Katy Perry refused to speak out in Kesha and Dr. Luke’s bitter legal spat because she feared backlash if she defended the producer.
The Roar singer was dragged into the battle due to her professional links to hitmaker Dr. Luke and Kesha even suggested she had been a victim of his alleged sexual misconduct.
Perry, who dismissed the claim, was forced to sit for a deposition with Luke’s attorneys in July 2017 and now more of her testimony has leaked. In it she reveals she kept quiet as her former collaborator and Kesha went to war because she didn’t want to appear to be the only woman standing up for the embattled producer.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Perry was questioned about her decision to stop working with the producer after Kesha’s allegations of emotional and sexual abuse against him became public. She reveals that she was aware Kesha had the support of several famous women, including Lady Gaga, but she had nothing bad to say about him.
“I felt pressured, but I also knew both of them and a lot of people did not,” Katy said. “So it was easy for them to be disattached and support an idea rather than an actual instance.”
Her silence led to backlash on social media: “People were generally very angry at me for not saying anything,” she explains. “The association with working with Luke was a negative at the time and still is because of this incident.”
Perry reveals she spoke with Luke before explaining she would not be working with him on her Witness album, telling the producer it would look like she was “picking a side”.
She also told the hitmaker she would not be defending him publicly because she feared reprisals: “I would be the one woman that is against women and I’m not against women, but I believe in innocent until proven guilty and I believe in justice,” she told the attorneys.
She also blasted both Luke and Kesha for dragging her into their legal spat after the Tik Tok singer suggested Katy had been raped by the producer.
“(I was) annoyed, p**sed off that she would bring me into it in this way, annoyed at both Luke and Kesha,” Perry added. “I want to stay out of it because I know them both and I empathize with both of them and obviously it’s a horrible situation for both of them. And the only two people that know what really went on are those two people.”
Luke is suing Kesha for defamation, claiming her allegations cost him millions in revenue – and much of that came from Katy’s decision not to work with him anymore.