"I spent my whole career playing it safe, being a gentleman, never doing anything controversial," he told the magazine. "I didn't see [the VMA performance] because I was onstage singing my ass off."
"They told me [beforehand] that Miley's going to take her clothes off and dance around and she might bend over… I just said, 'I don't care, let's entertain the people,'" he continued. "Let's give them something they're not ready for, let's make them talk."
And talk they did. Following the pair's Aug. 25 performance of "Blurred Lines," both he and Cyrus, 20, were hit with an onslaught of criticism ranging from accusations of racism to outright disgust at their titillating onstage antics.
Thicke, 36, was also accused of infidelity to his wife of eight years, Baggage Claim actress Paula Patton, in the days following the performance. The R&B singer hasn't let the negative press get to him, however.
"Seventy-five percent of my songs are about how much I love my wife and how much I need her," he said. "We've been married for eight years, and together since we were 16. We're very lucky to have the greatest friendship; we're John and Yoko -- whatever that is -- that's who she is to me."
"I've always put her before everything and will continue to," he continued. The couple have one son, 3-year-old Julian, together.
In a Sept. 17 episode of Watch What Happens Live, Patton, 37, said she "wasn't surprised at all" by her husband's performance, and wasn't upset about the risque routine.
"Honestly, they rehearsed for three days beforehand, and I don't know how not to dance with someone having their booty in your…all my friends do it like that. And I don't really know what the big deal is," she said at the time. "I didn't know if they [critics] thought Miley was going to sit down and play piano like Alicia Keys. Her song's about taking molly!" By Nevel