As the legal battle between the writers of the song Blurred Lines and Motown legend Marvin Gaye’s estate starts to heat up, it has been revealed that singer Robin Thicke was allegedly “too high on Vicodin and alcohol” to write any of the lyrics from the summer 2013 smash hit.
Thicke first gave the deposition in April, but the deposition was excerpted in a federal court filing Monday after a judge ruled it should be unsealed.
Those unsealed documents revealed Thicke admitting to being high and drunk during the time Blurred Lines was written.
In fact, Thicke says he didn’t really have anything to do with the song and that he took on responsibility for some of the writing because he wanted to feel like he was a part of the major hit.
“To be honest, that’s the only part where – I was high on Vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio,” Thicke said in his deposition. “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.”
Thicke went on to say that he had to convince himself that he was more involved with the record than he really was but “the reality is, is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of that song.”
According to Thicke, super producer Pharrell Williams had already written about 75 percent of the song by the time Thicke came to the studio.
There is some speculation that the Blurred Lines crooner is simply trying to distance himself from the record now that the legal battle is heating up.
Thicke had previously told GQ Magazine that writing the song was a completely collaborative effort.
He was also given co-writer credit for the song, which granted him 20 percent of publishing royalties.
According to Williams’ deposition, the latest version of the story is the one that’s the most accurate.
Williams admitted to giving Thicke more credit for the song’s creation because he thought it would be better for sales.
“This is what happens every day in our industry,” Williams explained. “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.”
Meanwhile, Thicke continued to open up about his drug and alcohol abuse during this time.
“Every day I woke up, I would take a Vicodin to start the day and then I would fill up a water bottle with vodka and drink it before and during my interviews,” he said.
Thicke also said he had been off Vicodin for about two months at the time of the deposition.
The legal battle kicked off when Gaye’s estate accused the writers of Blurred Lines of stealing the hit from Gaye.
To some listeners, the song has a striking resemblance to Gaye’s 1977 song Got to Give It Up.
Thicke said that the song served as an inspiration for Blurred Lines but has insisted in the past that the song was not a direct rip-off from the tune.
