Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May apologized on Instagram on Saturday for his recent comments criticizing the Brit Awards’ gender-neutral award categories, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In an earlier interview with The Mirror, May said he felt that the record-breaking band would face backlash today for a lack of diversity, going so far as to say the band would be “forced” to “have a trans [person].” “Freddie came from Zanzibar, he wasn’t British, he wasn’t white as such—nobody cares, nobody ever, ever discussed it,” May said. “He was a musician, he was our friend, he was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think: ‘Ooh, now, should we work with him? Is he the right color? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’ None of that happened, and now I find it frightening that you have to be so calculating about everything.”

After the interview, May apologized to “anyone who has been hurt by the stories” and said his “heart is open as always to humans of all colours, all creeds, all sexes, and sexualities, shapes and sizes - and all creatures.”

However, May condemned the journalist, who he alleges “subtly twisted” his words to make it appear as though the rocker felt some animosity towards the trans community, which he vehemently denies. “I was ambushed and completely stitched up by a journalist at the recent ITV event,” wrote the 74-year-old guitarist. “And it’s led to a whole mess of press stories making it look like I’m unfriendly to trans people. Nothing could be further from the truth. My words were subtly twisted.”