Kanye West Explains Why He Brought Jesus On His 'Yeezus' Tour

On Saturday night’s opening stop for the “Yeezus” tour in Seattle, West brought out a man in a Jesus costume and bowed to him before launching into a rendition of his 2004 hit “Jesus Walks.” The stunt has had the Internet abuzz since clips surfaced online Sunday, and now he has spoken out about exactly why he included a fake Jesus on his latest tour.

Speaking to the Bay Area’s Wild 94.9 radio station, West explained that bringing Jesus on stage wasn’t designed to mock Christianity at all. He said that before including Jesus in the “Yeezus” tour, he actually sat down with a pastor and got his blessing before including Jesus in the show.

"I had a friend of mine that's a pastor there as we started discussing how we wanted to deliver it," he said. "My girl [Kim Kardashian] even asked afterwards, 'Is that weird if Jesus comes on stage?' They're like, 'No. We do plays all the time. People play Jesus. You know what's awesome about Christianity? We're allowed to portray God. We're allowed to draw an image of him. We're allowed to make movies about him. Other religions, you're not allowed to do that. That's what's really awesome about Christianity. That's one of the really awesome things.'"