Macy Gray called her hometown newspaper to apologize for a disastrous performance of the national anthem.
Fans at Monday's Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game in Canton, Ohio, started booing when the pop singer haltingly garbled the words into "Oh say, can you see, by the twilight's last gleaming."
"I've never stood in the middle of a football field with 25,000 people watching, with planes flying over me," Gray said. "I blanked and I couldn't believe I forgot the words. I have total respect for that song."