The Hollywood Reporter got hot hold of the April deposition tied to the lawsuit from Marvin Gaye’s family against Robin Thicke and producer Pharrell Williams alleging they used elements of Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” for “Blurred Lines” without permission.
While Thicke maintains that the song isn’t stolen, according to his testimony, not only did he lie repeatedly about co-writing the song, he also was in the throes of a serious poll and alcohol addiction when he recorded the single and did the subsequent promotion.
Below is the exchange when the Gayes’ lawyer asks Thicke if he was in the studio when the song was created:
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.
Later in the deposition, Thicke says he was “high and drunk every time I did an interview last year” and that his honesty issues led to his split with Patton.
Q: Do you consider yourself an honest person?
Thicke: No. That’s why I’m separated. …
Q: Do you pick and choose when to tell the truth?
Thicke: Absolutely not. I told my wife the truth. That’s why she left me.
When asked if he was high or drunk during the deposition, Thicke said he had been off pills for two months, but was still drinking. “When your wife leaves you, it gives you good reason to sober up,” he said.
And he wasn’t just high in the studio. Thicke also admitted during the deposition that he was high when Oprah Winfrey interviewed him for “Oprah’s Next Chapter” — and pretty much every other day, too.
“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. … The ‘Oprah’ one I remember because it stands out. It was in the afternoon. … It was actually a Norco (that he took), which is like two Vicodin in one pill. … I was drinking openly in front of everyone, but no, nobody else besides my personal assistant would have known I was taking Vicodin.”
