The extraordinarily ill-advised decision to cut away from the Grammy Awards' all-star closing number -- featuring Lindsey Buckingham, Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor and Queens of the Stone Age -- has led to an apology from the telecast's executive producer.

In a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich offered his take on what went down during the show. Calling himself "numb" after the incredible flurry of activity, he admitted, "There are many ups and downs during the course of the show. It’s a bad word these days, but it’s variety, the one thing left that live event television can do that you don’t get elsewhere."

Speaking of bad words, Ehrlich was asked to respond to Reznor's post-show tweet, which referred to the Grammys as "music's biggest night . . . to be disrespected" and concluded, "A heartfelt F--- YOU guys." According to the producer, it was simply a matter of timing, and completely out of his hands.

"I’m sorry he was upset," Ehrlich said of Reznor. "I was really thrilled that we were finally getting him on the Grammys. The final jam started with Arcade Fire a few years ago, and LL Cool J last year. I want to end on a high, an up note. I did tell them we’d take it as long as we could. The number was about five, six minutes long, and we got to within 1:20 of the end. We got as close as we could possibly get."

Ehrlich certainly seems sincere -- elsewhere in the interview, he shared his starstruck backstage moments with Jay-Z, Beyonce and Merle Haggard -- but they'll doubtless come as cold comfort to Reznor, who spearheaded a terrific live medley of Nine Inch Nails' 'Copy of A' and Queens of the Stone Age's 'My God is the Sun' only to find out audiences were given commercials instead of the latter song's closing moments. Advertisers were no doubt happy, but we're betting other artists won't forget this when it comes time to book performances for future Grammys.

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