In 2014,
Kesha filed a lawsuit against her former producer, Dr. Luke, claiming that he'd sexually abused her for years. Dr. Luke denied the allegations and hit back with a defamation suit against Kesha.
The legal battle has been a roller coaster ride with numerous twists and turns. In 2016, a judge ruled Kesha couldn't get out of her contract with Dr. Luke, and when she appealed the decision, it was upheld.
Here, against a backdrop of jarring synths, Kesha bares her soul on the toll the ongoing lawsuit has taken on her mental and emotional well-being.
On the pre-chorus, Kesha paints a clear picture of what she has been going through.
The years keep on draggin', I'm at the end of my rope
The noose gets tighter and tighter, I'm tastin' blood in my throat
Kesha's third album, Rainbow, released in 2018, was a much-needed victory for the singer, as she managed to keep her career going despite the ongoing legal battle. She dropped her fourth album, High Road, two years later. In the song's final chorus, Kesha walks a tightrope between sharing her pain and profiting from it.
There's a fine line between what's entertaining
And what's just exploiting the pain
But, hey, look at all the money we made off me
Kesha questions about whether she was truly ready to move on from the traumatic experiences that fueled Rainbow and if she was masking her true emotions on High Road. Ultimately, she brushes it off as, after all, both records earned her plenty of cash.
On April 28, 2023, Kesha dropped "Fine Line" and "
Eat The Acid" as the lead singles from her fifth studio album,
Gag Order. The album title is a direct reflection of the legal battle with Dr. Luke, which has left Kesha unable to speak out about it.
Kesha wrote "Fine Line" with
her songwriter mom, Pebe Sebert, and Canadian producer Ajay "Stint" Bhattacharya. Stint produced four of the
High Road tracks, including its lead single,
Raising Hell.
Kesha and regular collaborator Stuart Crichton produced the track with Gag Order executive producer Rick Rubin.
The track features harpist Mary Lattimore, who has collaborated with Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, and Steve Gunn.
All the doctors and lawyers cut the tongue out of my mouth
I've been hiding my anger, but bitch look at me now
I'm at the top of the mountain, with a gun to my head
Am I bigger than Jesus, or better off dead?The Guardian asked Kesha about the song's disconnect between pure honesty and enforced silence. "Since I was a little kid I just was so free and I really do think that's why my fans connected so much to me," she replied. "Like, 'This is who I am, I don't really care what you think, it is what it is.' And I have almost, like... I have nothing but the truth. I have that. Across the board. To have to run a filter through everything I say is like the way I'm talking now... To have to look at it from so many directions when I have nothing to hide is incredibly exhausting."
During an interview with UK newspaper The Sun Kesha said the day she wrote "Fine Line" she walked in the room "like I was carrying a boulder." Kesha told everyone present she had something of great significance to express but wasn't sure how to articulate it apart from its title, "Fine Line." Kesha and her collaborators spent three years refining and perfecting the song.
Kesha's lyrics in "Fine Line" express her frustration towards those who have let her down. "There's such a commodification of women in society, especially women in entertainment, that sometimes it feels like I owe the public everything - every detail of every piece of everything I've ever done," she told The Sun. "But I've now realized that if you're really not feeling well, you can say no."
It took her reaching a breaking point to understand the need for self-care. "It took me having to feel like I was having a mental breakdown to realize that, but I was trying to walk this line," she said. "This infinite invisible line of pleasing everyone else and trying to control what people say or think about me. So why don't I just f---ing get off the line?"
