Kanye Makes An Emotional Apology

In an interview on Jay Leno's first primetime show on NBC Monday night, Kanye West took an unscheduled moment to apologize for his behavior the previous day at the MTV Video Music Awards.

At the awards, Kanye grabbed the mic from singer Taylor Swift, 17, as she accepted her Best Female Video award.

Leno joked "How was your day?" but Kanye wasn't in a joking mood.  West, who was appearing on Leno's premiere prime-time show to perform "Run This Town" with Jay-Z and Rihanna -- said it's been an "extremely difficult" day.

"You know, I deal with hurt," he told Leno, "and you know, so many celebrities, they never take time off. I've never taken the time off to really -- you know, just music after music and tour after tour."

"I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt -- and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period," he continued. "But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that's something I have to deal with. 

"And if there's anything I could do to help Taylor in the future or help anyone, I'd like -- you know, I want to live this thing. It's hard sometimes," he said.

The awkward apology from Kanye turned even more sad as Leno asked how Kanye's mother, Donda, who recently died from plastic surgery complications, would have reacted to his behavior.  Barely able to speak, Kanye responded "yeah" when Leno asked if she would be disappointed.

"Just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away, you know, from a talented artist or from anyone, because I only wanted to help people," he said. "My entire life, I've only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right. And I immediately knew in the situation that it was wrong, and it wasn't a spectacle or just -- you know, it's actually someone's emotions, you know, that I stepped on. And it was very -- it was just -- it was rude, period.

"And, you know, I'd like to be able to apologize to her in person." he said.