The ex-wife of Motown legend Marvin Gaye is speaking out following the Gaye estate’s “Blurred Lines” victory.
Janis Gaye, who was married to Marvin for four years in the late 70s and early 80s and has two kids with the late singer, admitted that she was hesitant to file a lawsuit against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke for copyright infringement of “Got to Give It Up” on their 2013 summer hit, “Blurred Lines.”
“When I…seriously thought about it, if Marvin were alive today, he would not stand for anyone doing what they did to his song,” Janis told ABC News Radio. “So we’re here, as his family, and the kids as his heirs, they’re here, and I’m here to protect what Marvin left.”
Janis said that during the legal proceedings, she felt that Williams’ sorrow was forced, and she was quick to call out his A-list privilege.
“[Pharrell] did that faux ‘I’m-going-to-sing-the-praises-of-my-greatest-hero-but-I’m-going-to-take-my-hand-and-put-it-in-the-pockets-of-his-children-because-he’s-no-longer-living, and ‘I’m Pharrell Williams, and I’m on The Voice, and I can do this,'” she said. “There was a lot of entitlement there.”
And how does Janis feel about “Blurred Lines” itself? She admits she was an early fan, but now, she’s over the earworm.
“Initially, I really, really liked the song, but it gave me the feeling that I got back in 1977 when Marvin did ‘Got to Give It Up,'” she said.
“It’s the first song that my daughter Nona learned to do dance to. It’s the first song that she remembers her father doing. So it’s a special song to us out of his catalog. It stands on its own. I’m a little tired of it at this point.”