Katy Perry defended working with Dr. Luke on her forthcoming album, “143,” despite the producer being accused of drugging and raping Kesha.
While appearing on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast Wednesday, the “Dark Horse” singer, 39, was asked why she decided to work with the songwriter, born Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald.
“Look, I understand that it started a lot of conversations. He was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is, it comes from me,” she responded.
“The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis. And he was one of the people to help facilitate all that. One of the writers, one of the producers.”
Perry, whose real name is Katheryn Hudson, said she was speaking from her own experience on the new project, which is set to be released on Sept. 20.
“When I speak about ‘Woman’s World,’ I speak about feeling so empowered now as a mother, as a woman, giving birth, creating life, creating another set of organs, a brain, a heart — I created a whole-ass heart,” the pop star, who shares 4-year-old daughter Daisy Dove with fiancé Orlando Bloom.
Perry, who said she’s “still a matriarch,” added, “I created all of this with several different collaborators — people that I’ve collaborated with from the past, from the ‘Teenage Dream’ era, from all of that.”
In 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke accusing him of drugging and raping her after a party in 2005.
The “TiK ToK” singer, 37, claimed the eight-time Grammy-nominated producer, 50, had been sexually, physically and verbally abusive during the decade-long period they worked together, and that his behavior caused her to develop an eating disorder.
Dr. Luke denied the allegations and countersued Kesha, claiming she had legally defamed him with “false and shocking” allegations.
In April 2016, a judge dismissed all of Kesha’s claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment and gender violence in New York.
Four months later, the “Blah Blah Blah” singer dropped her California lawsuit against Dr. Luke.
The parties finally settled their legal battle in June 2023.
“Only God knows what happened that night, as I have always said,” Kesha said in a statement at the time. “I cannot recount everything that happened.”
The “Joyride” songstress added that she was “looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Luke continued to maintain his innocence, writing that he was “absolutely certain that nothing happened.”
“I never drugged or assaulted her and would never do that to anyone,” he continued. “For the sake of my family, I have vigorously fought to clear my name for nearly 10 years.”
