Australian singer Guy Sebastian has spoken for the first time about being held at gunpoint by Los Angeles police.

Officers suspected him of driving a stolen car and Sebastian has recalled having a knee on his body while a gun was pressed to his forehead.

The Voice judge said during a KIIS FM iHeart Radio Countdown interview this weekend: "I'm sitting at the car-wash washing this car, and all of a sudden all these police converge on me with guns drawn... because in the system, to them, it looks like I'm driving a stolen car.

"They told me 'shut up and get on the ground’... he had a knee on me as well and then he's pulled my phone out of my pocket and thrown it and smashed it.

"He actually had the gun pressed into my forehead. It was full on. I could feel the metal of the gun."

The police had approached him as they suspected he had stolen the car, whereas it was in fact Sebastian’s own car which he had reported stolen but later recovered from an impound lot.

Despite the experience, he defended the police.

“They're heavy handed, but they deal with a lot of stuff too. They deal with heavy-handed criminals, everyone has a gun there. It's a very different world over there,” he said.