Robin Thicke Sang, Danced and Played the Piano During His Court Testimony in ''Blurred Lines'' Trial

Singer took the stand in copyright trial against Marvin Gaye's children, which will decide whether his 2013 hit infringed on Gaye's 1977 song "Gotta Give It Up''

By Bruna Nessif Feb 26, 2015 3:46 AMTags
Robin ThickeEthan Miller/Getty Images

This is a new approach.

Robin Thicke took the stand on Wednesday in a Los Angeles court for his copyright trial against Marvin Gaye's children, which will decide whether his 2013 hit "Blurred Lines" infringed on Gaye's 1977 song "Gotta Give It Up."‎

And while you may seem to have an image in your head of how that all went down, we assure you it's probably not the same as what actually happened. Because what actually happened was Thicke played several songs on a keyboard perched on the witness stand and even danced a little in his seat.

Why, you ask? Valid question. And there's a valid answer.

Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Thicke played and sang a medley of U2's "With Or Without You," The Beatles' "Let It Be," Alphaville's "Forever Young," Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" and Michael Jackson's "Man In the Mirror" as part of his legal team's effort to demonstrate that many pop tunes share the same chord progression.

The crooner also confirmed the statements he made in his deposition where he admitted that he was "high and drunk" during every single interview he did last year, adding, "I had a drug and alcohol problem for the year and I didn't do a sober interview. So I don't recall many things that I said."

He said the reason he falsely told the media that he was the mastermind behind the chart-topper was that, after penning dozens of songs himself, "the biggest hit of my career was written by somebody else and I was jealous and wanted credit."

(That person being Pharrell Williams.)

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The singer told the jury that he "was not present when the song was created," and by falsely saying that he was involved in its creation, "I was living in revisionist history for my own benefit."

Thicke was adamant in expressing that the two songs have little melodic similarity, but when shown musical notation by Gaye family attorney Richard S. Busch, the singer said the sheet music "looks like algebra to me."

"They share some of the same notes—and I know that by ear," Thicke testified, adding that the songs "only share one chord."

The trial is expected to run for eight days and include testimony from Pharrell, T.I. and Thicke's ex-wife Paula Patton, who co-wrote "Love After War."