Jamie Foxx on National Anthem Criticism: 'The Telecast Was Off'

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Following his performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas, Jamie Foxx was met with the immediate backlash the Internet so loves to throw around.

Now, the Oscar-winner is speaking out exclusively to ET's Nancy O'Dell and he’s not afraid to explain exactly what happened. It all started with technical difficulties.

"We crafted this great thing with the organ and everything. That night [my in-ear] pack falls off just before I'm supposed to sing," Foxx recalls. But, like a true performer, he kept going and felt like he totally nailed it.

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“We were like walking around like, 'Wow we nailed it everything was great,'" Foxx admits, not knowing how it was received by television viewers. It was after he heard about the Internet comments that he went back to listen to his performance.

"I…saw Denzel Washington [and] he was like, 'That was amazing,'" Foxx says. "Jim Gray was like, 'You nailed it, it was the best.' Then when we looked on the Internet or somebody told me about the Internet [and] they said, 'Oh people are really clowning you.' Then when I listened I said, 'Oh yeah, we're off.'"

"In the stadium, you would have thought I was getting a standing ovation but the telecast it was different -- it was so off," the actor
admits.


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Admittedly, the 47-year-entertainer did not deliver the worst -- or even the most offensive -- rendition of The National Anthem. "I didn't think I committed a sin against America," he says, clearly bothered by some of the criticisms that went too far.

If given another chance, Foxx promises it’ll be exactly what he hoped audiences would hear -- in person and at home.

"I wanted that to be the best moment and, unfortunately, it didn't go 100 percent like we wanted but we'll get another crack at it,” he
says.

And he may just get his chance given that he’s busy promoting the release of his fifth studio album, Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses, which comes out May 18. Foxx says the new album -- his favorite so far -- comes from "a real place."

Foxx's full interview about his fifth studio album airs Wednesday on Entertainment Tonight.

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