Read all about it. After Kelly Clarkson insisted that Dr. Luke is “not a good person” in response to allegations of sexual abuse in Dr. Luke’s ongoing fight with Kesha over a six-record contract, the producer’s spokesperson responded by sharing a revealing excerpt from Clive Davis’ 2013 memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life, on Monday, March 7.
Digital Spy reached out to Dr. Luke (real name: Lukasz Gottwald) and his team for comment on Clarkson’s claims. In response, a spokesperson for Gottwald, 42, sent along a section of Davis’ book that supposedly tells the story of how Dr. Luke and the “Piece by Piece” songstress, 33, ended up creating some of their biggest hits together.
The excerpt from The Soundtrack of My Life details Clarkson and Dr. Luke’s first experience working together when they got in the studio to record the Max Martin–penned tracks “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes” for her 2004 sophomore album, Breakaway. In the book, Davis, 83, says that the American Idol winner clashed with Gottwald from the get-go.
“Max and Luke are very strong, hands-on producers in the studio. They are intent on getting perfect vocal performances, and are relentless in that pursuit,” writes Davis. “It was hard for Kelly, who had come from the high of winning American Idol and then having a double platinum album. You’re young, everybody recognizes you everywhere you go. It’s heady, and all that attention affects all Idol winners.
“But then suddenly you’re in an entirely different world of making records in a studio, and you have to take direction. Kelly didn’t like it. Max and Luke were relentless in getting the right performance of their song. Kelly got her back up, and from her perspective, she had a horrible experience in the studio. She’d never work with them again, she said. Then, after all the work was done, I listened to the performances. They were terrific. I could not have been more thrilled. This was a whole new direction for Kelly, so far away from ‘A Moment Like This,’ which defined her first year’s experience.
“Obviously, ‘Miss Independent’ was different as well, but this really was a strong pop-rock departure, and showed real depth and creativity. Everyone loved the end result, and I could just feel the momentum building.
“With the air cleared, I did work on Kelly’s 2009 album All I Ever Wanted. One track I brought in was ‘My Life Would Suck Without You,’ written and produced by, lo and behold, Max Martin and Dr. Luke.”
As Us Weekly previously reported, Clarkson said she did not enjoy working with Dr. Luke and was forced into making music with him against her will.
“Unfortunately when you have that poor of character, like, so many artists don’t like you and don’t like working with you,” she said during an interview with Australia’s Kyle & Jackie O radio show on Monday. “You know, that’s not normal. I get along with everybody I work with. He’s just not a good guy for me.”
“I only worked with him because, literally, I got blackmailed by my label. They were like, ‘We will not put your album out if you don’t do this,’” the pregnant star went on to explain of her last collaboration with the famed hitmaker. “It was a really hard time for me.”
The songstress clarified via Twitter on Tuesday, March 8, that her current label, RCA Records, is not the one who made her work with Dr. Luke.