Mary J. Blige Admits She ‘Used To Be A Monster’ & Treated People So Bad’ Earlier In Her Career, Says It Was Humbling’ To Apologize To Everyone She Mistreated

Mary J Blige is reflecting on a time when she wasn't the nicest person to be around early on in her career.

The R&B icon’s latest interview with media personality Scott Evans is gaining traction online, as Mary candidly opened up about several topics — including how she treated people earlier in her career. “I used to be a monster. 1994 Mary was horrible. Go Google it. You’ll see it. It was terrible, man,” she admitted. Looking back, she said she was especially hard on the press, often “cursing out” reporters for asking the same questions repeatedly.

These days, though, her perspective is completely different. Mary shared that she now appreciates every interview request, noting, “What if nobody cared? This is a blessing and an opportunity for people to want to hear what you say. … I grew up. I used to treat people so bad.” She added that her mindset really began to shift around the time of her 2001 No More Drama album, revealing she “apologized to every last one of those people” she had mistreated. “It was humbling, but it wasn’t something I was afraid of,” she said. “I knew in my spirit that I had to do it because I was awful.” Ultimately, #MaryJBlige’s honesty highlights just how far she’s come, owning her past while embracing the growth that reshaped her into the artist and woman she is today.

In other MJB news, the singer also addressed the backlash she received after doing her Burger King crispy chicken commercial, and how it affected her.

“I was deeply affected… I will never laugh at that.”

Continuing, she added:

“The whole way that sh*t went down was wrong the whole way they shot it was wrong they it was set up to make exactly what happened in the press happen like that… it’s still not a laughing matter to me.”

Blige told host Scott Evans:

“My true, honest to true fans did not think that sh*t was funny… the bottom line is my fans were confused was the real true fans not the people that whatever dip in and dip out… but the people who was like ‘What’s going on?'”I didn’t really know what was going on right, but I had bad representation, bad management, bad everything and everybody dropped the ball, and I’m I’m holding everything that was a learning curve but it’s still not funny.”

The R&B royal concluded with the lesson it taught her:

“It did show me something, one minute people are with you and one minute they are not. It showed me just how fickle the game is, and it showed me exactly who my friends were… I was like a disease to people, and everybody nobody wanted to be affiliated.”