LONDON (Reuters) - George Michael denied on Friday he was anti-American after his new single lampooning President Bush ( news - web sites) and the "War on Terror" provoked a storm of protest in the United States.
"I am definitely not anti-American, how could I be?" the platinum-selling artist said in a statement. "I have been in love with a Texan for six years."
Michael's boyfriend Kenny Goss is from Texas.
He added, however that he feared Bush's politics and had concerns about the U.S. and Britain bombing Iraq, but said the song and video do not condone "the actions of al-Qaeda."
The single "Shoot the Dog," which will not be released in the U.S. because the singer has no American record deal, prompted the New York Post to headline a story "Pop Perv's 9/11 Slur."
The reference was to the singer's 1998 arrest in a Los Angeles public toilet after exposing himself to a police officer.
Britain's Sun newspaper, said the singer could have done irretrievable damage to his career with the song.
"His career was at a crossroads and he has just taken the wrong turning," the paper said.
Michael, whose career has flagged since the 1980s and 1990s, also attracted ridicule from some media commentators this week after a newspaper interview in which he declared that, for him, staying silent about the world situation was "not an option."