Music
Kelly Clarkson says her label blackmailed her into working with Dr. Luke
by Jesse Locke
March 7, 2016
She says RCA threatened to bury her career unless she worked with the accused producer.
Kelly Clarkson likely remains best known for her 2004 hit/angry karaoke anthem “Since U Been Gone”, co-written by Dr. Luke. However, she now describes the hitmaker alleged of sexually assaulting and emotionally abusing Kesha as “not a good person.” In a new interview, Clarkson says her record label RCA threatened to withhold her music unless she continued to work the accused producer.
“The last time I worked with him I only worked with him because literally I got blackmailed by my label,” Clarkson told Australian radio station KIIS FM. “It was a really hard time for me. They were like, ‘We will not put your album out if you don’t do this’.”
Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald last collaborated with Clarkson on 2009’s “My Life Would Suck Without You.” The American Idol winner described their time together in the studio as “difficult” but that she “swallowed that pill” to focus on the career of everyone else involved.
“We’ve clashed before,” said Clarkson. “He’s difficult to work with, he’s kind of demeaning. Obviously he’s a talented dude but he’s lied a lot. Musically it’s been really hard for me because he will just lie to people and it makes the artist look bad.”
“We have a whole crew to support, people that depend on us for their livelihood,” she continued. “So sometimes you have to make decisions that you just have to swallow that pill.”
A Jezebel article with excerpts from John Seabrook’s recent behind-the-pop-music book The Song Machine echoes Clarkson’s stories. It states that she (like Kesha) hoped to move in a rock direction, while the producers and label heads wanted her to stay pop. Despite rumours that Clarkson actually wrote the bridge of “Since U Been Gone” (without receiving a credit), music industry executive Clive Davis remembers her breaking down into “hysterical sobbing” at a sales meeting and asking to have the songs co-written by Dr. Luke removed from her album.
In the end, Clarkson clarified that despite her personal clashes with the producer, she does not accuse Dr. Luke of the same things as Kesha, and that he “never did anything like that [alleged sexual assault] to me.”
