Tim McGraw says hitting a female fan was instinctive, defensive

Following up his spokesperson’s comments about the fan-slapping incident at a show last week, Tim McGraw says in his own statement that whopping the female concertgoer on the face was “instinctive” and “defensive.”

The controversy began last Sunday when the country singer was performing an encore song at the end of an Atlanta show. He was engaging with front-row fans when one overzealous women grabbed ahold of Tim’s distressed jeans. He reacted by swatting her hand away — then struck her across the face for good measure. The whole incident is clearly shown in this video…

Apparently public opinion about whether Tim was in the right or wrong was a bit more divided than some of us originally anticipated: Some of you said that, if the roles were reversed, people would be applaud a female musician for defending herself. Others of you said it’s never right to hit someone, regardless of sex or stance. (Let’s be real, Tim wasn’t in danger… In the very worst case, his pants may have been ripped a bit more than they already were.)

Tim’s representative tried to quell the drama by emphasizing how much the fan was misbehaving, but backlash continued through the weekend. Tim finally spoke for himself during an interview with ET Canada on Sunday evening…

Sometimes things can lose context and perspective. I reacted in an instinctive, defensive way from my perspective of what was going on. I think it was an unfortunate situation, I think all the way around. But it happened, it happened in a split second, it was pure instinctive reaction, I think you just got to move on. It is one of those things that happen, nobody feels good about it, but there’s nothing that could be done about it. You are in that position, you are out there, you are vulnerable, things happen and sometimes you react. There’s nothing to be said about it.

Is it just me, or does it sound really weird to anyone else that Tim and his people keep referring to the situation as an instinctive reaction? To some small degree, I can see what he trying to say, but also I think they’re digging an even deeper hole by saying it’s “instinctive” for him to slap a female.

Does Tim’s personal statement change your opinion on the situation?