Pharrell Says He’s ‘Embarrassed’ by ‘Blurred Lines’ and Would Never Write or Sing It Today
Pharrell graces the cover of this year's GQ Masculinity issue, and while speaking about the topic at hand the singer/writer/producer confessed there was some material in his back catalog that he's not particularly proud of, including "Blurred Lines," his collaboration with Robin Thicke.
"Some of my old songs, I would never write or sing today. I get embarrassed by some of that stuff. It just took a lot of time and growth to get to that place," he divulged before specifically discussing the 2013 track. "Then I realized that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that's not my behavior. My mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song and how it could make someone feel. Even though it wasn’t the majority, it didn’t matter. I cared what they were feeling, too. I realized that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country."
Toxic message aside, the songs creators also found themselves in legal trouble when they lost a copyright infringement lawsuit worth $5.3 million.
Pharrell didn't just dwell on the negative though. He also reflected on songs that bring him joy, like "Happy," a track he revealed wasn't even meant for himself. "I wrote that song for CeeLo [Green]. I don't have the capacity to write that kind of song for myself," he confessed. "When I do songs for myself, they're always too complicated, and too smart, with six bridges. Because I'm weird like that."
The immense positive feedback that track received moved him to tears. "It literally made me cry. Like, I was on the Oprah show for my birthday, and she showed me a video of people around the world singing that song, and that s--t f--ked me up," he recalled. "Bad. I was never the same. So I don't beat on my chest. I haven't been the same since any of that music."