WARNING: This post discusses sexual assault.
Last month, when dozens of pop stars were tweeting their support of Kesha – including Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lady Gaga – Kelly Clarkson was noticeably cryptic.
She didn’t exactly pledge her support to Kesha (who, if you need a catch up, lost her court case to mega-producer Dr Luke, the man she says drugged and sexually assaulted her), but she also didn’t paint him in a great light.
Trying 2 not say anything since I can’t say anything nice about a person… so this is me not talking about Dr. Luke https://t.co/lLhtUHbmgG
— Kelly Clarkson (@kelly_clarkson) February 19, 2016
It appears that with time, and a little coaxing from KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O, the singer has decided to speak out against Dr Luke, whom she says her label “blackmailed” her into working with.
“[I only worked with Dr Luke] because literally I got blackmailed by my label,” she said. “They were like, ‘We will not put your album out if you don’t do this’.”
Clarkson’s label RCA is owned by Sony, which – yep, ding, ding, ding – also own Dr Luke’s label Kemosabe Records.
The singer worked with Dr Luke on her smash hit ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, and the more recent ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’, and today came out swinging against him, calling him demeaning, difficult to work with, and a frequent liar.
“He’s not a good person to me,” she said. “Unfortunately, when you have that poor of character so many artists don’t like you, don’t like working with you – that’s not normal.”
She said the only reason she agreed to work with him was the livelihood of the crew depending on her.
“It was a really hard time for me,” she said. “We have our whole touring crew, and people who depend on us for their livelihood. So it’s like, sometimes you have to make decisions that [mean] you just have to sort of swallow that pill.”
It’s also here that she verged dangerously into victim-blaming territory, so, for the sake of clarifying this over and over until we no longer need this conversation, sexual assault has absolutely nothing to do with how the victim was acting or what she (or he) was wearing, and is always the fault of the person doing the assaulting, capisce?
“If it’s true [Kesha’s allegations] then I can’t imagine working with somebody that had done something like that. I’ve never had that particular situation happen to me. I’ve never been that sex kitten pop star, I’ve never sold that part. I don’t think anyone would do that to me.”
Look, she was probably just going trying to be self-depreciating, but still. No.
If this post has been triggering, please speak to the guys over at 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
Source: KIIS FM
Photo: Getty Images / Steve Jennings
