John Schnatter, the embattled titular “Papa John” in the Papa John’s brand of pizza, is fighting his removal as chairman, and bringing Kanye West’s name in the mix.

According to MSN, Schnatter — who recently resigned as the company’s chairman of the board of directors — is now claiming that he was forced to step down because of a mischaracterization of his initial statements.

Schnatter also said that he was told by Laundry Service — the marketing company hired to help role-play public relations problems like the NFL brouhaha that forced him to step down as the company’s CEO last year — to work with Kanye. The agency suggested bringing Kanye on as a spokesman for the pizza chain, and Schnatter refused on the grounds that West “uses the N-word” in his songs.

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Later on in the call, he used the word himself.

“I then said something on the order of, Colonel Sanders used the word ‘N,’ (I actually used the word,) that I would never use that word and Papa John’s doesn’t use that word,” he later admitted, but claims he never meant to use the N-word in full as a racial epithet.

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