Barton Hartshorn in acoustics

Julia Holcomb claims Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler had sex with her in the mid-1970s when she was 16.

A woman who claims she had an illicit relationship with Steven Tyler in the 1970s when she was a minor has sued the singerAerosmith, accusing him of sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit was filed following a California law that temporarily removed statutes of limitations for allegations of childhood sexual abuse.

In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles and obtained by RollingStone, plaintiff Julia Holcomb claims Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to grant him guardianship over her when she was 16, which allowed her to live with him and have sex. She claims they were together from 1973 to around 1976. The indictment itself does not name Tyler, listing the defendants as Defendant Doe 1 and Does 2 through 50. But Holcomb (whom RollingStone mentioned in a group portrait in 1976) spoke publicly about his experience with Tyler in the past, and the filing directly quotes Tyler’s memoir. In his book, without naming her, Tyler says he has ” almost took a wife who was not of age ” and ” her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper so I could have custody, so I wouldn’t be arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me. »

In the lawsuit, Holcomb claims that she ” was powerless to resist ” to ” power, fame and significant financial capacity » of Tyler, and that the latter « coerced and persuaded the complainant to believe it was a “romantic love story” “. Holcomb claims to have met Tyler (who would have been 25 when they met) just after his 16th birthday, at an Aerosmith concert in Portland, Oregon, in 1973. Tyler, according to the complaint, took Holcomb back to his hotel room, where they discussed Holcomb’s age. After he asked her why she had been out alone all night, Tyler and Holcomb opened up about her issues at home. He then ” committed various acts of criminal sexual behavior on her before sending her home by taxi the next morning, according to the lawsuit.

Tyler also reportedly bought Holcomb her own plane ticket to Aerosmith’s upcoming concert in Seattle, as she was underage and could not legally travel with him across state lines. After the Seattle show, Tyler reportedly performed further sexual acts on her, and Holcomb reportedly flew back to Portland the next morning.

Publicity

In 1974, Tyler allegedly convinced Holcomb’s mother to allow him to become her guardian, making it easier for him to travel with her without criminal prosecution: a timeline that matches comments made by Tyler himself in his 2011 memoir. Tyler reportedly told Holcomb’s mother that he would give her better support than she received at home, promising to enroll her in school and provide medical care. Tyler” did not follow through on these promises and instead continued to travel with the complainant, assaulting her and supplying her with alcohol and drugs “says the complaint.

Holcomb further claims that she was pregnant with Tyler’s son in 1975, when she was 17, but had an abortion after Steven Tyler insisted that she abort her pregnancy following an apartment fire. According to him, the inhalation of smoke would have caused a lack of oxygen for the baby. Yet, according to the complaint, a medical professional told her that the unborn baby had not been impacted by the fire.

According to the lawsuit, Holcomb was hesitant to have an abortion, but Tyler had threatened to stop supporting her if he did. After the abortion, she reportedly left Tyler and returned to Portland to change her life. She became a devout Catholic, met her husband, and forgot about her past experiences with Tyler until he wrote about it in his book.

Holcomb claims in his complaint that his life was disrupted by the publication of the memoirs of Tyler, who, without Holcomb’s consent, referenced his relationship with a minor and subjected her to ” unintentional infamy while portraying the alleged abuse as a ” romantic and loving relationship “. Tyler also talked about a relationship with an underage girl in Aerosmith’s 1997 autobiography, but Tyler calls the daughter Diana and says she was 14 when they met.

This isn’t the first time Holcomb has shared these details about her experience with Tyler. Before the complaint, in 2011, she spoke about it to the far-right anti-abortion site lifesitenews, and she’s been on programs like the Tucker Carlson Show. She also talked about her experience in the documentary look away from 2021, which focused on sexual abuse in rock music culture.

Publicity

” I got lost in a rock and roll culture. In Steven’s world, it was sex, drugs and rock and roll, but it seemed no less chaotic than the world I had left behind. I didn’t know it yet, but I was barely gonna make it out alivewrote Holcomb in 2011. I couldn’t believe he was asking me to have an abortion at this point. He spent over an hour pushing me to have an abortion. He said I was too young to have a baby and he would have brain damage from being in a fire and taking drugs. »

Ethan Millman

Translated by the editor

Publicity