Robin Thicke: 'I was in a nightmare'

Robin Thicke finally has some perspective.

Thicke reached the pinnacle of his career in 2013 with the rapid-fire success of Blurred Lines, only to experience a stunning fall from grace. In quick succession Thicke's song of summer was deemed "rape-y," he split from his high school sweetheart and wife, Paula Patton, and a court ruled (to the tune of $7.4 million) that Blurred Lines ripped off a Marvin Gaye tune.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Thicke now admits that "when Blurred Lines first exploded, I had this chip on my shoulder: "Hey, wait a second! I've been doing this for 15 years, guys!" And then, you know, I started to force it a little bit. The ego is a very dangerous place."

"I was supposed to be living the dream, and yet I was in a nightmare because of a crumbling marriage," he continued. "I had finally reached the pinnacle of success — on paper, I had it all. But I wasn't happy."

Cue the drugs and alcohol, and arguably his career rock bottom: the critically-derided 2014 album Paula, a pleading collection of songs devoted to his soon-to-be ex.

"My supersaturation came right after I performed on the BET Awards (in June 2014)," says Thicke. "I dedicated the performance (of the song Forever Love) to my ex. And I came home, and my best friend of 20 years, Craig Crawford, said, "I saw your BET performance." And I said: "Oh yeah! What did you think?" You know — excited. And he goes: "I gotta be honest with you, buddy. You're kind of playing yourself. You look like a sucker." And it hit me that I'd lost my perspective. What I thought was romantic was just embarrassing."

Thicke says he's since devoted himself to his son, is almost finished with a new album, and is appealing the Blurred Lines/Marvin Gaye verdict with Pharrell Williams. "I know the difference between inspiration and theft. I'm constantly inspired, but I would never steal. And neither would Pharrell," he says.

If the singer could do anything differently with his personal life? "In hindsight, the only thing I would have done differently was, I wouldn't have promoted (Paula) or sold it," he says. "I would have given it away. That would have kept the purity of the message intact."