Simon Cowell is reflecting on his harsh process in finding a superstar.

Indeed, the former American Idol judge apologized for how he treated contestants in the early years of the competition series.

“I wasn’t trying to be a d--k on purpose,” Simon told The New York Times in an interview published Nov. 29. “All I wanted with these shows was to find successful artists to sign to the label. So when all these people were coming in and they couldn’t sing, we would say after 10 seconds, ‘You can’t sing.’ Not, ‘You’re going to be brilliant.’”

The 66-year-old—who was on the show’s original judging panel alongside Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson from 2002 to 2010 —continued, “I was frustrated at the beginning, because I thought, ‘If we don’t find some

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