After years of allegedly being silenced, 10 feminine survivors of sexual assault took a stand in opposition to the music business — and uncovered their experiences with Axl Rose, Nick Carter and extra musicians.
“The secrets and techniques now we have unveiled are horrifying,” lawyer Jeff Anderson mentioned in a press launch on Thursday, January 25. “What could also be much more horrifying is that we all know that is solely the tip of the iceberg.”
The lawyer hosted a reside press occasion with a number of girls who claimed to have been sexually assaulted whereas working within the music business or as followers.
Former Dream singer Melissa Schuman detailed being allegedly assaulted by Backstreet Boys’ Carter, 43, when she was a youngster, whereas Sheila Kennedy recalled Weapons N’ Roses frontman Rose, 61, allegedly attacking her within the ‘80s.
“The music business ought to thrive on expertise, dedication, and fervour not coercion, not exploitation, not harassment, and positively not rape,” Schuman, 39, mentioned on Thursday. “In sharing my story, I goal to empower others to interrupt the cycle of silence that has allowed this challenge to persist. It’s about time the music business is now not a breeding floor for abuse.”
Kari Krome, who’s a part of the Make Music Secure Program and a former songwriter for the Runaways, slammed Rodney Bingenheimer for being a “well-known predator” whereas asking his employer SiriusXM to chop ties with the rocker.
Scroll right down to study extra in regards to the survivors’ alleged assaults — and what they need the music business to do in response:
Girls Are ‘Low cost Labor’ in Music Trade
Schuman, who beforehand spoke about her alleged assault in 2016, recounted her begin in music, saying she was a part of the woman group Dream in 1999. The band was signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ Dangerous Boy Information.
“I used to be in the course of faculty on the time, really barely out of the eighth grade. And I consider that every one my goals have been on the verge of coming true,” she mentioned on Thursday, noting that after the group gained multi-platinum standing, she thought her profession would take off.
Schuman confessed, “I by no means, ever thought-about the darker motives behind discovering and shaping younger expertise, like the ladies in Dream and myself apart from us getting used as low-cost labor.” She alleged that the ladies have been “a main age for grooming.”
When she was about to show 18, Schuman remembered selecting up on “this kind of silent understanding by these round me, that success would come on the expense of the alternate of my physique.” Schuman alleged that it was joked about among the many adults within the business that “the price of saying sure to uncomfortable advances” would assist with “profession development.”
Nick Carter Allegedly ‘Weaponized’ Fandom After Assault Claims
Schuman advised the press on Thursday that she was “sexually assaulted by Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys after I was solely 18 years previous.” She alleged that the incident fully derailed her music profession.
“I believed it was not possible to safeguard myself from his management and his affect whereas pursuing music,” she defined. “And so on the younger age of 20 years I deserted my recording profession as a solo artist, I used to be trapped by skewed energy dynamics.”
Schuman claimed that the business was not solely made up of “predators,” however she argued that “these cashing in on the predators that defend them in any respect prices” have been simply as unhealthy. When Schuman got here ahead together with her story, first on her weblog in 2017 after which to police the following 12 months, she alleged that Carter had his followers disgrace her.
“I’ve since turn into a goal of retaliation by means of orchestrated PR,” she claimed. “Learn the headlines and social media assaults my abuser and his boy band are properly funded, they’ve entry to in depth assets they usually even weapon weaponize their fandom to defend their bandmate and model from accountability.”
As a member of one of many solely boy bands with true longevity, Nick Carter has seen all of it. Regardless of his success with the Backstreet Boys, Carter has skilled turmoil in his private life. In January 2002, he was arrested in Florida and charged with one misdemeanor rely of resisting/opposing a legislation enforcement officer with out […]
Schuman sued Carter in April 2023 for sexual assault and battery. In court docket paperwork obtained by Us Weekly, Schuman claimed that Carter raped her when she was 18 and he was 22. She alleged within the submitting that Carter carried out oral intercourse on her after which pressured her to do the identical.
“Melissa Schuman has been peddling this story for a few years, however her allegation was false when she first made it again in 2017 —and it nonetheless is,” Carter’s lawyer, Liane Okay. Wakayama, advised Us in an announcement on the time. “A choose in Nevada not too long ago dominated, after reviewing the in depth proof we laid out, that there are sturdy grounds for Nick Carter to proceed together with his lawsuit in opposition to Ms. Schuman for plotting to break, defame and extort Nick, his associates, his pals and his household.”
Wakayama continued: “In gentle of our progress in Nevada, this sort of response is without delay each predictable and pathetic. However this PR stunt received’t shake Nick from his dedication to carry Ms. Schuman and her co-conspirators to account for the immeasurable ache and struggling their extortionate conduct has induced.”
Carter and Schuman appeared in court docket on January 17, throughout which era he requested for a choose to dismiss the case. Carter’s plea was denied. He has additionally filed a counter declare in opposition to Schuman and two others for allegedly harassing him.
Axl Rose Is a ‘Monster’
Us confirmed in November 2023 that Kennedy, 61, filed a lawsuit in opposition to Rose, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in 1989. Kennedy alleged that after she tried to depart Rose’s lodge room as a result of he wished to interact in group intercourse with two different fashions, Rose reportedly “knocked her to the ground” and dragged her to the mattress.
“Merely put, this incident by no means occurred. Notably, these fictional claims have been filed the day earlier than the New York State submitting deadline expires,” Rose’s lawyer, Alan S. Gutman, advised Us in an announcement on the time. “Although he doesn’t deny the potential of a fan photograph taken in passing, Mr. Rose has no recollection of ever assembly or talking to the Plaintiff, and has by no means heard about these fictional allegations previous to immediately. Mr. Rose is assured this case will likely be resolved in his favor.”
Kennedy, who was a former Penthouse mannequin, has not backed down from her claims and has continued to allege that the assault has left her traumatized. “I’ve a voice and I don’t need to be known as a sufferer. I need different girls to listen to this about Axl Rose, he’s a monster and he must be held accountable,” she mentioned on Thursday. “And I’m right here immediately to make it possible for occurs.”
Kennedy famous that it was “troublesome” to speak in regards to the assault however she wished to get her story on the market. “I believe it’s actually necessary that we have to make this business secure for ladies,” she defined. “There are such a lot of victims that really feel disgrace, that really feel responsible. Really feel like they once they fall asleep at evening, they’ve nightmares and it must cease this monster must be stopped: Axl Rose.”
A Name for Rodney Bingenheimer to Be Fired
Krome (authorized identify Carrie Mitchell) filed two lawsuits in April 2023, one in opposition to the late Runaways supervisor Kim Fowley and the second in opposition to former KROQ disc jokey Bingenheimer, 76. Krome claimed that Fowley, who died in 2015, sexually assaulted her within the Seventies when she was a teen. Fowley was beforehand accused of sexual assault by Runaways’ bassist Jackie Fox.
Krome alleged that Bingenheimer additionally sexually assaulted her throughout that decade after grooming her. Bingenheimer has not too long ago been accused of sexual assault by 5 different girls. He has not publicly commented on the case. Bingenheimer at the moment has a SiriusXM radio present known as “Rodney Bingenheimer within the Underground Storage,” which Krome argued on Thursday ought to get shut down as a result of allegations.
“I’m right here to demand Sirius XM to take away Rodney Bingenheimer a widely known serial predator and pedophile,” Krome advised reporters. “What I need to know is how do listeners really feel about having an abuser and a pedophile employed by Sirius XM? What number of extra victims want to return ahead for Sirius to take this severely? It is a most cancers that’s affected each side of the business and I’m right here to name for it to cease and I’d identical to to say flat out disgrace on Sirius XM. Take away Rodney Bingenheimer.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Rose, Carter and Bingenheimer’s reps for remark.
In case you or somebody you already know has been sexually assaulted, contact the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
