Chad Johnson Insists His 'Bachelor in Paradise' Costars 'Would Like Me in Real Life' – Despite 'That' Abusive Rampage

Johnson told PEOPLE, "Before we even started filming I had a bottle of champagne and I was like, 'I should probably slow down, shouldn't I?'"

Photo: ABC/Craig Sjodin

After a embarking on a drunken rampage which quickly led to his departure on Bachelor in Paradise, Chad Johnson is setting the record straight about what really happened that night.

“Before we even started filming I had a bottle of champagne and I was like, ‘I should probably slow down, shouldn’t I?'” he exclusively told PEOPLE.

He added, “I assumed I would make a connection with somebody, and then if I did get drunk I assumed a friend or girl there would be like, ‘go to bed!’ But everyone was like, ‘Stay up man, keep doing what you’re doing!'”

Johnson, who was quickly labeled as the villain on JoJo Fletcher‘s season of The Bachelorette, hasn’t had the best reputation of getting along with people involved with the franchise – especially with former contestant Evan Bass.

“Evan would literally run in front of a train and then call the train a d— for hitting him,” Johnson said of the 33-year-old erectile dysfunction expert.

“Everything [Evan] did was trying to make it seem like I was the one starting something,” said Johnson. “And we had talked off-camera like, ‘You’re cool man, do your thing, let me do my thing.’ But still, when the cameras started rolling, he would keep coming at me and doing everything. He was working out when I was working out, he would stand next to me and cook chicken. I was like, ‘Get away, Evan!'”

Though his stint on BiP was short, Johnson was quick to have an opinion about the contestants – both men and women.

“I really think that in real life they would like me,” he said. “I don’t know if I would like them, but they laughed at the things I was saying. They were having a good time, but then when it came to down to [being on] camera, they’re like, ‘Okay, Chad said something that I can attack. And therefore if I make him out to be bad, it will make me seem good.'”

He added, “It became like a TV thing – ‘Oh we’re on camera.’ The more they villainized me, the more they felt like it put them up on a pedestal as a good person. It’s so annoying.”

Though we won’t be entertained with Chad’s antics any longer (sigh), rest assured there will be plenty of juicy drama on this season of BiP.