Singer-songwriter Skylar Grey has revealed she was forced to sell her song catalog, including Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie,” to help pay for her divorce.
In an interview with Variety on her new self-titled album, the artist’s first since 2016’s Natural Causes, Grey shared that she removed herself from the public eye when her prolonged divorce and lawsuit started in 2017. “I just was keeping it private,” she said. She added that the lawsuit was only resolved in 2021, and in order to afford the settlement she had to say goodbye to her catalog.
“This past year, 2021, we finally resolved it, settled, I had to sell my catalog in order to afford the settlement, which was very sad in a way, because those songs like ‘Love the Way You Lie’ and ‘Coming Home,’ those are my babies,” she said. “But at the same time, nobody can tell me I didn’t write those songs just ’cause I don’t own the rights to them anymore. I didn’t want to sell them, but it was my only way to put the past behind me.”
Asked if it waas a major deal similar to that of Bruce Springsteen’s sale of his masters and music publishing to Sony last year, she said “no.”
“I wanted to keep building it and growing it,” she said. “But, I have such a weight off of me now with the case being over, I’m not on the phone with lawyers every day, and I’m not having to pay all these legal bills anymore.”
Grey has written hits for various artists, most notably Em and Rih’s No. 1 track “Love the Way You Lie” and Dr. Dre’s “I Need a Doctor.” Others she’s worked with include Nicki Minaj, Macklemore, Kehlani, G-Eazy, Alicia Keys, and Christina Aguilera.
While Grey is disheartened about selling off her work, she said she felt “lucky” overall. “It’s like your life’s work, and then suddenly it’s like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to give the majority of this away.’ But that was my only option,” she said. “Luckily, I had the option of doing something like that, otherwise, I may not have gotten out of the case.”