An Emotional R. Kelly Claimed His Accusers Are All Lying In His First Interview Since His Arrest

CBS

Since R. Kelly was charged with ten counts of criminal sexual abuse, he has not made any public statements, but on today’s episode of CBS This Morning, he sat down with Gayle King for his first interview since his arrest.

When asked why he wanted to do the interview, he responded, “I’m very tired of all the lies. I’ve been hearing things and seeing things on the blogs, and I’m just tired.” At one point, King asked Kelly if he has ever had sex with any woman under the age of 17, and he said he had not, and added, “So nobody’s allowed to be mad at me and be scorned and lie on me?”

Later on, King asked if Kelly’s point is that he had never held anybody against their will. Kelly answered:

“How stupid would it be for me, R. Kelly, with all I’ve been through in my way way past, to hold somebody — let alone four, five, six, 50, you said — how stupid would I be to do that? That’s stupid, guys! […] 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 need to be a 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!”

At this point, Kelly appeared overwhelmed and was on the verge of tears, and exclaimed while standing up and becoming emotional:

“Stop it! Y’all quit playing. Quit playing. I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me. I’m fighting for my f*cking life. Y’all killing me with this sh*t! I gave you 30 years of my f*cking career! 30 years of my career, and y’all trying to kill me! You’re killing me, man! This is not about music! I’m trying to have a relationship with my kids, and I can’t do it! Y’all just don’t want to believe the truth! You don’t want to believe it!”

Watch clips from Kelly’s interview below.