Court battles far from over for Kesha, Dr. Luke
After album release, lawsuits continue
Last Friday, Kesha made the next stop on her long-awaited comeback tour with Rainbow, her first album in nearly five years.
The critically acclaimed release was preceded by a slew of empowerment and feminist anthems, including the triumphant top-40 ballad Praying, which many suggest is an emotional response to her ongoing dispute with Dr. Luke (aka Lukasz Gottwald), whom she accused of sexual assault and harassment.
In October 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against the producer that claimed he drugged and raped her on multiple occasions, and said his alleged abuse over their
10-year working relationship led to her eating disorder. She asked to be released from her contract with Luke’s Kemosabe Records, which he founded in 2011 under Sony Music. He countersued two months later for defamation and breach of contract.
A messy legal battle followed, leading Kesha to drop one lawsuit in California last year but later file a counterclaim in New York, accusing Luke of refusing to approve her new songs or set a release date for her third studio album. Rainbow’s release signals a win for the embattled pop star, but her courtroom saga is seemingly far from over.
After Luke subpoenaed Lady Gaga to testify last month, “it ap-
pears that the lawsuit is doing anything but dying down,” says Troy Slaten, a criminal defense attorney in Beverly Hills. “This is Dr. Luke’s attorney instead ratcheting it up and pushing the case forward.”
Gaga, who has publicly supported Kesha in her accusations against Luke, fired back at the producer’s team, saying that she has provided all relevant information and is an “ancillary witness.”
“Dr. Luke’s team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gaga’s role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests,” Gaga’s representative, Amanda Silverman, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
If the Joanne singer’s team is unsuccessful in quashing the subpoena, a judge will “ultimately decide whether Gaga has to release the unredacted (text messages) between her and Kesha, and whether she has to sit for an in-person deposition,” Slaten says.
But how did Kesha release Rainbow if she’s still embroiled in legal drama? Entertainment attorney Daniel Stone speculates the singer reached a deal behind the scenes after Luke stepped down as CEO of Kemosabe in April. Given that her most recent amended lawsuit was rejected by New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich in March, the new album could reinvigorate her case.
“There’s now the ancillary benefit of hopefully she has some income coming in, which obviously will help everything, including the extent she moves forward with funding the litigation,” Stone says. “Generally in litigation, it’s helpful to come across as being reasonable. It sounds like, at this point, if there was a way for her and Sony and Kemosabe to figure out how she could put out music without having Dr. Luke directly involved, it’s best for everyone involved.”
Neither Dr. Luke’s nor Kesha’s representatives returned requests for comment.