Kanye West has opened up on stage about his regret over his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Awards.

Addressing the crowd at a packed VMAs in Los Angeles, the rapper said he often thinks about the incident and what he would do differently if he had the chance.

It came after Taylor presented Kanye with this year’s MTV Video Vanguard Award, and he thanked the 25-year-old for being “so gracious”.

Kanye West and Taylor Swift embraced on stage as he collected his special award
Kanye and Taylor embraced on stage as he collected his special award (Matt Sayles / AP)

Addressing Taylor, he said: “I often think back to the first day I met you. You know I think about it when I’m in the grocery store with my daughter and I have a really great conversation about fresh juice and they say to me, ‘Oh you’re not that bad after all’.

“I think about it sometimes, it crosses my mind a little bit when I go to a baseball game and 60,000 people boo me. It crosses my mind a little bit. I think if I had to do it all again what would I have done?

“Would I have worn a leather shirt, would I have drunk half a bottle of Hennessy and given the other half to the audience? If I had a daughter, would I have gone on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else’s?”

Kanye grabs a microphone from Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs
Kanye shocked audiences as he grabbed the microphone in 2009 (Jason DeCrow / AP)

Kanye spoke about how the awards stage was always removed quickly after the show was over, but that in 2009 “the stage was gone and the effect that it had on people remained”.

He explained that his actions were intended to be supportive of artists “but in that fight I somehow was disrespectful to artists… I didn’t know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing”.

Announcing Kanye as the winner of the 2015 Vanguard award, Taylor said that moment in 2009 – as she was receiving the best female video award – was the first time she had met the rapper. He interrupted her speech to declare Beyonce was the more worthy winner.

Kanye West collects the MTV Vanguard award from Taylor Swift
Taylor says she’s still a Kanye West fan (Matt Sayles/AP)

Taylor told the crowd: “I first met Kanye West at this show six years ago and since then we have a had lot of time to talk about a lot of things. The whole world knew about our exchange at the VMAs but most people don’t know his album College Dropout was the first album I bought on iTunes when I was 12.”

She added: “I guess I have to say to all the other winners, I’m really happy for you and I’m going to let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time.”