UPDATE: Thicke released a statement through his attorney, Howard King. “Robin’s moment of personal vulnerability is being exploited in the hope of diverting attention from the obvious weakness of their legal claim.”
OMG is this for real? Depositions given by “Blurred Lines” writers, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams are full of bombshell allegations. The Marvin Gaye family is suing the artists responsible for the mega-hit, “Blurred Lines,” claiming they ripped off the rhythm section from a song by the late soul legend titled “Got to Give it Up.”
There is quite the lengthy discussion of the depositions, including efforts to keep them sealed at The Hollywood Reporter. After some back and forth between the parties, a judge could see no reason not to make them public.
First, Thicke claims he didn’t have much to do with penning the song. He says he lied to reporters about his equal involvement, and only wanted credit for the royalties.
And get this, Robin insists that he was too high on Vicodin and alcohol to contribute much of anything to the writing of the song.
Read Robin’s full deposition HERE. From THR
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.”
Throwing Pharrell under the bus. NICE. Oddly, The Voice coach made statements in his own deposition that seems to back up Thicke’s statements.
“This is what happens every day in our industry,” said Williams during his own deposition (read in full here). “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.”
Pharrell and Thicke were both incredibly hostile during their depositions. Thicke became sarcastic when the Gaye family’s lawyer played a mashup of the two songs together.
“It’s so hard to listen to it,” said Thicke, referencing a clash between major and minor chords. “It’s like nails on a f—ing chalkboard. … This is [like] Stanley Kubrick‘s movie Clockwork Orange. Where he has to sit there and watch … Mozart would be rolling in his grave right now.”
Pharrell claimed he could read music, but then became belligerent when asked questions that required technical answers.
At one point during the examination, Williams says he can read music, but then is shown a transcription of a song, and is asked to identify notes and durations. “I’m not comfortable,” Williams responds eight times as Busch presses to figure out whether he really can read music.
The producer is evasive in other ways. Asked whether Marvin Gaye has influenced him, Williams says, “He’s an Aries. I respect him.”
Pharrell has some interesting thoughts on white soul singers, which he attempted to use to support the idea that the rhythm section didn’t drive the song’s popularity.
“Q: In your view, what holds ‘Blurred Lines’ together throughout the different sections?
Williams: What holds it together?
Q: Yeah.
Williams: Robin Thicke’s voice.
Q: Does the bass line and the keyboard hold the songs together through the different sections?
A: No.
Q: Why not?
A: Because it’s the white man singing soulfully and we, unfortunately, in this country don’t get enough — we don’t get to hear that as often, so we get excited by it when the mainstream gives that a shot. But there’s a lot of incredibly talented white folk with really soulful vocals, so when we’re able to give them a shot — and when I say ‘we,’ I mean like as in the public gives them a shot to be heard, then you hear the Justin Timberlakes and you hear the Christina Aguileras and you hear, you know, all of these masterful voices that have just been given, you know, an opportunity to be heard because they’re doing something different.”
Thicke also claimed he was high on a Vicodin-like drug when he and his son were on the Oprah Winfrey show and talked about being sued by the man who inspired half his music. He said he told his wife “the truth” and that’s why she left him. Also, he claimed to be sober for many months, but then clarified he was abstaining only from pills. He still drinks alcohol (You ain’t sober, bud.)
