Barry Talks to OK! About View Fiasco

In an effort to clear the air regarding his decision to pull out of performing on The View this week, OK! spoke directly to platinum-selling artist Barry Manilow.

"For months, the show's producers told me that Elisabeth, whose political views I strongly disagree with, wouldn't be on the stage during my segment," Barry explains to OK!. "And then today, after all this time of telling me otherwise, I'm told that she has to be on the stage."

"I feel absolutely awful for any fans who were expecting to see me perform," Barry, whose latest album, The Greatest Songs of the Seventies, is released Tuesday, continues. "They mean the world to me."