Howard Stern is opening up about a massive regret he has.
The legendary shock jock covers the June issue of Rolling Stone, and in his interview with the magazine, he recalls how he treated Robin Williams when the late comic visited his radio show in the '90s.
"In my mind, I knew all the answers. The audience won't sit still for anything that's more than 30 seconds long," he says. "All they want is to be shocked and outraged. That's where I was at in my life. I also have a regret about Robin Williams that haunts me. I was so angry at the world. I love Robin Williams, and yet if he came into my studio, I had to act like I didn't love him. I'd be, 'F**k you.'"
The 65-year-old radio personality goes on to explain that he would take shots at Williams, who died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63, over a cheating scandal at the time.
"Rather than say to Robin Williams, 'My God, you're here,' and celebrate an amazing talent and the beauty of that guy's career, he walks in and I start in, 'Hey, you're f**king your nanny,'" Stern recalls. "Bam, sledgehammer. Sock him right in the f**king head. A**hole. Me, not him. And my audience is cheering me on because who does that?"
"I was a baby. I want every listener," he adds. "I want everyone focused on me. You're not going to be funnier than me. You're not going to come into my studio and steal the moment from me. This is who I was."
Stern says that, now that he's grown through therapy, he wishes he could talk to Williams about how much his work has meant to him over the years.
"I could've expressed to him the beauty of Robin Williams," he states. "Who knows what he would have revealed? Who knows what impressions he would have broken into? It brings me to tears to imagine what that moment could have been like."
"Some people in my audience would say, 'Man, you don't kiss anyone's a**.' It ain't about kissing anyone's a**. It's about 'S**t, I love this guy,'" he shares. "I want to tell him what he did for me when I was lonely and couldn't find a friend. If I saw him in a movie or even Mork & Mindy, he just brought some goddamn pleasure into my life, which is the whole reason I got into radio."
Stern concludes: "I had this idea that I gotta call him and apologize. I started to put it in process and see if he would take my call, but he killed himself. I get chills when I tell you."
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