Kelly Clarkson Says Label “Blackmailed” Her to Work With Dr. Luke

Kelly Clarkson, the first ever winner of Fox’s singing competition American Idol, has revealed that she was blackmailed by her label RCA into working with Dr. Luke, the producer at the center of a very public court battle with pop artist Kesha, which involves allegations of sexual assault.

Clarkson came out over Twitter in public support of Kesha after the “Tik Tok” singer was denied an injunction in her case against Dr. Luke in a cryptic, but clearly accusatory tweet. In a recent interview with Austrialia’s KIIS 1065, Clarkson spoke about her relationship to the producer, who she collaborated with on for “Since You’ve Been Gone” and “My Life Would Suck Without You.”

“Literally I got blackmailed by my label,” Clarkson told the radio show. “They were like, ‘We will not put your album out if you don’t do this.’”

Although Clarkson clarified that Dr. Luke had never physically assaulted her, rather “just lied a lot,” she pointed to his notorious industry reputation as in indication of why it was so hard to work with him.

“He’s not a good person to me,” she said. “Unfortunately, when you have that poor of character so many artists don’t like you, don’t like working with you. That’s not normal.”

“It was a really hard time for me,” Clarkson recalled about her decision to produce the two singles with Luke. “We have our whole touring crew, and people who depend on us for their livelihood. So it’s like, sometimes you have to make decisions that you just have to sort of swallow that pill.”

Despite this, the Idol alum defended Kesha’s public refusal to work with Dr. Luke, noting that if she were in Kesha’s shoes, she’d be singing a different tune.

“If it’s true then I can’t imagine working with somebody that had done something like that,” Clarkson said.

Kelly Clarkson’s label RCA is owned by Sony, which the New York Supreme Court ruled back in late February—to much public backlash—was not obligated to free Kesha from her contract with the person she accused of both drugging and raping her.