accusations
Ryan Adams accused of sexual misconduct
Several women are accusing singer-songwriter Ryan Adams of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct, including his ex-wife, actress and singer Mandy Moore, and a woman who says she was underage when Adams exposed himself to her during a video chat.
Several of the more than a dozen people who spoke to The New York Times said Adams would promise career opportunities, but if they rejected his advances, he would become emotionally and verbally abusive. Moore told the Times that "music was a point of control for him," and he would often promise to bring her into the studio but then replace her with another artist. "He would always tell me, 'You're not a real musician, because you don't play an instrument,'" she said.
One woman, now 20, told the Times she started talking with Adams online in 2013. She plays bass, and it wasn't long before their chats about music and a career turned into phone sex. The Times reviewed 3,217 text messages between Adams and the woman, who is identified by her middle name, Ava. The texts show that Adams repeatedly asked Ava about her age, and even though she said at times she was 18 or older, he still said in 2014 that he would "get in trouble if someone knew we talked like this." She also told the Times that she once agreed to video chat with him, and once they were connected, she saw that he was naked.
Adams' lawyer told the Times his client "unequivocally denies that he ever engaged in appropriate online sexual communications with someone he knew was underage." On Twitter Wednesday evening, Adams said he's "not a perfect man," but the "picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate."