Lackey is an expensive free agent who didn’t meet expectations, a quick path to getting booed at Fenway Park. His ill-tempered answers and dismissive gestures to the media only made it worse.

Lackey became the surly symbol of all that had gone so wrong for the Red Sox, pitching poorly in the final weeks of the disastrous 2011 season, then playing a starring role in reports of the clubhouse insurrection that cost popular manager Terry Francona his job.

But on Tuesday, during the first extended interview in several years, Lackey said he had no regrets about coming to Boston and vowed to change the narrative.

“I thought this place would be good for me,’’ Lackey said. “I’m a guy who likes competing and showing some emotion and that is what they want. When I’m pitching well, I think it’ll be a good thing. And I’m going to pitch well. This thing isn’t over.”

A different portrait of Lackey emerges when you dig through the thin layer of public perception. Despite three difficult seasons in Boston, the 34-year-old righthander has become a respected figure within the framework of the team.

When rookies get called up, it is Lackey who picks up the check at dinner or buys them a new suit, repaying favors done for him years ago.

Lackey defied the pain in his elbow in 2011, pitching games against his better judgment because there wasn’t anybody else available. A surgeon later told him the bone spur he plucked out of his arm was the largest he had ever seen.

Now Lackey is coming back from surgery that kept him out all of last season.

“You won’t find a more popular guy among his teammates,” said Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, the bench coach of the Anaheim Angels when Lackey played there. “He’s an enjoyable person to talk to and I know you don’t believe that. John just isn’t conscious of his public image and never has been. He grew up as a baseball player and he considers himself accountable to his teammates, not the fans. It can come off the wrong way.”

That has often been the case in Boston. Lackey has perhaps the worst body language in baseball, throwing up his arms in disgust when a teammate commits an error or rolling his eyes when asked a basic question.

He knows it looks terrible.

“It’s something that I’ve worked on and tried not to do, but sometimes it just happens,” Lackey said. “If I do something over the line, I absolutely go apologize. I’ll pull them aside and say something. I’m man enough to do that.’’

Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said Lackey’s comportment is not an issue among the position players.

“That’s Lack. It comes from an honest place,” he said. “He’s not trying to show anybody up, he’s just being competitive. If you know him, you know that’s not really him.”

Last season, when asked about Lackey, former Angels outfielder Torii Hunter winced at first.

“Misunderstood guy,” he said. “But a good teammate. He just doesn’t show that side in public like some people do.”

‘An ownership that cares’

In 2011, Lackey was at the center of the now infamous fried chicken-and-beer scandal. That he was in the clubhouse eating and drinking during games further bruised his reputation.

True to form, Lackey is unapologetic.

“You just take it for the team and move on,” he said. “The whole thing was blown out of proportion. It wasn’t as big a deal as it was made to be. But that’s Boston; everything gets cranked up a couple of notches.”

By the end of that season, the reaction to Lackey on the mound was so harsh that he told his family to stay out of Fenway.

Still, when the Red Sox started their pursuit of free agent first baseman Mike Napoli last fall, Lackey played the role of recruiter.

He had no hesitation about recommending Boston to his former Angels teammate.

“The chance to win every year is still there,” Lackey said. “It’s an ownership that cares and tries to field a winning team all the time. It’s a fan base that cares and wants to win all the time. I’m at a point in my career where I’m here to win. That’s really the only thing that is in play for me.”

There are few expectations for Lackey this season, the product of his surgery and an ugly 5.26 earned run average in his two seasons with the Sox. But with at least two seasons remaining on his $82.5 million contract, he has a chance to recapture what made him so desirable to the Red Sox in the first place.