Singer Katy Perry has gone on the record to deny longstanding rumors that producer Dr. Luke ever raped her.
As part of a defamation lawsuit filed this year against the singer Kesha, Dr. Luke—real name Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald—claimed Kesha told Lady Gaga, via text message, that Luke had raped Perry.
Kesha had previously claimed Luke drugged and raped her in 2005; he denied the allegation, and Kesha dropped her suit against him in respect of the allegation in 2016.
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Kesha previously said that both she and Gaga were told about the alleged rape of Perry by the CEO of a major label—who has now been revealed, in Gaga’s deposition, to be Interscope Geffen A&M Records Chairman and CEO John Janick. Interscope is owned by Universal.
According to an exhaustive Billboard.com report on the depositions, which have just been released, Gaga, in her own deposition, says Janick told her and Kesha “he had heard a rumor” about Luke and Perry. (Janick, in his deposition, denied spreading the rumor.) Gaga said that Janick “said something like, ‘I heard he raped Katy, too.’”
Gaga appeared to suggest that Janick was looking at exploiting the rumors about Perry and Luke to get her to leave Luke’s Sony-owned label, Kemosabe Records, and move over to Universal, saying, “He was there to be supportive to her, and I had a conversation with him and her about what we can do to speak with Sony about potentially maybe bringing her over to Interscope, and that I would look after her.”
However, Perry was adamant in her deposition that a rape never occurred, according to a transcription of her remarks in Variety.
“Did Dr. Luke ever rape you?” an attorney asked.
“No,” Perry replied.
“Did Dr. Luke ever sexually assault you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Did he ever give you a roofie?”
“No.”
“Did you have a sexual relationship with Dr. Luke at all?”
“No.”
“A romantic relationship?”
“No.”
Kesha initially filed a complaint against Dr. Luke in 2014, alleging that he drugged and raped her in 2005.
Dr. Luke has always denied the allegations, and his team has consistently suggested they were concocted to get Kesha out of her recording contract with him.
The legal battle saw Kesha claim he “sexually, physically, verbally, and emotionally abused” her and, as a result, she wanted her contracts with him and Kemosabe Records voided.
Among the other depositions to be released in the case, which are detailed at length by Billboard, is that of Kelly Clarkson.
Clarkson said she refused to take songwriting credit on her 2009 single “My Life Would Suck Without You” because “I don’t want my name near his... That’s how much I dislike him.”
Both Kesha and Dr. Luke released additional statements to the media, Billboard reported, doubling down on their existing positions.
Luke’s statement emphasized that this was now a defamation trial, and said that Kesha had “filed a bogus complaint against Dr. Luke—which she has voluntarily dismissed.”
Kesha’s legal team described her as a “victim of abuse” and said “Dr. Luke’s litigation strategy has been straight out of the blame-the-victim playbook, intended to humiliate and intimidate Kesha into issuing a retraction of her statements.”
