celeb news Rolling Stone: "How Dr. Luke staged a comeback in the shadows"

[TomTom]

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The allegations of fixating on Kesha’s weight have never gone away (though he’s denied it), along with accusations of controlling behavior toward artists, and the overarching sense, as one successful songwriter puts it, that Gottwald was “a ******* dick to everybody.” But even so, “he continues to just win,” says an executive who works with producers and songwriters. (Like the other sources interviewed in this story, he asked for anonymity because of Gottwald’s power and influence.) “It’s unbelievable.”

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Pink and Clarkson were not alone in their feelings about him. “Do I believe that people wanted to see him lose?” says the successful songwriter. “Yeah.” (A representative for Dr. Luke did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A representative for Doja Cat also did not respond to a request for comment.)

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“You can’t set foot in a session here without working with someone who is signed to Prescription,” one L.A.-based songwriter says. “It’s everywhere.” That approach was at least partly pioneered by Gottwald, as a songwriter who used to work for him points out: It’s a business model based on “building teams of producers and songwriters, like forming Voltron,” he says. “It’s creativity through a brutally commercial lens.”

 

In private, Gottwald apparently projected nonchalance in the face of his challenges. He “comes across very confident,” says one songwriter. “His aura is very, like, not worried, unconcerned with that sort of thing. He’s ******* lawyered up. I think he probably feels somewhat invincible. Clearly, he took a gigantic reputation hit through all this. But I think he still feels like, ‘Well, I still make the music industry go through me.’”

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WITH GOTTWALD’S REPUTATION seemingly keeping established female stars away from him, he simply doubled down on working with new ones. Prescription and Kemosabe, and the scouts at each, were powerful tools to funnel new talent his way. “I think the nature of being a writer-producer,” says the executive who works with songwriters and producers, “is it’s such an inside job that I think you can kind of sneak your way back into the ballpark.”

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In his semi-exile years, Gottwald also began to refocus on hip-hop and R&B, where he seemed to face less scrutiny, the executive suggests. “Hip-hop was kind of a safe space for him,” the exec says, adding that short memories for even recent history among some Gen Z artists helped.

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The same year, the posthumous Juice WRLD single “Wishing Well” hit Number Five — it was also a Dr. Luke co-production, from an artist who could no longer be questioned about the collaboration. “That’s what makes him so prolific in this industry,” says one writer-producer who’s worked with Gottwald on some songs over the past decade. “He always figures out how to stay ahead of the curve.” (“Whatever you do, you can’t do that again,” Gottwald told Rolling Stone, in an unpublished segment of a 2011 interview. “You can’t do the same trick again, so it forces you to change.”)

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Being a hitmaker for hire was never enough for Gottwald. He wanted control. He had been deeply involved in the early success of Katy Perry, but his first real attempt at single-handedly creating a superstar was Kesha, followed by his discovery of the then-14-year-old Becky G, who had a slow climb to stardom — she didn’t get to release an album until seven years of singles during her time under Gottwald’s tutelage. “It is sort of a known thing that he takes ownership of his artists,” says one singer-songwriter.

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“He’s amazing at artist discovery and development and surrounding himself with really, really talented writers and producers,” says the successful songwriter, “but he plays mental games with them, even the men. Producers or writers signed to him over the years, I would hear from all of them, how he would play favorites and make the other ones feel jealous. They all want Daddy Luke’s attention.… I’ve worked with everybody in his camp, who have all experienced him, at one point or another, making them feel small [with] verbal and mental torture. I witnessed a songwriter asking Luke for something and shaking while he was asking him. He’s a ******* genius. But he’s also a master manipulator, and awful to the people who work with him.”

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Gottwald also helped pave the way for his return to the mainstream by improving his behavior, the exec says. “You [would] just hear that the guy was impossible to work with and went head to head with the heads of the majors.” But, in recent years, he adds, “he’s been a really decent guy.… He’s been lovely. I’m sure that when things happened, he realized he had to kind of ease it back a bit.”

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In the world of Prescription, too, Gottwald stays in the background, and lets a crew of personable executives — almost all women — run the company. “They’re mostly great people to work with, to be honest,” the songwriter says. “They act as a buffer between Luke and the company.”

 

One artist manager says Gottwald’s track record of success was enough for some artists to overlook any qualms, even before the settlement. “It’s almost like a neighborhood restaurant that is a little bit too expensive, and the service is bad, but some people are still gonna go there,” he says. “It’s the way I see Luke. Not to take away from all the awful stuff that he’s done, but people are gonna go to their favorite restaurant, even if they had a Trump sticker in the window.”

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It’s too early to say whether the settlement of the lawsuit will remove some or all of the stigma of working with Gottwald.

 

“I would bet you that some people will still not be comfortable working with him,” says the successful songwriter. “And I think that there are some people that are fine with it.”

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by TomTom2288

[Dula Peep]

I’m not reading all of that.

 

but good for him. 

[mons†er]

was he staging a comeback from the shadows or hiding from addressing the accusations and still working while knowing he is 100% wrong?

 

[Apolonio ₃₄]

6 minutes ago, Dula Peep said:

I’m not reading all of that.

 

but good for him. 

[fountain]

🤮

[SmittenCake]

Its been known he's a manipulator. Charlixcx has talked about how evil he is. 

[Vermillion]

I'd like further unpacking of their notion of new hip-hop artists being more willing to work with him. 

 

Also, he's never going to be out front executive producing an artist he built from the ground up from opening track to closing track on an album ever again. 

 

I guess you could argue his companies having so much influence and still thriving are still at the same level of "victory", but that's subjective. 

 

 

[Blade Runner]

Sometime in the future, he's gonna commit awful crimes again and the industry is gonna regret it (but probably not). Because that's what happens with monsters and people with no soul. 

[Blue Monday]

Really love how this piece outlines just how hard it is to avoid streaming or touching something he's involved with. The music industry is disgusting 

[JungleJuice]

I think he fat shamed Kelly Clarkson as well during my life would suck without you

[gettsleazy]

I think he should stage a JUMP OFF a CLIFF

 

[SmittenCake]

9 minutes ago, Espresso said:

I'd like further unpacking of their notion of new hip-hop artists being more willing to work with him. 

 

 

 

 

Saweetie is one of them 

[Junlin]

Grammys invited Kesha to perform Praying without winning any, and then got him nominated again like next year pretty much showing how disgusting the music industry is. 

[wish]

1 hour ago, Dula Peep said:

I’m not reading all of that.

 

but good for him. 

Just say your brain is rotted and go 

[SharonStone]

1 hour ago, JungleJuice said:

I think he fat shamed Kelly Clarkson as well during my life would suck without you

We know for a fact he called Kesha a "fridge" (referring to her body) so yeah, probably. Just an all around disgusting person.

[Vilko]

I don't understand why people care about Dr. Luke so much of all people... 

 

Like I'm sure there is a huge ass amount of actually proven criminals working on all kind of music...

[AmericanIdol]

I'm so glad Katy no longer works with him.

 

He seems like a horrible person to work with regardless of what you think about the Kesha allegations/case (I stand with Kesha ).

[worldwide angel]

people have been clocked that he has been hiding behind black, black-biracial, and trans artists to sneak back onto the charts  what a POS

[TomTom]

1 minute ago, AmericanIdol said:

(I stand with Kesha ).

We love a non-Luke-supporting Katycat .

 

4 minutes ago, AmericanIdol said:

I'm so glad Katy no longer works with him.

 

Apparently Rolling Stone asked Katy for comments too .

 

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In the face of that level of opprobrium, for four years — 2015 to 2018 — Gottwald’s songwriting and production career seemed to fade. In 2013 alone, before the lawsuit, Gottwald worked with Britney Spears, his longtime collaborator Katy Perry, Shakira, Nicki Minaj, and Maroon 5, among others. In the years that followed, A-list women were mostly absent from his résumé, save for stray tracks with Jennifer Lopez, Fergie, and Minaj. (Lopez apparently didn’t know Gottwald was involved when she recorded her track, and it appears that Fergie worked with him before the lawsuit.) Gottwald co-produced Perry hits from “Teenage Dream” to “I Kissed a Girl,” but his credits were absent from her post-2013 albums. (A rep for Perry did not respond to a request for comment.)

This line 

 

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The real test of Gottwald’s return will be when a truly A-list pop star openly works with him again. His onetime collaborator Katy Perry, for instance, is due for a new album. But no matter what, it’s hard to imagine anything or anyone getting Gottwald to stop — at least before he decides it’s time. “I really like doing the work,” he said in 2011. “And when I don’t like doing it anymore, I won’t do it.”

 

[Frozen99]

he's always been so sleazy...

 

2 hours ago, TomTom2288 said:

They all want Daddy Luke’s attention

Edited August 16, 2023 by Frozen99

[TomTom]

3 minutes ago, worldwide angel said:

people have been clocked that he has been hiding behind black, black-biracial, and trans artists to sneak back onto the charts  what a POS

Also the fact that he uses "women executives" as a "buffer" between himself and his artists (according to the quote in the OP) says everything...imagine being so disgusting that you have to rely on intermediaries to make yourself "tolerable" for the artists you work with . 

[AmericanIdol]

1 minute ago, TomTom2288 said:

We love a non-Luke-supporting Katycat .

 

Apparently Rolling Stone asked Katy for comments too .

 

This line 

 

I don't think she's ever working with him again. She has so much to lose from it and little to win. Rolling Stone was more saying that she has an album coming and it could be an opportunity to work together but I don't see it happening.

 

She wants to come back in a good light/full force and working with him would be like starting with the left foot.

[worldwide angel]

11 minutes ago, TomTom2288 said:

Also the fact that he uses "women executives" as a "buffer" between himself and his artists (according to the quote in the OP) says everything...imagine being so disgusting that you have to rely on intermediaries to make yourself "tolerable" for the artists you work with . 

yikes ,that explains quite a alot 

[AvadaKedavra]

I still dont get how someone with that shitty-manipulative-unpleasant personality can make music so uplifting and happy and catchy.   Such a conundrum
I hate the fact of how i live for his productions 

 

[Baby Judas]

hate the guy, but this is like the perfect definition of "talent always wins". Despite his history, seems like artists still go to him.