After pop star Kesha was denied an injunction that would have allowed her to record outside of a disputed Sony contract, many celebrities tweeted support for her cause.
Kelly Clarkson, who had worked with Kesha’s producer, Dr. Luke, the man at the center of her lawsuit, tweeted, “Trying 2 not say anything since I can’t say anything nice about a person… so this is me not talking about Dr. Luke…” That raised a few eyebrows. What exactly could Kelly be talking about?
In an interview over the weekend with Kyle and Jackie O of KISS Australia, Kelly elaborated. “He’s not a good person to me,” said Kelly responding to a question about the mysterious tweet. “We’ve clashed.” Dr. Luke and Max Martin produced Kelly’s first mega-smash hit. “Since U Been Gone,” as well as “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” from her 2004 Breakaway album.
She insisted that she could not speak to what happened between Kesha and Dr. Luke, because she was not there, but her own experience with the producer was not a bed of roses.
“I can remark on his character,” 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.”
Kelly added: “I get along with everybody I work with. He’s just not a good guy for me.”
When Jackie asked what made him difficult to work with, Kelly said, “Obviously he’s a talented dude,” she said. “But he’s just lied a lot. I’ve run into a couple of really bad situations. Musically it’s been really hard for me because he will just lie to people.”
“It makes the artist look bad,” Kelly said. “He’s kind of difficult to work with. Kind of demeaning. It’s unfortunate.”
She makes a point to separate Luke from his partner Swedish pop wiz, Max Martin. “Max and Luke are very different,” Kelly insisted.
The last time Kelly worked with Dr. Luke–he produced “My Life Would Suck Without U” from her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted–was after she was “literally blackmailed” by her label. “They were like…’We will not put your album out if you don’t do this.'”
“It was a really hard time for me,” said Kelly. “I tried to make the best of the situation.”
People outside of the music business don’t see how much goes on behind the scenes, Kelly explained. “You get screwed!” Kyle interjected. “It’s hard!” Kelly responded.
“He never did anything like that with me,” Kelly made clear, presumably talking about the sexual abuse Kesha claims she suffered at the hands of Dr. Luke. “If it’s true I can’t imagine working with somebody that had done something…like that. Especially at a young age,” noting that Kesha was young when she began working with him.
There was a general discussion about producers who hit on young artists trying to break into the biz. Kelly said that never happened to her, but she’s heard stories about other women in the industry who have had to deal with unwanted advances and abuse.
If it had happened to Kelly? “I’m totally Texan. I’d just hit someone with my car…I would do some damage.”
On Tuesday, Kelly clarified her remarks to make it clear she’s very happy with the current regime at RCA. Back in 2009 it was then RCA chief, Barry Weiss and chief creative officer Clive Davis who would have been responsible for strong arming her into working with Luke again.
Want to clarify that my current regime at @RCARecords is not the same one who forced me to work w/Dr. Luke. Peter Edge is rad & a good dude!
— Kelly Clarkson (@kelly_clarkson) March 8, 2016
Listen to the full interview below. The part about Dr. Luke begins at about 8:01.
