don’t want it to be misconstrued as mean. I don’t mind being a bit of a joker… but I am genuinely sorry if I’ve upset them because I f–king love them.”

At Monday’s show, Healy again attempted to explain his frequent verbal outbursts. “I’ve kind of performed exaggerated versions of myself on other stages, be it print or on podcasts and in an often misguided attempt at fulfilling the kind of character role of the 21st-century rock star, so, it’s complicated,” Healy said, without pointing to any specific incidents or comments.

“This might be cheesy, but 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,” he continued. “But, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to better yourself, sometimes that just requires people who really know what they’re talking about.”

There were more scattered laughs before Healy performed a bit sending up the online therapy service BetterHelp, accompanied by an ad banner that ran on the screen as Healy leaned into the mockery by informing the crowd to use the code “Sorry75” to get a discount. At press time a spokesperson for The 1975 had not returned a request for further comment on Healy’s on-stage remarks.

Watch a fan video of the Healy speech below.