How does Robin Thicke defend himself against charges that he ripped off Marvin Gaye?
Easy. Blame it on being drunk and high off pain pills.
Thicke and producer Pharrell Williams both gave depositions in their preemptive lawsuit against Gaye’s family, who alleges Thicke lifted the hit song “Blurred Lines” from Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up.” Transcripts from both depositions became public Monday.
Gaye’s family’s lawyer asked Thicke about the creation of the song, and he said he was present to record the song, obviously, but when Williams was creating the track, he was too messed up to remember anything.
From the deposition:
“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.”
(Photo: Getty Images)
However, in a May GQ interview, Thicke describes the situation much differently.
“Pharrell and I were in the studio and I told him that one of my favorite songs of all time was Marvin Gaye’s ‘Got to Give It Up.’ I was like, ‘Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove.’ Then he started playing a little something and we literally wrote the song in about a half hour and recorded it.”
Thicke said he repeated the fake story so it would “sell records.” When asked about the GQ answer, he also admitted to never doing a sober interview in 2013, which was the song’s peak. (RELATED: Robin Thicke’s Wife Divorces Him)
“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.”
However, Gaye’s family isn’t buying it. The family issued this statement:
“He also actually testified that he is not an honest person. This complete contempt for the judicial system, and their obligations to tell the truth, can best be summed up by Thicke’s ultimate admission, while under oath, that he ‘[does not] give a f—k’ about this litigation.”
Well, that seems to settle things.
The case is set to go to trial early next year.