Babyface was removed as the supporting act of Anita Baker‘s tour after she allegedly endured cyberbullying from his fans. Speaking on The Jason Lee Show, he described the night that everything seemingly went downhill.
According to Babyface, they’d experienced technical difficulties on the Newark, New Jersey, stop of the outing, and he was told not to perform while the issues were being fixed. After a nearly two-hour delay, he eventually had to nix his set so Baker could take the stage; he decided to update disappointed fans about his canceled set.
“The issue was, for me, the only reason why I ultimately posted something was because people were booing after they announced that I wasn’t coming on,” Babyface said. “[Fans] were pissed, and DMs were coming in saying, ‘Babyface is a no-show,’ and I didn’t want that to be the story. I just tried to make an announcement to at least say, ‘Hey, I couldn’t go on tonight for technical difficulties. I was asked not to go on.’”
The singer then made it clear he had no problem being Baker’s supporting act, expressing disbelief that things played out the way they did.
“My love and respect for her is to the extent that, where she is and what she’s done in her career, and how she too has touched people with her music — I’m going to support that. That’s just who I am,” he said. “And so, in all reality, for everything to have gone as crazy as it did, that was never my intention to ever think that it would, because that’s not my heart. I can’t believe that it rode out the way it rode out.”
He previously said he was saddened by his removal from the tour.
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