"This was a long time coming."

That's the word from Kid Rock, who finally opened up about his highly publicized tussle with fellow Pamela Anderson ex Tommy Lee at last weekend's MTV Video Music Awards—a brawl that got Lee ejected from the party and the "American Bad Ass" singer a misdemeanor battery charge from the Las Vegas PD.

Calling into The Kevin & Bean Show on Los Angeles' KROQ-FM Thursday, Rock made no bones about his beef with Lee, but said it was the 44-year-old Mötley Crüe man who instigated the melee, not the other way around, as Lee claimed in a post on his TommyLee.tv Website.

"It's been going on for five years. I did what any man would do, any man across the country, across the world would do," the 36-year-old Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, told the morning crew. "It kills me just to be associated with, just to have my name in a sentence with him, it honestly destroys me."

Rock said the last time he had contact with the 44-year-old Lee was when his four-month marriage to Anderson was on the rocks and Lee tried to get a rise out of the "Cocky" crooner.

"When me and Pam were going through our divorce, he picked up her BlackBerry and started emailing me a lot of horrendous things, just coming at me," Rock said. "And I said to him that day...'You're nothing but a phone call and I will see you again. That's all I have to say.' "

The Michigan-born musician called the scuffle "unavoidable," citing a "lot of years of very disrespectful things" on Lee's part.

"I had to do what I had to do because this was a long time coming," said Rock. "You know, I came back from the bathroom and he was sitting right there [in his seat]. It was even more disrespectful after everything he's said, I was like, 'That's enough. That's it.' "

Rap producer Rich Nice, who witnessed the fisticuffs, told the Associated Press that he saw Lee initiate the testy exchange with some trash talk, which Rock promptly ignored. However, when Lee stood up, Rock hit him with the back of his hand, Nice said.

The two squared off and Rock allegedly punched Lee in the face. Security quickly moved in and broke up the fight, but not before throwing Lee out of the ceremony. Rock was allowed to stay.

The fight occurred off camera during Alicia Keys' performance in the main Palms Hotel and Casino ballroom,  where the ceremony was being held, but it never aired on television, save an onstage reference by Diddy.

Lee was earlier spotted throwing his arms around Anderson, pulling her to his lap and whispering in his former missus' ear.

Rock, however, said the spat had "absolutely zero to do with Pam," who has two kids with Lee.

"The best thing I did was file for that divorce. You have to go through these things to realize that, you know. I was in love with her. I went through with it, I did what I had to do, but thank God I got out of it."

In a separate interview with The Mikey Morning Show on San Diego's Rock 105.3, Rock continued to bash Lee, saying he wasn't even sure why he was at the VMAs.

"To even be in the same room it's kinda like, I was trying to figure out why is this whatever, 45-year-old man, who's not involved with the show, who doesn't have an album coming out, who has nothing to promote, even sitting through this garbage," he said, according to PerezHilton.com.

Rock, on the other hand, does have a new album, Rock and Roll Jesus, due out Oct. 9.

For his part, Lee brushed off the brouhaha in a statement on his Website, claiming he has just "minding my own biz" when "I get a tap on the shoulder from Kid Pebble...I stand up and embrace him with a semi hug and say 'Hey dude...What up'? He punches me in the face.....well if ya wanna call it that!?...more like a bitch slap!.......Wuss!" the headbanger wrote.

Lee did apologize however to Keys for the "disrespectful Bulls----caused by a piece of s--- called Kid Pebble!"

As for Anderson, she said during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Wednesday that she's "staying out of it."

"What are you going to do? Boys," the 40-year-old actress said, adding that she has a new man in her life—but declined to reveal any details aside from him being a professional poker player.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Post, Las Vegas impresario Jeff Beacher has invited Anderson's aggrieved exes to face off in a boxing match, with the winner getting a $1 million purse.

"We all know they are fighting over Pam Anderson," he told the newspaper. "What better way to settle their differences then to slug it out in the ring?"

So far, no takers.