Pete Davidson was arguably serving up some serious disrespect at Aretha Franklin's funeral ... turning up to the 2018 service high on ketamine, at least according to him.
The comic detailed the drug-induced blunder in his Netflix special "Turbo Fonzarelli" ... the quipping that he was so high at the 2018 service, that he went up to the late icon's family, telling them, "Hey! I'm just here to pay my R-E-S-P-E-C-Ts!" Yeesh ... that's bad.
The ex-SNL star jokes Aretha wasn't around to know he was under the influence ... but if she were, she'd ask "what the f***" he was doing at her funeral and who the hell he was in the first place.
That's a fair assessment -- as at the time, he wasn't that famous and only attended the service as then-fiancée Ariana Grande's plus one. Still though, he was pretty known.
Now, Pete adds he was embarrassed being out and about while using ketamine -- which he used for 4 years to treat depression -- though the drug comes with a range of dissociative and hallucinogenic side effects. It doesn't seem like Pete's using ketamine anymore.
The audience clearly found the story hilarious ... but Pete sounds low-key ashamed of his actions at the time -- and perhaps for good reason, 'cause it is a pretty wild confession. That said, he's attempted to get the bad habit under control with 7 rehab stints over the years.
June 2023 was when he last checked in to rehab ... also addressing his post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Amid his personal woes, he's been tagged as somewhat of a ladies' man ... and we were pleased to see him looking happy with his new GF Madelyn Cline in a recent clip we obtained. BTW, Pete avoided much of his own love life in the special -- so no juicy tidbits about the ladies he bangs. We'll just have to settle for good old-fashioned material!