*Pharrell Williams’ “Blurred Lines” controversy with Marvin Gaye’s family has resurfaced.
Gaye’s estate previously won its copyright lawsuit over Pharrell and Robin Thicke‘s “Blurred Lines.” But On Friday, Gaye’s family filed a motion in federal court alleging Williams lied under oath in the case.
As reported by EW, the motion points to a November GQ interview in which Williams told producer Rick Rubin he “reverse engineered” Gaye’s tune.
“We try to figure out if we can build a building that doesn’t look the same, but makes you feel the same way,” Williams said of his production process in the interview. “I did that in ‘Blurred Lines,’ and got myself in trouble.”
The Gaye family believes this proves Williams committed perjury during his deposition in the copyright case, when he stated: “I did not go in the studio with the intention of making anything feel like, or to sound like, Marvin Gaye.”
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“These admissions are irreconcilable with Williams’s repeated, sworn testimony in this action that: neither ‘Got To’ nor Marvin Gaye ever entered his mind while creating ‘Blurred,’ that he did not try to make ‘Blurred’ feel like ‘Got To’ or sound like Marvin Gaye,” the Gaye family’s motion reads, arguing this constitutes “a fraud on this Court.”
The Gaye family is asking a California judge to consider this new revelations so they can be compensated for “attorneys’ fees and costs” that was originally denied to them, amounting to about $3.5 million
“Williams made intentional, material misrepresentations to the jury and this Court as part of an unconscionable scheme to improperly influence the jury and the Court in their decisions,” the document continues. “Nothing was more central to this case than whether ‘Got To’ or Marvin Gaye was on Williams’s mind while he was engaged in creating ‘Blurred.’ That fact was central to the issue of whether Williams and Thicke illegally copied ‘Got To’ and whether their copying was willful, and they knew it. It was also central to their defense of ‘independent creation.’ And it became central in this Court’s analysis of whether to award attorneys’ fees.”
The motion also notes that “Williams’s behavior seems akin to the entitled conduct of those taking part in the college admissions scandal. Like others who are not celebrities, those who do in fact wield the power of celebrity should not be permitted to do or say whatever they want without repercussions.”
During his GQ interview, Williams explained how the copyright trial “hurt” him.
“This was a freak situation that was meant to humble me, to teach me a lesson. And I think that lesson was just be very clear on what my intentions are and to just not assume that everyone understands the difference between rayon and silk,” Williams told Rubin. “I made rayon, [Marvin Gaye] made silk.”
Watch the interview above.
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