Kanye West [ tickets ], during a short interview Monday night (9/14) before he performed with Jay-Z and Rihanna on the debut of "The Jay Leno Show," again apologized for his outburst at Sunday night's (9/13) MTV Video Music Awards.

During Sunday's VMA ceremony, West took the microphone from country/pop star Taylor Swift [ tickets ] as she was accepting her trophy for Best Female Video, and said that the award should have gone to Beyonce.

Following up on Tuesday (9/15), West reportedly telephoned Swift and apologized to her personally.

West told Leno on Monday that he knew he'd gone too far when he was met by a wave of boos after he handed the mic back to Swift. "It was rude, period," West told Leno. "I don't try to justify it, 'cause I was in the wrong."

When Leno asked West what his late mother would have said about his actions at the VMAs, there was a long, uncomfortable pause, during which West seemed to try to hold back tears. Dr. Donda West died in November of 2007 after complications during plastic surgery.

"So many celebrities, they never take the time off," West finally said. "I've never taken the time off to really--you know, just music after music, and tour after tour. I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt. My dream of what awards shows are supposed to be--'cause, and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve."

West was expected to officially announce plans for a major arena tour with Lady Gaga this week. Dates are already booked for that outing at arenas across North America, so it's not known whether or not he'll pull the plug and take his "time off" right away.

Prior to his "Leno" appearance, West issued his second apology to Swift via his blog, removing a previous, more rambling statement. "This was Taylor's moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her," he wrote.

West's outburst apparently caught the attention of President Barack Obama on Monday. ABC reporter Terry Moran wrote on Twitter that he overheard Obama referring to West as a "jackass" during an interview for CNBC. The tweet was later removed, and ABC issued an apology to CNBC and the White House for reporting what was supposed to be an off-the-record comment.

Various celebrities, including Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson and Pink, all issued their own rebukes of West's actions.