Musician Phoebe Bridgers has issued a statement addressing the allegations of abuse made against Ryan Adams earlier this week.
In her statement, Bridgers thanked her friends, bands, and family for their support and validation.
“They told me that what had happened was fucked up and wrong, and that I was right to feel weird about it. I couldn’t have done this without them,” she said.
“Ryan had a network too. Friends, bands, people he worked with. None of them held him accountable. They told him, by what they said or by what they didn’t, that what he was doing was okay. They validated him. He couldn’t have done this without them.
“Guys, if your friend is acting fucked up, call them out. If they’re actually your friend, they’ll listen. That’s the way this all gets better.”
hey so pic.twitter.com/P911Dvnfq3
— traitor joe (@phoebe_bridgers) February 17, 2019
In a New York Times report, Bridgers and several women – including Adams’ ex-wife Mandy Moore – accused the indie musician of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct.
Bridgers told the Times she was 20-years-old when she met Adams in 2014. He said he wanted to help her career and “insisted that she open for him on his European tour.”
After Adams reportedly sent “flirty texts” to Bridgers, they briefly dated but she said he became “obsessive and emotionally abusive.”
“He began barraging her with texts, insisting that she prove her whereabouts, or leave social situations to have phone sex, and threatening suicide if she didn’t reply immediately,” the Times reported.
Another woman, Ava, said she started talking to Adams online when she was 14. Ava said their conversations – which continued as she turned 15 and 16 – evolved into graphic texting and eventually Skype calls. Ava said Adams exposed himself during phone sex.
Adams denied this allegation.
“Mr. Adams unequivocally denies that he ever engaged in inappropriate online sexual communications with someone he knew was underage,” his lawyer Andrew B. Brettler told the Times.
On Twitter, Adams apologised to anyone he has “ever hurt, however unintentionally” but said the Times’ article is inaccurate and that he would “never have inappropriate interactions with someone I thought was underage. Period.”
But the picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false. I would never have inappropriate interactions with someone I thought was underage. Period.
— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) February 13, 2019
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