Has any pop star ever been as destroyed by their biggest hit as Robin Thicke?
Pre-"Blurred Lines," Robin Thicke was an overall well-liked guy with a good voice.
His 2007 single "Lost Without You" hit No. 1 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart, and was voted "Sexiest Song of the Year" by People magazine.
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But Thicke didn't really hit the big time until 2013's "Blurred Lines," which catapulted the mostly under-the-radar singer to superstardom.
While the song held steady at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for over 10 weeks, there was a public backlash to the lyrics, which many called out for being "kind of rapey."
The lyrics were criticized for bearing unsettling similarity to the language many survivors of sexual assault have heard from their abusers.
"Because all three of us are happily married with children, we were like, 'We're the perfect guys to make fun of this.'People say, "Hey, do you think this is degrading to women?" I'm like, "Of course it is. What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I've never gotten to do that before. I've always respected women." So we just wanted to turn it over on its head and make people go, "Women and their bodies are beautiful. Men are always gonna want to follow them around."
But he wasn't on the same page as the video's director, Diane Martel, who called Thicke's comment "crazy."
Then this happened at the MTV VMAs in August.
Afterward, Cyrus explained that both she and Thicke had been in on what went down onstage ("He was in rehearsal as much as I was, and loving it, people," she said on Ellen), Thicke essentially threw the singer under the bus.
"So I'm sitting there, I'm looking up to the sky, I'm singing. I'm not really paying attention to all that. That's on her," he said.
Lets all just take a moment to realize robin thicke is a 36 yr old married man
And then there was this photo allegedly taken at a VMA after-party. (Note: Look in the background.)
Thicke topped off 2013 by being voted sexist of the year by the End Violence Against Women Coalition, thanks to the video for "Blurred Lines."
In February 2014, he and Patton announced they were separating after eight years of marriage.
Thicke made no effort in being quiet about his desire to win his wife back.
Thicke dedicated his seventh album to Patton, titling it Paula.
Not only was the album a flop, it also came off as kind of disturbing. The Atlantic called it "one of the creepiest albums ever made."
Promoting the album, Thicke showed little respect for Patton's privacy, engaging in extremely public and embarrassing stunts like projecting her photo behind him during his performance at the BET Awards.
This June, a Twitter Q&A session with VH1 went awry after the #AskThicke hashtag was flooded with questions about misogyny in both Thicke's personal life and his music.
Have a burning question for @robinthicke? Submit your ?s for tomorrow's Twitter Q+A using #AskThicke!
On top of the public backlash and his divorce, Thicke’s been in the middle of a lawsuit — he's being sued by Marvin Gaye’s family, who allege that the singer ripped off Gaye’s 1977 song, “Got To Give It Up.”
The Hollywood Reporter has obtained transcripts of both his and Pharrell's depositions from April, and they are an eye-opening look into Thicke's life.
During the deposition, Thicke admitted to drug abuse, at one point saying, "With all due respect, I was high and drunk every time I did an interview last year."
Q: When the rhythm track was being created, were you there with Pharrell?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."
When asked why he said he previously took credit for the song, Thicke replied that he was "jealous" of Pharrell.
Q: Why did you say it if it's not true?Thicke: Because after making six albums that I wrote and produced myself, the biggest hit of my career was written and produced by somebody else and I was jealous and I wanted some of the credit.
When asked whether he was an honest person, Thicke said, "I told my wife the truth. That's why she left me."
One decade, so many disasters.
