Blake Harper, Yahoo! Entertainment
Gospel singer and choir director Kirk Franklin is apologizing for a profanity-laced tirade he directed at his grown son Kerrion, who posted audio of the heated phone call on Instagram.
“Recently my son and I had an argument that he chose to record,” Franklin said in a video responding to his son’s post. “I felt extremely disrespected in that conversation and I lost my temper and I said words that are not appropriate and I am sincerely sorry to all of you. I sincerely apologize.”
Kerrion, 32, posted a recording of the argument, in which Kirk, 51, verbally berates him with a string of insults and obscenities, including telling his son that “you need to get your skinny motherf*****g ass back out the goddamn way before I put my foot in your ass.”
The singer yells “I will break your neck if you ever disrespect me” before seeming to hang up the phone.
Along with the video, Kerrion posted a lengthy caption saying that he is “done” with his dad and that “no father should speak to their children like this.” He also said he did not think that he would ever be able to trust his father enough to be alone with him ever again.
“No matter what [people] think I pray my dad deals with his deep hatred toward me,” Kerrion wrote. “I don’t feel safe around him at all.”
In his apology, Kirk painted a different picture of the relationship between him and his son, saying that Kerrion has had a “toxic relationship” with his entire family “for many years.” He said that the family has tried to “rectify this private family matter” through counseling and therapy while noting that his son “never played that part on the recording.”
According to Kirk, a family therapist got on the phone call and tried to help make the conversation productive while reducing the tension. Kirk took some ownership of his actions in the recording, admitting that he is not “perfect” while asking fans to keep him in their prayers.
“I’m not perfect,” Kirk said in the video. “I’m human and I’m going to make mistakes and I’m trying to get it right. Please keep me and my family in your prayers.”
Kerrion rejected his father’s apology, primarily due to the fact that he seemed to be apologizing to his fans and followers instead of actually apologizing to his son.
“He apologized to his fans only and not me,” Kerrion wrote on his Instagram story. “This is why I’m done.”
Kerrion also asked fans not to totally blame his dad, as he seemed to simply want to show the type of behavior he has been forced to endure over the last several years.
“[Please] do not crucify my father,” Kerrion wrote. “I am not here to bash him across the board.”
Ebony reported that Kerrion voiced concern about his father potentially becoming violent towards him in 2018, as he wrote “my own father is trying to kill me” in a post that has since been deleted.
