Louisville Radio: Papa John Schnatters Talks With WHAS-AM

John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John's who admitted to using the N-word in a conference call in May, addressed the backlash he's faced on NewsTalk WHAS 840 AM Friday afternoon.

"No topic off limits," radio and TV personality Terry Meiners tweeted, announcing his 25-minute interview with Schnatter on 840 WHAS.

The interview was recorded Friday morning before University of Louisville announced it will remove Papa John's from the name of its football stadium, according to The Courier-Journal.

Here are the highlights from the interview:

• Schnatter says he was pressured to use the N-word

"The agency was promoting that vocabulary. ... They pushed me. And it upset me," he said on the radio Friday.  In May, a marketing agency was coaching Schnatter on ways to address sensitive topics, including race. The call was in response to comments he made last year, when he partially blamed NFL protests on declining pizza sales.

• After racial slur revealed, fall comes swiftly for Papa John Schnatter

He continued:  "It’s caused a lot of grief for my community, for my university. … My employees are distraught, they’re crushed, and it’s all because I was sloppy and I wasn’t as sensitive. It’s the same mistake I made on the NFL comments." Why use the slur instead of saying 'N-word'?
“Well, I was just talking the way the Colonel talked and, again, shame on me.”

• Now he's no longer Papa John's chairman, what does his day look like?

“Well, my days are full. My plate’s full. That’s not a problem, filling up the day. We’re always involved in some kind of community event or some kind of charity. ... The day-to-day grind, I don’t miss that at all. And haven’t for some time. My days are full and I pretty well get to do what I like to do every day … I just hate this for the community. I mean, this is just not good.”



Schnatter's use of the racial slur was first reported by Forbes on Wednesday. By the end of the day, Schnatter had apologized for his language, stepped down from the University of Louisville board of trustees and left his position as chairman of the board for Papa John's.

On Friday, Papa John’s International Inc announced it will remove founder John Schnatter from its promotions and MLB's New York Yankees suspended business relationships with the company.

Papa John’s said its decision to remove Schnatter from advertisements is the first of several steps to rebuild trust “from the inside-out”.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Ritchie said the company would hire an independent expert to audit all of its processes, policies and systems related to diversity and inclusion.