Nicolas Cage has finally given an explanation for his aggressive Prince karaoke performances that went viral earlier this year.

“It was around the anniversary of Prince’s passing. Everyone knows how much I admire him as an artist,” the actor divulged during an interview with the New York Times. “But honestly, I wasn’t even doing that to sing. It was more like primal-scream therapy.”

Cage went on to explain that the “therapy” was his way of dealing with a recent breakup. The idea to visit a karaoke bar came at the suggestion of one of his friends. "It was a holiday weekend, and I didn’t want to go anywhere, but my friend who was with me said, ‘You can’t sit here in your apartment. You’ve got to go out.’ So I went to the one place in my neighborhood that I knew had no video recording, just to have some fun, and that became everybody’s business.” Check out the footage from one of his karaoke performances in the video below.

The Academy Award winning star has always been open about his affinity for Prince. In a 2018 interview with Collider, Cage referred to music icon as “one of his heroes.” The actor also recalled meeting the purple one at an Oscar party hosted by Elton John.

“I never ask anyone for a picture but I remember asking for one with Prince because of the monumental way that he motivated and inspired me," the actor confessed. "I asked him for a picture and he said ‘no, I just can’t’ and I was in shock but I understood and I still love him.”

Despite his adoration of Prince, Cage wasn’t thrilled to see his forceful rendition of “Purple Rain” go viral. “You go to a karaoke bar with a male friend in the neighborhood, the bar says ‘no videotaping’ and suddenly, there’s two different videos of you doing karaoke. Who did that? Who exposed the videotape? Who sold it?”

Cage, whose hit movies have varied from comedy to drama and romance, will next be seen in the film Running with the Devil. The thriller, which co-stars Laurence Fishburne and Barry Pepper, is due for release in September.

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