Editor's note: This piece first appeared in its original form in the new issue of Variance. For the full version, click here.
It’s a late summer afternoon. Robin Thicke is surrounded by his manager and various other individuals jolting him from one publicity stop to another. He’s only just returned to the States after a non-stop, international promo tour, but he’s already at it again.
At 36, the acclaimed singer, whose voice eerily matches that of his actor father, Alan Thicke of Growing Pains, is undoubtedly on top of the world, having the absolute best year of his musical career.
In the midst of a whirlwind year, it’s almost hard to believe that just six months ago, Thicke released the title track off his latest album, “Blurred Lines,” which features T.I. and Pharrell. But in that short time, the song has shot up to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it ultimately reigned for a staggering 12 consecutive weeks, the longest run at the top so far this year.
Barring a surprise, fourth-quarter sweep by Katy Perry or some other pop phenom, the battle for top song of 2013 is all but over, as Thicke in his Porsche Design sunglasses has sold more than 10 million copies of “Blurred Lines” worldwide in just 27 weeks, faster than any other song in digital history.
But as Uncle Ben once told Spider-Man (in the movie, at least), “with great power comes great responsibility”—as Thicke can certainly attest.
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No sooner than he rose to unfathomable heights were the critics out in droves, picking apart his song, lyric-by-lyric. Hundreds of websites—including major media outlets—ran headlines declaring Thicke’s fast-rising hit “rapey.” And then there was the music video, which was famously pulled from YouTube before being reinstated, followed by the copyright lawsuit from Marvin Gaye’s family for supposedly copying the 1977 classic “Got to Give It Up.” But then came Aug. 25 and that “jaw-dropping” MTV VMAs performance with Miley Cyrus, which seemingly sent the blogosphere into a collective panic.
“The funny thing is, how many people actually saw it?” says a slightly perturbed Thicke of the performance, which saw Cyrus flutter around the stage in flesh-colored undies, surrounded by giant dancing bears, while brushing Thicke’s body with a giant foam finger. “That’s what I think is interesting. How many people actually watched the VMAs? Only a few million. But yet everyone has an opinion about it. It’s just interesting to me how that goes.”
One such opinion, however, came from Thicke’s own mother, actress-singer Gloria Loring. While 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar also joined Thicke onstage for a brisk rendition of their joint collaboration, “Give It 2 U,” the media zeroed in on Cyrus and her “twerking.” And according to Loring, the 20-year-old daughter of Billy Ray outshone her son.
Thicke disagrees, though, insisting that “everyone knew the plan. We knew what we were getting into,” he says, continuing: “I never thought for a moment that I had been overshadowed. I just go out there and do my thing and try to have a good time—try to get the audience to have a good time. I don’t really overthink that stuff. You can’t do that in this industry.”
The performance, although certainly bewildering, followed a long-standing tradition of eyebrow-raising moments at the VMAs: then-18-year-old Britney Spears’ seductive “I’m a Slave 4 U” bit with a live snake, will.i.am’s so-called “blackface” performance with Nicki Minaj, Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift and Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” kiss with Spears and Christina Aguilera. And now in 2013, there’s an FCC complaint stating that “Miley touched the genitals of an older man while performing music.”
Yes, there’s a definite age gap between the former Disney starlet and the suave singer, but Thicke isn’t bothered by it. “The critics or whoever they are, they have to come up with ways to explain it to themselves because they don’t understand,” he says. “But I don’t really care about that. I definitely saw Katy Perry and Mick Jagger do a duet together a few months ago. That’s rock and roll. Age has nothing to do with it--it really doesn’t when you think about it. We’re not in a business where age makes a difference. I mean, since when has age really limited those who make music? If so, someone should tell Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones. They’re selling out arenas.”
Ultimately, Thicke believes the criticism is just a lot of noise. “You get to the point where the opinion ends up being more important than the performance itself,” he explains. “And that might be a little frustrating, but that’s what good entertainment does though, in my opinion,” he says, with a chuckle.
With his crisp, cool demeanor, even when confronted with a little controversy, one might easily assume it’s just the wisdom that comes with his lengthy resumé, that he’s got the game figured out enough by now to know when to hit pause and when to play. While there’s surely some truth to that, the singer is quick to point out that he’s still learning and taking things a day at a time.
“That’s not to say I don’t know when to speak up and when to be quiet,” reveals Thicke. “You have to know when it’s not worth your time and when to just let things go. But that’s life. All I care about is the music I leave behind. After all the tabloids and the silliness is over, the only thing that will matter is the music that I’ve made. The rest of it, good and bad, will go away. To me, the albums are the most important thing. And besides, none of that other stuff, the rumors and the stories, none of that will matter in the end. Either you’re a Bob Marley or you’re not. That’s how I have to look at it.”
Regardless of the latest gossip bit or criticism, Thicke’s track record backs up his claims. Now six albums into his career, he is no doubt garnering more media attention than ever before. But for those who have followed him for years, record after record, it’s always been about the music, and not much has changed. The silky, soulful vocals. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics. That “how-you-doin” smile that somehow sweeps women off their feet.
Perhaps overlooked in much of the post-“Blurred Lines” hysteria is that this is the same guy whose 2006 single “Lost Without U” topped four separate Billboard charts simultaneously. He’s one of the most celebrated R&B voices of the past decade, the same guy who’s collaborated with the likes of 50 Cent, R. Kelly and the Neptunes, having previously toured with Jennifer Hudson, John Legend and Beyoncé. And as of this writing, “Blurred Lines” has spent a record-breaking 16 weeks atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, an honor previously held by Mary J. Blige for her 2006 single "Be Without You."
With a storied career and a deep catalog dating back to 2003, it would seem perfectly justified for Thicke, who’s been treated by some as if he suddenly appeared out of nowhere, to want to set some people straight and remind them that he didn’t just recently drop from the sky, that he’s been at this for years. But from his perspective, this is one of those “know-when-to-speak-up-and-when-to-be-quiet” moments.
“You’re not to supposed to try to control how people feel about you,” he opines. “You’re just supposed to give. A performer—an artist—should really just be a giver. I’ve always felt that way. You can’t be wrapped up in how it’s received, because 10 million people might love and 50 million people might hate it. But I’d say 10 million, that’s a pretty nice fan base.”
Given Thicke’s new-found global success, he has likely inspired many other musicians now looking to him and hoping to somehow replicate it for their own career. In fact, his own mother seems to have a theory of her own, suggesting over the summer that maybe the secret to getting a No. 1 hit might be to create a good song and then go for shock value in its presentation.
Not necessarily so, according to her son, pointing to this his own VMAs stint.
“That’s all just entertainment,” he says. “But who’s to say that’s the key to success? Sometimes the right way to entertain is to stick with your instrument and sing the song, and just let the song do the work. Sometimes you add some fireworks and some pyro because that’s what it needs. Neither one is right or wrong though. Sometimes the song needs a little fire.”
And should other musicians or industry types seek to bottle up the winning, hit-song formula, Thicke says he probably wouldn’t be the one to ask. “I wish I could say, ‘it’s as simple as A plus B, and you’ve got a hit,’ but I didn’t have some grand scheme,” he explains. “I’m not really a planner at all. I just do things. That’s how I approached the album. I just set out for the experience. My life is all about the experience and joy and laughter. And all the other stuff that gets in the way of that, I try to keep to a minimum.”
After such a huge year, Thicke isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In fact, he just announced plans for a spring tour, in which he’ll be hitting the road accompanied by Jessie J and DJ Cassidy. It may seem like a bit of a wait since his album released over the summer, but according to Thicke, he’s hardly had a moment to come up for air over the past few months.
“It seems we’ve just been going nonstop,” he exclaims with delight. “I had so many different promotion stops going and then we finally broke worldwide. We’re in these parts of the world I had never been, Asia and Europe, so we just didn’t have the time to actually do a proper tour this year. It made sense for us to push that into the spring. I’m looking forward to it.”
In addition to the forthcoming tour and a busy schedule as it is, Thicke hasn’t been able to keep away from the studio, confessing that he’s actually found time to get back to making music—and not alone either. “I’ve actually been in the studio with Jennifer Lopez,” he reveals. “We’re old friends and she’s an amazing woman, and we got in the studio to see if we could find a record to do together. So we’re trying to find something right now. She’s a very iconic performer, so I thought it’d be fun to collaborate.”
A collaboration certainly makes sense for Thicke, whose last two singles, “Blurred Lines” and the more recent “Give It 2 U,” are both joint efforts, with the former having sold nearly 6 million copies in the States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But even with numbers like that to his name, the singer admits it doesn’t always work.
“There’s definitely a balance, and you have to think about what you’re trying to accomplish,” he cautions, before offering his take on why the “feature” is so prevalent today and why it’s good for music. “It’s always about what you give the people next, and sometimes people coming together from two completely different worlds is what’s fresh and what’s best for that moment. Music is always at the forefront of innovation, and when two worlds collide, something amazing can happen. You never want to rule something like that out simply because it may not work. I mean, if I did that, well, you just never know.”
Behind all that charm and charisma, Thicke is completely aware of the surrealism of this moment, also noting the added thrill of being able to share it with Pharrell, who produced his 2006 album, The Evolution of Robin Thicke, and has been along with him for the journey ever since.
“It’s a cherry on the top,” he says of Pharrell’s involvement in this point of his career. “When you’re a kid, you imagine being here. And then things happen in your life and in your music that perhaps change your course, but your original dream is to make music, to perform it and for everyone to love it. So you always hold that dream close to your heart.
“At some point, maybe you just accept that it’s impossible and decide to just make the best music you possibly can, and you hope that more people like it than don’t like it. But that spark from when you’re a kid, it’s still there. You don’t let go of that spark.”
Although he’s admittedly soaking it all in, his eyes are fixed on the future.
“I’ve had some good years and some bad years,” says Thicke. “This has obviously been my best year as far as airplay and sales go, so I really want to try to take this and carry it into the next album and the next songs and keep making better music. You never want to hover on one year, the good or the bad. You have to continually be moving forward, so all I can do is take this incredible year and this energy and keep moving to the next record, which will probably be at the end of next year.”
As he moves forward into his next chapter, he will be accompanied by wife Paula Patton, whom he began dating when he was 16. Despite all types of rumors and reports to the contrary, Thicke says the best part of moving into the next phase of his life and career is having his wife, the mother of their three-year-old son, at his side.
Sure, there’s the rush of having thousands of women go crazy for him. But as Thicke sees it, “the biggest rush of all” is found only with Patton.
“There’s nothing better than somebody that you’ve shared your whole life with and that you’re still madly in love with, and you want to experience everything in the future together,” he says with such fervency. “As long as you have that desire and that passion, I honestly believe you can take on the world. I really do.”