LOS ANGELES — John Mayer has apologized for using a racial slur during a Playboy interview filled with controversial remarks.
"Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word," the 32-year-old musician posted Wednesday on his Twitter page, hours after his comments became a hot topic on the Web. "And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged."
Mayer used the slur after telling the interviewer that he's loved by "black people."
"Someone asked me the other day, 'What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?' " Mayer told the mag. "And by the way, it's sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n----- pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, 'I can't really have a hood pass. I've never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, 'We're full.' "
Long known for his outspoken ways, Mayer told his Twitter followers that he planned to tone things down in the future.
"I think it's time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews," he said. "It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it's gotten out of hand and I've created somewhat of a monster. I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don't have the stomach for it."
He then apologized once more for his latest controversy.
"Again, because I don't want anyone to think I'm equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again," he wrote.
Mayer has also come under fire for comments he made about black women in the same interview.
"I don't think I open myself to it," Mayer replied after being asked if black women throw themselves at him. "My d-ck is sort of like a white supremacist. I've got a Benetton heart and a f---in' David Duke c-ck. I'm going to start dating separately from my d-ck."
Mayer was then asked to get more specific with names.
"I always thought Holly Robinson Peete was gorgeous," he said. "Every white dude loved Hilary from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And Kerry Washington. She's superhot, and she's also white-girl crazy. Kerry Washington would break your heart like a white girl. Just all of a sudden she'd be like, 'Yeah, I sucked his d-ck. Whatever.' And you'd be like, 'What? We weren't talking about that.' That's what 'Heartbreak Warfare' is all about, when a girl uses jealousy as a tactic."
Mayer also tells the magazine that ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson was "like crack cocaine" to him.
"Sexually it was crazy," he said of their relationship. "That's all I'll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm."
Simpson later posted her own tweet in which she seemed to allude to her ex's sexual praise.
"Interesting day so far," she wrote. "Hmm. At least I am boxing 2-a-days this week."
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