Cee Lo Green defends changing 'Imagine' lyrics

Cee Lo Green has defended the change in lyrics of John Lennon's song "Imagine" from "And no religion, too" to "And all religion's true," while performing in Times Square on New Year's Eve. ennon fans sharply criticized Green for the change, and he took to his twitter account to counter the criticism.

"I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all," the New York Daily News quoted his tweet.

After further criticism he deleted the tweet.

Green said that by making the change he had added an endorsement of religion to John Lennon's "Imagine" out of "peace and love and unity," not disrespect.

However, when the topic came up during a panel on "The Voice," the NBC show on which he is a judge, fellow panelist Christina Aguilera jumped in and said, "No, no, no, we're here to talk about the show."

But, Green acknowledged the question, repeated his disclaimer and brought the subject back to the show, but not before declaring that he "meant no disrespect to anyone, including John Lennon.

"You may say I'm a dreamer," he added, quoting another line from the song.