Robin Thicke coped with the passing of his father by “dedicating [his] time to raising [his] son”.
Robin Thicke
The ‘Blurred Lines’ hitmaker “wasn’t in a good place” when his father, Alan Thicke, passed away after suffering a heart attack in 2016, and has said he managed to pull himself “through that period” by focusing all of his energy on his son Julian, now 10, whom he has with his ex-wife Paula Patton.
He said: "I wasn't in a good place when he passed, and I wasn't in a better place right after. However, a few months later, I decided to dedicate my time to raising my son, and that really was a big turn for me. Instead of focusing on my music, I focused on my son. That's how I got through that period."
The death of Alan served as a wake up call for Robin, but the singer admitted he didn’t “step up” to make important changes to his outlook on life until the Woolsey fire of November 2018, when his Malibu home burned down.
Robin – who shared the home with his fiancée, April Love Geary, with whom he has Mia, two, Lola, 23 months, and Luca, two months – explained: "I was suffering blow after blow, loss after loss. But I saw the house burning down as a chance for me to step up and say, 'We're going to laugh today. We're going to smile today. We're going to play today. We're going to dance. We're not going to let losing our stuff matter because we've got each other.' Loss does beget gratitude."
The 43-year-old musician opens up on losing his father on his new single, ‘That’s What Love Can Do’, and has said he wants to make his dad “proud”.
Speaking to People magazine, he said: "It's about the passing of the torch of my father to me and the kind of man I want to be. After my father's death, I remember a friend of his said, 'A big tree has fallen.' That's what my dad was: the big tree. Now here I am, this medium-size tree, and I've got to grow my branches and protect everybody. Every day I try to make him proud of me."
Tagged in Paula Patton Robin Thicke