Still hurting. Kesha broke down over the “devastating” results of the lawsuit that she filed against music producer Dr. Luke in a new interview with Noisey, published on Wednesday, January 18.
“When you work really hard at something, then to have it taken away from you is pretty devastating,” the “TiK ToK” singer, 29, told Vice’s music-centric site Noisey in a taped interview during which she discussed the lawsuit that she filed in 2014. “I worked my ass off for a lot of years to be able to do it: I sang backup vocals and the first couple songs I was on. I didn’t give a f–k ’cause I just had this one vision. Once you earn that and make that happen, then to have it taken away from you is pretty devastating. It is definitely a mind f–k.”
In February 2016, Kesha was denied her request to be released from her Sony contract, after alleging the producer had been physically, sexually and mentally abusive toward her throughout a decade of working together.
“You’re asking the court to decimate a contract that was heavily negotiated and typical for the industry,” the judge told Kesha’s former attorney, Mark Geragos, during the Friday, February 19, court hearing, adding that her instinct as a judge was “to do the commercially reasonable thing.”
In August, the singer decided to drop a separate sexual assault lawsuit against Dr. Luke so that she could instead focus on releasing new music. “Kesha is focused on getting back to work and has delivered 28 new songs to the record label,” Daniel Petrocelli, a member of her legal team, told Us in a statement at the time. “We have conveyed to Sony Music and the label Kesha’s strong desire to release the single and an album as soon as possible.”
Dr. Luke (nee Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald), for his part, has denied all the singer’s allegations and pointed out that Kesha once denied under oath that the pair had ever had any sexual relations. “Kesha and I made a lot of songs together and it was often good, but there were creative differences at times,” he tweeted in February 2016. “It’s sad that she would turn a contract negotiation into something so horrendous and untrue. But I feel confident when this is over the lies will be exposed and the truth will prevail.”
Kesha has been vocal about her attempts to regain her voice since the legal drama. During the Noisey interview, the “Die Young” singer begins to cry at the memory of the emotional toll the lawsuit took on her.
In a post to Instagram later in the day, Kesha thanked Vice for conducting the interview and gave fans a small look into the significance of Springwater, the Nashville bar where she “first saw someone smoking crack,” as an important venue for her musical career.
“This is the same bar I have been sneaking into since I was a kid, where I first saw my favorite band Partycannon … where I played my first show with my brother (we were called Dynamite Cop btw) where I have had endless disgusting fun nights full of bad boys …” she captioned the shot. “ … Thank you for being a haven for debauchery and housing some of my most special nights and favorite laugh out loud memories.”
