Robin Thicke Was Too High To Write ‘Blurred Lines’, Blames It All On Pharrell

In an admission that is both highly convenient and entirely plausible, Robin Thicke has claimed he was “high on Vicodin and alcohol” through much of 2013, including during the writing and recording of hit Blurred Lines which, as it turns out, he actually had very little to do with.

The news comes via The Hollywood Reporter, who obtained court transcripts of Thicke’s and Pharrell Williams‘ April depositions from their ongoing battle with the estate of soul singer Marvin Gaye, who are suing Blurred Lines writers Thicke, Williams and T.I. for allegedly ripping off Gaye’s 1977 classic Got to Give It Up.

“I was jealous and I wanted some of the credit,” Thicke said under oath about his actual involvement in writing the song. “I tried to take credit for it later because [Pharrell Williams] wrote the whole thing pretty much by himself and I was envious of that.”

Thicke’s’s public image is at an all-time low since Blurred Lines became reviled for being what many perceived as “kind of rapey”, and he launched a public campaign to win back his estranged wife with his last album, Paula, which tanked worldwide. 2014 is not turning out to be his year.

“Obviously, I sang it. I had to be there,” reads Thicke’s transcript. In response to questions about his involvement in the creation of the track with Pharrell, he says, “To be honest…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 wanted to be more involved than I actually was by the time, nine months later, it became a huge hit and I wanted credit.”

“I started kind of convincing myself that I was a little more part of it than I was,” he continues. “But the reality is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song,” he admits, swiftly throwing Pharrell right under the bus.

Thicke went on to say that he wasn’t sober for a single interview last year, including during an appearance with his son on Oprah, and any comments he made about being inspired by Gaye’s work are unreliable and only an attempt to “help sell records.”

In his deposition, Pharrell Williams addresses why despite his minimal involvement in the song, Thicke was given a co-writer credit entitling him to about 18-22 percent of the royalties.

“This is what happens every day in our industry,” said Williams. “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.”

After an awkward exchange in which he was pressed to prove he can read music, Williams says he was in the “driver’s seat” on Blurred Lines, then defends Thicke’s input while also bizarrely implying that white soul singers experience racial discrimination in the music industry.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

The trial is currently scheduled for February 10th, 2015. Get up to speed by reading the transcripts of both depositions in full here and here.

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