Robin Thicke Was High When He Recorded "Blurred Lines"
Any way you slice it, Robin Thicke’s recent attempt to follow up the most successful album of his career, apologize to his estranged wife and win back the public’s affections was an utter failure.
He was derided on the internet, his album bombed and Paula Patton didn’t take him back. But perhaps Thicke’s efforts at looking like less of a douchebag might have worked out better if he had simply explained that the Vicodin made him do it.
This information comes by way of a deposition that Thicke sat down for in April—the transcripts of which were obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
It all has to do with the hot mess of a legal kerfuffle between Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and Clifford “T.I.” Harris Jr. against the children of Martin Gaye over whether or not “Blurred Lines” is a rip-off of Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” It seems that Robin Thicke decided to go the “aw, fuck it” route with his deposition.
In 2013 when “Blurred Lines” was the most unavoidable, annoying catchy, kinda rape-y song of the summer, Thicke was riding high—literally.
In the testimony, Thicke admits that he spent the better part of what will likely be the best year of his life high and drunk, which, let’s face it, is not super surprising. Initially Thicke claimed that he and Pharrell wrote the hit song together—a story that he would later repeat over and over again to publications like Billboard and GQ.
As it turns out, Thicke is a lying liar.
“Q: Were you present during the creation of ‘Blurred Lines’?
Thicke: I was present. Obviously, I sang it. I had to be there.
Q: When the rhythm track was being created, were you there with Pharrell?
Thicke: To be honest, that’s the only part where — I was high on vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio. So my recollection is when we made the song, I thought I wanted — I — I wanted to be more involved than I actually was by the time, nine months later, it became a huge hit and I wanted credit. So I started kind of convincing myself that I was a little more part of it than I was and I — because I didn’t want him — I wanted some credit for this big hit. But the reality is, is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song.”
I mean, honestly, we all knew Pharrell basically did all of the legwork on that song, so this is really just direct confirmation.
Thicke explains his lying by noting that during that year, he never gave a sober interview—including the time he appeared on Oprah’s show with his three year-old son.
Still, despite the fact that Thicke did nothing but roll up and sing along to whatever Pharrell gave him, he is listed on the song as a co-writer—a credit that Pharrell graciously allowed.
Despite having limited input in the creation of “Blurred Lines,” Thicke was given a co-writer credit, which he says entitles him to about 18-22 percent of publishing royalties. Why would Williams be so generous?
“This is what happens every day in our industry,” said Williams during his own deposition. “You know, people are made to look like they have much more authorship in the situation than they actually do. So that’s where the embellishment comes in.”
Personally, I think Pharrell who, in 2013, also produced Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” had his own hit song, “Happy,” and was nominated for seven Grammys and an Academy Award, just didn’t give a damn about the credit either way. Whatever Robin, here. I have so much money I can swim in it like Scrooge McDuck and I’m rocking my giant Arby’s hat, so I’m coming out golden no matter what.
The Gaye family rightly feels that Thicke’s testimony will benefit them during the trial, which is scheduled for February 10, 2015, since he has now openly admitted to being a liar with a drug problem. For his part, while under oath, Thicke said that “he ‘[does not] give a f—k’ about this litigation.”
Image via Getty.