John Rich photo by Frank Ockenfels, courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.

John Rich is in shock that a comment he made to Chely Wright years ago became a painful, life-changing moment for her and is now a point of public conversation.

Chely, who publicly identified herself this week as a lesbian, has recounted the comment in numerous locations, including her new book Like Me: Confessions Of A Heartland Country Singer and on “Access Hollywood.”

In the original conversation, John asked her about a rumor in Nashville’s music community that she was homosexual. It was, she has said, the first time she’d been confronted about it directly, and she insisted she was not.

“Good, thank God,” he said, according to her “Access Hollywood” interview.

John’s response confirmed for her the disdain that she believed Music Row held for gay people. Chely eventually considered committing suicide as she grappled with fears that her sexual identity would not be accepted by music professionals or the general public.

“I would never pass judgment on any friend of mine,” John responded in a statement to “Access Hollywood.” “I feel awful that, at this time in Chely’s life, my decade old comment — ‘Good, thank God’ — was taken the wrong way.”

John and Chely had been friends for years at the time he made his original comment. He had no idea he was driving a wedge between them.

“I was clumsily trying to express my relief that even a country boy like me had a one-in-a-million chance of having a beer with a woman as talented and attractive as Chely,” he said. “For years after that conversation, Chely invited me to perform at charity events. In all that time, I wish she would have said something directly to me before the book’s publicity tour, especially since some of the comments attributed to me in the book are not mine.”

He is, he added, “happy for her and only wish her the best in her personal and professional life.”

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