Cee Lo Green Addresses ‘Homophobic’ Tweet

Cee Lo Green sent a tweet on Friday that many deemed as homophobic. Now the 'Voice' coach is addressing the Twitter comment, insisting he is not a homophobe.

After Gimme Noise music editor Andrea Swensson negatively critiqued Green's performance with Rihanna at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Thursday, the Gnarls Barkley singer wrote: "I respect your criticism but be fair! People enjoyed last night! I'm guessing ur gay? and my masculinity offended u? well f---k U!"

The 37-year-old 'Forget You' singer subsequently deleted the tweet, but is now offering an explanation for this actions. "She was very critical of me. At the time I didn't even know what gender the person was. I was being a little outspoken that night, a little outrageous," he tells Us Weekly. "I always expect people to assume that everything I do is part of my character and sense of humor. I assumed that whoever it was would assume it was all in good fun. It wasn't taken so well, apparently."

He continues, "I most certainly am not harboring any sort of negative feeling toward the gay community. I don't have an opinion on people with different religious, sexual or political preferences. I'm one of the most liberal artists that I think you will ever meet, and I pride myself on that. Two of the remaining members that I have on my team on 'The Voice' are proud and outspokenly gay. We just did a team performance of 'Everyday People,' and I picked that song for us to do specifically to highlight how we can get along even though we’re so different."

Green says he regrets his choice of words, but maintains that he shouldn't have to apologize for saying what's on his mind. He adds, "If I could take it all back, I would. I was not being serious. I just wanted to defend our performance. It was only our third show with a whole new crew and we were all really proud about the progress that we had made."

Watch Cee Lo Green Perform a Medley of Hits at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards