Robin Thicke Admits to Drug Abuse

UPDATE: In a statement to E! Online on Monday, Thicke's attorney, Howard King, said, "Robin's moment of personal vulnerability is being exploited in the hope of diverting attention from the obvious weakness of their legal claim."

This is another one of the many, many reasons that I just don't know what to think about Robin Thicke. At this point in his career, Thicke is infamous for any of a number of things. First, there was the release of his 2013 single "Blurred Lines," which earned Thicke the title of Sexist of the Year due to his song's rape-y and misogynist themes. Next there was the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, where Thicke performed with a twerking Miley Cyrus — and then later blamed her for the entire incident. Finally, there was Thicke's split with then-wife Paula Patton and the entire album he launched geared toward getting her back. (Spoiler alert: It didn't.) Now, the Hollywood Reporter is reporting exclusively that Thicke claims to have been abusing drugs over the course of the past year, and while that would explain a lot, it certainly doesn't excuse his actions.

The admission came from the transcript of the deposition that Thicke and Pharrell participated in last April. Pharrell and Thicke are being sued by Marvin Gaye's children because of the similarities between "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's "Got to Give It Up"; they gave their depositions in April, which, despite the efforts of their lawyers, are available in transcript form now. The judge kept any video from the deposition private, but the transcript dropped some pretty heavy information from 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.

So, apparently, not only was Thicke abusing drugs during the writing and conception of "Blurred Lines," but that also didn't stop him from taking most of the credit for Pharrell's song and only admitting that he had done so under oath during a deposition his lawyers tried to keep private. Even worse, Thicke admitted that the comments he made in interviews following the release of the song, including a very ill-timed joke that it was a "pleasure to degrade women," were comments that he didn't really remember. Because he "had a drug and alcohol problem for the year" and "didn't do a single sober interview."

I can give Thicke the benefit of the doubt in believing that he wouldn't make such horrifying claims unless he really meant them, but that doesn't excuse the fact that his addiction led him to make truly damaging and sexist remarks that are still a stain on his career and should have been a sign that he should have gotten help. If he can look back upon that time in his life now and admit that he had a problem, then why wouldn't he come forward and apologize or admit to his problem in a place more public than under oath in a private court case? And, for that matter, why doesn't he sound very apologetic at all?

This is probably the reason that the children of Marvin Gaye aren't buying what Thicke is selling. According to THR, in their counter-claim court papers, the children said, "Thicke, for his part, now claims he made all of his statements while drunk or on drugs, none of them true, and he mentioned Marvin Gaye only to sell records. 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 '[doesn't] give a f**k' about this litigation."

Honestly, it's hard to see what Thicke has to gain by admitting to his addiction problems in relation to this case, especially when combined with the claim that essentially all he did for the creation of "Blurred Lines" was sing the song. All we can do at this point is hope that if Thicke's claims are true, then he has since gotten the help that he needs and is doing better now even if Patton reportedly left him over these troubles. And hope that if Thicke's claims aren't true, then he had a better reason for concocting such a story than because he doesn't care about the lawsuit.

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