Is John McAfee really a drug-crazed, gun-toting womanizer who barely escaped investigation as a possible suspect in the shooting death of his next-door neighbor on an exotic island in Belize? 

And what’s with his new, sophomoric and definitely not safe for work (NSFW) YouTube video called “How to Uninstall McAfee Antivirus.” 

In an exclusive interview with SV411, McAfee said the send-up pokes fun at the press while also trying to do some good. 

“If the press are going to apply labels that manage to stick, I might as well at least use that image to help people out,” said McAfee from Montreal, where he’s busy shooting five days worth of scenes for another video, a self-described personal documentary directed by Francois Garcia. 

“Maybe I am crazy, but I’m self aware that I am crazy,” said McAfee. “ If you look at the comments below almost any story that has been written about me, over half the comments are from people who are angry at me because I developed the world’s worst antivirus software.” 

“I haven’t been associated with that company for over 19 years—I say 15 in the video but in reality it’s been over 19 years—and yet people are angry at me for developing that software,” McAfee said. “ Those comments that I read in the video, by the way, are real comments.  If you Google ‘Fuck McAfee,’ you’ll see hundreds of thousands of comments like that.  The comments I read are just from the first page that come up on a Google search.” 

“If people are mad at me for that software at least I can help them uninstall it,” McAfee said. 

The video opens with McAfee, sporting a Hugh Heffner-style red silk evening jacket and sitting a plush study, dryly reading some of the complaint letters. 

Later, McAfee quotes an actual entry from Urban Dictionary: “McAfee – A barely passable antivirus software that updates at the worst possible times.  Tends to render a computer completely useless whenever it starts an update, which it doesn’t ask to start and you cannot cancel or pause.  McAfee updates at horrible times, almost as if the creators want you to die.” 

The “eccentric millionare” then launches into a supposed bath-salts fueled love fest with several scantily clad women while a lab tech dryly explains the software removal procedure. 

At the end, McAfee pulls out a pistol and shoots his laptop, walking away in nothing but striped boxers and tattoos, arm-in-arm with a machine-gun toting woman. 

“Press reports have me running around with several women,” he says. “ If that’s my label, here’s my take on it.  Bath salts?  Same thing.  Guns?  Same thing.  When all this began, the most topical item on Web was the man who did all those bath salts and then eats another man’s face on a freeway in Florida, so now my image is that I go with bath salts.  Let me tell you, if I were to go with drugs, why would I go with bath salts when I could afford to buy cocaine by the pound if I wanted it?” 

McAfee was cool as to the response from the McAfee Antivirus company. 

“I am not sure what their response will be if any, but I doubt if it would be a happy one,” said McAfee. “ They have one of the most loathed software packages on the planet, and I’ve had nothing to do with it for 19 years, but when I ran the company it was a very highly loved and respected piece of software.” 

Asked what his response would be if the company asked him to come back and help them fix it, McAfee said “it would depend under what circumstances.” 

“I know exactly what’s wrong with it, and I know exactly what they need to do to return to a premier provider of antivirus software,” said McAfee, adding that he doesn’t anticipate getting such an offer. 

McAfee, who now lives in Portland, said he will release another video in a week, or so, with all the raw cuts from the first video and an invitation for people to use that footage and their own imaginations to create their own versions.  The winner, he said, will receive “a prize of an undisclosed amount.”