He regrets everything. Rob Thomas apologized for racial comments he made during a concert in a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday, February 21.
Thomas, 44, made headlines over the weekend when he delivered a racist joke while performing at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday. In a video obtained by TMZ, the Matchbox Twenty frontman told the crowd that he drank like a "black Australian" to help his jet lag. The comment was reportedly met with groans from the audience.
"First, please understand that I did not intend to make a joke ABOUT race. I have seen people comment that after coming here for so long I should know that there is a connection between the indigenous peoples of Australia and a stereotype involving drinking. Embarrassingly, I truly didn’t," Thomas wrote on Sunday.
"The joke I made was meant to be at no one’s expense but my own. I made a comment about drinking so much on the long flight over that I started to think I was something I'm not," he continued. "I said I drank until I thought I was Australian. Then I drank so much that I thought I was a black Australian and then I drank so much I thought I was a little Australian girl. These were 3 things I chose at random to represent 3 things I’m not."
Thomas wrote that he was "ignorant" and was "truly sorry" for his actions. (In a previous post, he also wrote that he was "completely gutted" after learning of his mistake.)
"I didn’t know until TODAY that just the phrase ‘black Australian’ was racist all on it’s own. I sat in my room and I cried when I found out," he wrote on Sunday. "Australia has been so good to me for so long that I’m embarrassed I don’t know more about the history and the culture."
