Ex-Papa John's CEO who admitted to using the n-word: 'I didn’t say anything that was racist'

The OG Papa John of Papa John's is letting it all out in an explosively bizarre interview that has now gone viral.

John Schnatter, the former CEO of Papa John's, is no stranger to controversy -- in 2017, he stepped down as CEO following intense backlash for his controversial comments against NFL players that chose to kneel during the national anthem.

Schnatter later found himself in the midst of a major scandal in 2018 when he resigned as chairman of the company after he was exposed for using the n-word during a conference call.

But now, in an interview with WDRB News, Schnatter is claiming that he used the racial slur to quote another famous company founder to show his disdain for racism:

"The conference call was taped, it was secretly taped. That’s good for me because I didn’t say anything that was racist ... Sooner or later the tape is going to come out and people are going to go wild … they know what they did, they know it was a set up, they know this entire thing is a farce."

He then went on to call out specific members of leadership who he believes were behind the alleged plot to take him out, including Schnatter's former friend and replacement CEO, Steve Ritchie:

"Steve Ritchie, Olivia Kirtley, the board of directors all used the black community and race as a way to steal the company ... Olivia Kirtley and Mark Shapiro should be in jail. It's that bad. What they've done is just wrong, and they've hurt a lot of people ... they thought they could run the business better without me. When it finally gets out, what they did, what was said, I think my phone is going to ring off the hook saying ‘Wow, we’ve made a huge mistake here.’"

Things then took an ominous turn when Schnatter overshared just how many pizzas he's tried in an attempt to prove that the quality of the food has taken a turn south:

"I feel so negative and pessimistic about the company that I’ve sold a lot of stock in the company. I’ve probably had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days. They don’t make the pizza the way I used to make it, the way we used to make it. It just doesn’t taste the same."

At the very minimum, at least we now know he's not lactose intolerant.

The interview first went viral when Twitter user Timothy Burke posted a slowed down clip that made Schnatter's voice sound sinister:

The tweet has since garnered nearly 39,000 likes and 6,900 retweets.

Regardless of Schnatter's tone of voice or speed of speech, there is no denying the doom-inducing way he closed out the interview:

"Stay tuned. The day of reckoning will come. The record will be straight."