The 1975 recently announced an indefinite hiatus “from touring” but I’m choosing to interpret it as a general hiatus. They’re still in the middle of touring to support their most recent album and performed at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday night. Frontman and noted creep Matt Healy took the opportunity to apologize in a general, hand-waving way for his many gross comments, including making fun of Ice Spice’s accent. But he chased up this ‘apology’ with the desire to “create an environment” where he gets to play-act as an aggrieved edgelord. He claimed that this kind of performance of being a jackass is part of his work as an “artist.” Imagine being that self-absorbed.

Addressing the crowd at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday night, 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 apologise to those people and I pledge to be better moving forward.”

The singer added, “But I think it’s also important I express my intentions, so everybody knows that there is no ill will coming me. You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken, literally.”

Referring to the controversial podcast comments, the musician said that he had “performed exaggerated versions” of himself on “other stages be in print or in one podcast,” and that it was often a misguided attempt to fulfill the “character role of the 21st century Rockstar”.

“You can probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy,” he continued.

His apology comes days after Ice Spice said that she was left “confused” by the rocker’s racist comments about her. For those unaware, Healy referred to Spice as Inuit and Chinese and mocked her accent on The Adam Friedland Show. The podcast episode was later removed from Apple Music and Spotify because of its offensive content.

[From Wion News]

It isn’t “art” to be racist or sexist. Misogynoir isn’t art. (CC: all the stand-up comedians right now complaining about cancel culture.) Matt just sounds dumb when he talks this way and it also makes clear that his apology is totally empty. When he says he’s performed “exaggerated versions” of himself he means that he showed his real self: a man who desperately wants to be a rock star but whose work is mostly mediocre and overshadowed by his own prejudice. I hope he does go to therapy but he seems like the kind of person who won’t really do the work. He comes off like a big time narcissist. I wonder if Taylor would have figured this out if his comments hadn’t surfaced. I can’t imagine him being that pleasant to be around after the honeymoon stage.

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