Matty Healy Mocks Backlash to Racist Ice Spice Comments, Calls Upset Fans ‘Deluded’ and ‘Mental’

Matty Healy didn’t mince words while addressing the backlash surrounding him seemingly making fun of rapper Ice Spice’s ethnicity earlier this year, calling people who are upset about the matter “deluded” and “mental.” The 1975 rocker spoke up about the controversy that sparked when he appeared on Adam Friedland’s podcast in February in a new interview with The New Yorker. His explanation comes as Healy is rumored to be dating Taylor Swift, who released a remix of her song “Karma” featuring Ice Spice last week.

The controversial musician admitted to The New Yorker‘s Jia Tolentino that he purposefully incensed fans by laughing at Friedland and his co-host Nick Mullen’s attempts to guess the ethnicity of Ice Spice, who was born and raised in the Bronx, which included the mocking of different accents. “But it doesn’t actually matter,” Healy said. “Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.”

When asked what happens if it actually does, the “Robbers” singer responded, “If it does, you’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar. You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt.” He continued, “It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.’ And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level.”

In what appeared to be an allusion to his recent outings and rumored relationship with Swift, Healy said, “I’m not trying to make myself famous. I want to be known for what I do. But now fame is about being known for who you are. And people are complicated. If people are going to make me this famous, I’m going to make people work for it.”

Healy’s remarks come after he apologized to Ice Spice on stage in Auckland in April. “I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you,” he said at the time. “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. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”

Healy added that he’s fine being seen as “a bit of a joker” but not as “barmy,” continuing of living life in the spotlight, “The truth is it’s a bit of a problem because I just want to say, ‘Hello. This is a bit embarrassing. I’m sorry if I get it wrong. We all get it wrong.’ I just have to do it in public and then apologize to Ice Spice. My life’s just a bit weird. I am genuinely sorry if I’ve upset her because I f-king love her.”