Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler makes no secret of his relationship with a minor in the mid-70s. But now the then 16-year-old raises serious allegations: what Tyler called a “romantic relationship” was actually a series of sexual assaults.
Lawsuit has been filed against Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler in the US state of California. The 74-year-old rock musician is accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor in the mid-1970s, according to US magazine Rolling Stone. Plaintiff Julia Holcomb accuses Tyler of sexual assault, sexual assault and intentional infliction of mental distress.
The allegations against Tyler have been around for years, and the musician himself also mentioned the relationship at the time in his autobiography. The lawsuit was made possible in the state of California because a corresponding statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of minors has been temporarily suspended.
According to the lawsuit, Holcomb met Tyler after an Aerosmith concert in Portland, Oregon in 1973, when she was just 16 years old. The singer then took the teenager to his hotel room, where they also talked about the plaintiff’s age. Later, with the consent of Holcomb’s mother, Tyler became her legal guardian so that she could accompany him on concert tours and live with him for the next three years when she was a minor.
In his 2012 autobiography, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, Tyler himself writes, without naming a name, that he “almost took a teenage girl for a bride” and that “her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper giving me custody so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her across the state line. I took her on tour”.
Plaintiff Holcomb describes in the now-filed complaint that she was “powerless to resist Tyler’s power, fame and considerable financial opportunity.” The defendant then “forced and convinced her to believe” that she was in a “‘romantic love relationship'” with him. Tyler also provided the minors with alcohol and drugs and forced them to have an abortion at the age of 17.
