Van Morrison was called a "little prickly leprechaun" on one of America's top-rated shows this week.

Comedian/actor Tony Powell told "Imus in the Morning" that Morrison had kicked him, and several others, out of the green room on Monday morning while  they were all waiting to go on air with host Don Imus.

The legendary Irish singer was preparing to be interviewed by Imus, who’s a huge fan, that day.
 
Powell said: “I just think he's just a little prickly leprechaun, I think what his problem is. I mean, you know what it is? Spending all that time guarding the gold makes you paranoid when other people are standing around you. That's why he threw us out. That's what I realized.”
 
Powell said he and the music group The Blind Boys of Alabama were sitting quietly in the green room, when someone came in and said they all had to leave because Morrison needed the room.

“And as we're walking out, I thought he had Tourettes,” Powell said. “I didn't know what was going on.
 
“You know, he was cursing everybody out. And, you know, the Blind Boys are sitting there, I guess, listening. And so they don't know what's going on. They can't see how tiny he is, in which case they might have jumped on him, you know.”

Imus - who was bounced from MSNBC in 2007 after referring to Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos"- said he hoped that Powell wasn't trying to turn the Morrison episode into a racial incident.
 
“Well, no," said Powell, "it wasn't racial."