Robin Thicke has addressed the controversy over his 2013 hit Blurred Lines, saying people should take it with a “grain of salt”.
The track, which also features TI and Pharrell Williams, attracted criticism from some over its allegedly misogynistic lyrics and raunchy music video.
A US judge later ruled it illegally copied Marvin Gaye’s song Got To Give It Up and ordered that the family of the late soul singer should be paid 5.3 million dollars (£3.8 million).
Thicke, 43, addressed the song’s legacy in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
Asked about the controversy, the Los Angeles-born singer said: “Well, really, I never saw it that way when I sang it or performed it.
“Usually, the first piece, when it goes, ‘Bump, bump, bump, everybody get up’ the crowd goes crazy.
“It’s one of their favourite songs of mine, no question. The people who aren’t big fans of mine, that’s the only one they know.
“It’s true. It’s like if I’m doing a casino show and they’re like, ‘Who is this guy?’, then all of a sudden, ‘Oh, okay. I know this one’.
“Yeah, so you just kind of take it with a grain of salt.
“I’ve realised that the reason I started all this is because I love music. I love to make music. Then once I started performing, I love to perform.
“So I just go for that part of it. I’ve never added anything to it that was extra. I’ve never tried to put anything on it, but we’re just jamming, and let’s everybody get up and dance.
“That’s all that song meant to people.”
Thicke also recalled how he had struggled with overnight fame following the success of the single, which spent five weeks at number one in the UK.
In recent weeks he has spoken of how he started abusing painkillers during that period, eventually divorcing from his wife of 10 years, actress Paula Patton, in 2015.
Thicke said: “Later in the Blurred Lines era when I was getting my first taste of that kind of fame, because I started to chase it more and need it more and think that that was what was going to make me happy. Ultimately, of course, it never does.
“It didn’t. I lost myself in the process chasing something that I never had and never needed, but then once I got some of it, I thought I needed it.”
