'Robin's moment of personal vulnerability is being exploited,' his attorney tells Billboard.
Since The Hollywood Reporter made public Robin Thicke's deposition in an ongoing "Blurred Lines" lawsuit, much of the focus has been on the singer's admission of drug use over the past year. In a statement to Billboard, Thicke's lawyers argue that zeroing in on that one aspect of the interview distracts from the heart of the lawsuit, and they claim that's exactly what the opposition wants.
Robin Thicke Admits Drug Use, Lying to Media in Wild Deposition
In the suit, Thicke, producer Pharrell Williams and co-writer T.I. are accused by the family of the late Marvin Gaye of ripping off his 1977 song "Got to Give It Up."
Attorney Howard King, managing partner of King, Holmes, Paterno & Berliner, released this statement on behalf of Thicke: "Robin's moment of personal vulnerability is being exploited in the hope of diverting attention from the obvious weakness of their legal claim."
In the deposition, Thicke says comments he made about being inspired by Gaye were in an effort to take more credit for the song than he actually deserved. "I was high on Vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio," he said. "So my recollection is when we made the song … 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." On top of not remembering the studio time, he also claimed to not remember many of the times he spoke to the press because he "had a drug and alcohol problem for the year" and "didn't do a sober interview."
Read the full deposition at The Hollywood Reporter.