Robin Thicke: Pharrell wrote "Blurred Lines" while I was high on vicodin

The singer has changed his tune in light of a plagiarism lawsuit brought forth by Marvin Gaye's children

Published September 15, 2014 6:48PM (EDT)

  (Chris Pizzello/invision/ap)
(Chris Pizzello/invision/ap)

The ghost of Robin Thicke's dead public life continues to haunt Hollywood, now by a damning deposition in which he defends his 2013 No. 1 hit "Blurred Lines" against charges of plagiarism brought forth by the family of Marvin Gaye. Gaye's family accused Thicke and Williams of plagiarizing 1977 song "Got to Give It Up," which Thicke has said, in numerous media interviews, inspired the creation of the song that they wrote together. Now, however, Thicke argues that it was Williams who wrote and created the song, and that his only role was to sing.

The Hollywood Reporter has published some of the most damning quotes from the truly bizarre deposition, in which Thicke, credited as a co-writer, distances himself from his song by saying that, oh wait, it's not really his song. "I tried to take credit for it later because (Williams) wrote the whole thing pretty much by himself and I was envious of that," he said, which means that he lied about his involvement in pretty much every interview about the song. Also, he "was high on vicodin and alcohol" when he showed up at the studio to sing it. Here's a quote from the deposition, via THR:

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."

In addition to throwing Williams under the bus many, many times, Thicke also says he "had a drug and alcohol problem for the year" and "didn't do a sober interview."


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Blurred Lines Drug Abuse Lawsuit Marvin Gaye Pharrell Williams Robin Thicke