Matty Healy blows off ‘racist’ podcast controversy as Taylor Swift fans denounce him
Three months after Matty Healy recorded a controversial “Adam Friedland Show” podcast episode, he wants haters to “Shake It Off.”
The 1975 frontman told the New Yorker in an interview published Monday that the February podcast, in which host Adam Friedland made racist and sexist remarks about rapper Ice Spice, doesn’t “actually matter.”
“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,'” the 1975 frontman explained. “That doesn’t happen.”
Healy, 34, added that anyone who is offended by the episode is “deluded.”
“You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt,” he said. “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,” the songwriter continued.
During a February episode of Friedland’s podcast, which has since been removed from Spotify, he and co-host Nick Mullen called Ice Spice an “Inuit Spice Girl” and “chubby Chinese lady” while mocking Chinese and Hawaiian accents.
Healy, who was a guest on the episode, laughed along and did not stand up for the 23-year-old rapper.
He also encouraged the hosts to do an “impression” of a Japanese Nazi, which led to ESEA Music (a UK-based group of East and Southeast Asian people working in music) releasing a statement calling out his “flagrant racism and complicity in laughing along at harmful Asian tropes.”
He issued a lukewarm apology in April, telling concertgoers, “I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you. Ice Spice, I’m sorry.”
While the British singer made headlines for his response when the episode first aired, criticism ramped up earlier this month when rumors that he is dating Taylor Swift, who collaborated with Ice Spice on the “Karma” remix, started swirling.
One of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s fans even launched a #SpeakUpNow campaign, requesting Swift denounce Healy’s statements, while other Swifties canceled their orders for the 33-year-old’s “Speak Now” re-release in protest.
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“Use your platform responsibly and intentionally,” a critical fan wrote, in part, in an open letter. “Advocate for inclusivity, celebrate diversity and promote empathy and understanding.”
Swift has yet to comment on the podcast episode, nor has she confirmed her relationship with Healy.
The 12-time Grammy winner did, however, bring out Ice Spice to perform “Karma” during all three “Eras Tour” shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium over the weekend.
Swift and actor Joe Alwyn split in April after six years together.
