Kanye West claims God’s will made him interrupt Taylor Swift at 2009 VMAs

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagicOne of the most shocking moments in VMA history was in 2009 when Kanye West rushed the stage and interrupted Taylor Swift‘s acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video.  The incident became a defining moment in pop culture history where even then-President Barack Obama weighed in on it.

The incident ignited a longstanding feud between the two that still smolders to this day.

West addressed the infamous exchange on Monday by revealing what — or who — inspired him to storm the stage that night. While it wasn’t the devil that made him do it, he says it was God’s will.

Speaking with actor Nick Cannon on the podcast Cannon’s Class, the “Follow God” rapper said he couldn’t ignore the signs from above as the award for Best Female Video was being announced.

“If God didn’t want me to run on stage and say, ‘Beyoncé had the best video,’ he wouldn’t have sat me in the front row. I would’ve been sitting in the back,” the 43-year-old presidential hopeful recounted as Cannon chuckled. 

Continued West, “He wouldn’t have made it the first award and wouldn’t have made it so ridiculous of an idea cause I had never heard of this person before and ‘Single Ladies’ is, like, one of the greatest videos of all time.”

Cannon then brought up one other thing that may have influenced West’s actions that night and brought up the bottle of Hennessy the rapper had brought onto the red carpet.

The 21-time Grammy Award winner acknowledged that he was drinking cognac, but only because “I didn’t want to go to the award show because it was a setup.”