R. Kelly’s interview with Gayle King went off the rails just minutes in as the singer attempted to defend his actions by shaming his accusers and slamming the behavior of their parents.
Aired on CBS This Morning with co-host Gayle King Wednesday (Mar. 6) the 52-year-old defended his relationships with 23-year-old Joycelyn Savage and 21-year-old Azriel Clary, who live with him in Chicago. Their stories were told in Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries, where their parents claimed Kelly brainwashed and manipulated them into sexual relationships.
In all, the interview doesn’t do much for Kelly as he goes off on several tangents and tries to gain sympathy from the public by bringing his music into the mix after stating it wasn’t about the music.
“Stop it. You all quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my f***ing life! Y’all killing me with this sh*t!” Kelly said, standing up over King who was clearly unmoved. “I gave you 30 years of my f***ing career!”
He also made it clear that he’s only interested in dating women who were of “legal” age. “I just look at legal, okay? People. There are older men that like younger women … there are younger women that like older men,” he said.
See some of the most bizarre quotes from his interview with King below.
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1. On Accusations By Those Claiming he Has a Cult
“I’m very tired of all of the lies…Oh my God. Um — all of them, got little girls trapped in the basement… helicopters over my house trying to rescue someone that doesn’t need rescuing because they’re not in my house,” he said, adding, “Handcuffing people, starving people. I have a harem, what you call it – a cult. I don’t even really know what a cult is. But I know I don’t have one.”
2. On What He’s Done Wrong to Women
“Lots of things wrong when it comes to women that I apologized, but I apologized in those relationships at the time that I was in the relationships, OK?”
3. Why he Believes all the Accusers Have the Same Story (But They’ve Never Met)
“You can start a rumor on a guy like me or a celebrity just like that,” Kelly said. “All you have to do is push a button on your phone and say so and so did this to me, R. Kelly did this to me, and if you get any traction from that, if you’re able to write a book from that, if you’re able to get a reality show… then any girl that I had a relationship in the past that it just didn’t work out, she can come and say the same exact thing.”
I don't look at much younger than me. I just look at legal.
R. Kelly
4. On the Public Scrutiny Of Surviving R. Kelly
“Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely,” Kelly said. “I have been assassinated. I have been buried alive. But I’m alive.”
5. Why He Wouldn’t Have Sex With Underaged Girls
“That’s stupid! Use your common sense. Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me. Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense. How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through – oh right, now I just think I have to be monster, and hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement, and don’t let them eat, don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street from their uncle!”
6. Why He Has Two Girlfriends Younger Than Him
“I know guys – like, I’ve known guys all my life that have five or six women, okay? So don’t go there on me, okay? ‘Cause that’s the truth,” he said.
“I don’t look at much younger than me. I just look at legal. I just look at you’re you, I’m me. Now, I don’t know if you’re married. I don’t know. I don’t know if you have a relationship. I don’t know what you – you know, I don’t know. But one might be older than the other. One might be younger than the other, okay? So I just look at legal, okay? People. There are older men that like younger women … there are younger women that like older men. I’m an older man that love all women.”
7. He Thinks Joycelyn’s Parents Sold Their Daughter To Him
“I didn’t go looking for a Joycelyn Savage. I was doing my show … he brought her and asked a friend of mine to put her on the stage with R. Kelly, make sure she’s on the stage,” he said. “I’m going to answer your question. What kind of father, what kind of mother, will sell their daughter to a man?” Kelly said.
“How come it was okay for me to see them until they wasn’t getting no money from me? Why would you take your daughter – if I’m going to take my daughter and she’s 19 years old to a 49-year-old icon, whatever, celebrity or R. Kelly concert or whoever it is, I’m not going to put her on the stage and leave her. I’m going to take her to the concert. Their father is more into my music and know about my music than they do.”