Rob Thomas Apologizes for Making Joke Seen as Racist During Performance in Australia

— -- In a mea culpa for a comment he made in Melbourne, Australia, over the weekend, singer Rob Thomas took to Facebook on Sunday to apologize to anyone who took his words the wrong way.

"First, please understand that I did not intend to make a joke ABOUT race," he opened the lengthy post.

The apology came after his Saturday night show, where he made a joke about his trick for keeping jetlag at bay.

"When you get on the plane on your way here, you start drinking. And then I drink until I think I'm Australian, and I keep drinking until I think I'm a black Australian," Thomas said.

According to the Associated Press, people in the crowd and online took that as a shot at the local Aboriginal population.

"I have seen people comment that after coming here for so long I should know that there is a connection between the indigenous peoples of Australia and a stereotype involving drinking. Embarrassingly, I truly didn’t," Thomas explained. "The joke I made was meant to be at no one’s expense but my own. I made a comment about drinking so much on the long flight over that i started to think i was something i'm not."

The Matchbox 20 frontman added that the joke was also taken out of context and that there were comments before and after the "black Australian" part.

"I was so ignorant to the situation that when I heard people groan I actually thought THEY were being racist," he wrote. "I didn’t know until TODAY that just the phrase ‘black Australian’ was racist all on it’s own. I sat in my room and I cried when I found out."

Thomas is currently touring Australia to promote his new album, "The Great Unknown."