Kelly Clarkson Says Her Label "Blackmailed" Her into Working with Dr. Luke

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Mar 7, 2016

Pop singer Kelly Clarkson continues to publicly show support for Kesha, who is currently in the midst of a legal battle over allegations that producer Dr. Luke sexually assaulted and raped her. Clarkson previously suggested that Dr. Luke wasn't the greatest guy on Twitter, and now she's claimed that she was "blackmailed" into working with the producer.

Clarkson is quite familiar with Dr. Luke (a.k.a. Lukasz Gottwald), having worked with him on singles including 2004 mega-hit "Since U Been Gone," and 2009's "My Life Would Suck Without You." The American Idol winner has now revealed that the working conditions with Gottwald weren't exactly the best, calling him "demeaning." She also noted that she was pushed into working with the producer.

"The last time I worked with him I only worked with him because literally I got blackmailed by my label," she told Australia's KIIS FM [via NME]. "It was a really hard time for me. They were like, 'We will not put your album out if you don't do this'."

She added of their studio history: "We've clashed before. He's difficult to work with, he's kind of demeaning.... Obviously he's a talented dude but he's lied a lot. Musically it's been really hard for me because he will just lie to people and it makes the artist look bad."

While Clarkson noted that working on music with Dr. Luke had been challenging, she differentiated her situation from Kesha's, who had accused Gottwald of sexual abuse.

Clarkson said that the producer "never did anything like that to me".

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