American songwriter and performer Skylar Grey has opened up about having to sell her entire catalogue to settle an ongoing divorce.
Grey, who is behind some huge hits including “Love The Way You Lie” by Rihanna and Eminem, as well as Diddy‘s ‘Coming Home’ and Dr. Dre‘s ‘I Need A Doctor’, spoke about her divorce from ex-husband Elliott Taylor in an interview with Variety.
The couple, who had been caught up in divorce proceedings since 2017, finally had their lawsuit settled in 2021. Grey had not been able to speak about the process until recently, due to the legal process.
“That [divorce] was just wrecking me emotionally and financially,” she said in the interview.
“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. But at the same time, nobody can’t tell me I didn’t write those songs, just because I don’t own the rights to them anymore.”
“I didn’t want to sell them,” Grey added. “But it was my only way to put the past behind me.”
Watch the music video for ‘Love The Way You Lie’ below:
Many musicians are making the news for the sale of their catalogues for huge amounts of money (Justin Timberlake and Julian Casablancas being two in very recent memory), though for Grey, the sale of her catalogue isn’t bringing much of a financial benefit.
“Every time one of those songs gets used in a movie or whatever, I don’t see any of that money anymore,” Grey said, noting that the majority of the paycheque she received for the sale of her work went on taxes and towards her divorce.
Along with Eminem, Dr. Dre and Diddy, Skylar Grey has written with a number of artists including Kehlani (‘Gangsta’), Zedd and Foxes (‘Clarity’) and Celine Dion (‘Courage).
She recently released a self-titled record in April 2022, Grey’s first solo record of material since Natural Causes in 2016.
