Etta James on her Beyonce tirade: "I didn't really mean anything..."

Etta James is a legend and looks better these days than she has in forever.

So her petty rant against Beyonce Knolwes for having the nerve to sing Etta's signature song "At Last" to the Obamas at the inauguration is just bizarre.

Etta James has lashed out at Beyonce weeks after Beyonce sang James' classic "At Last" for the Obamas' first dance at the inauguration. At a concert in Seattle last week, she told the crowd: "I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ass whupped."

She added: "I can't stand Beyoncé... [she] had no business ... singing my song that I been singing forever." Beyonce played James in the recent film "Cadillac Records" and the two women were photographed together at the film's premiere.

Etta even slammed President Barack Obama. "You know your President, right? You know the one with the big ears? He ain't my President."

On Thursday, Etta was explaining herself to the New York Daily News: "I didn't really mean anything...Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. ... That's probably what went into it."

Uh, sure.

Etta did acknowledge being miffed she wasn't invited to perform her signature song on inauguration night and was "feeling left out of something that was basically mine, that I had done every time you look around."