Steven Tyler , lead singer of Aerosmith , has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor in a new lawsuit filed by a former girlfriend.
The complaint filed by Julia Holcomb alleges that Tyler abused her when she was only 16 years old. She also alleged that he forced her to have an abortion when he got her pregnant.
Rolling Stone report , Holcomb recounts that she began dating Tyler in 1973, when she was 16 and he was 25. According to her testimony, Tyler convinced Holcomb's mother to give him custody of her daughter. The lawsuit doesn't mention Tyler by name, but directly cites the singer's memoir, where he said he "almost had a teenage fiancée" and that her parents "signed a paper so I would have custody, so I wouldn't get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me."
The lawsuit alleges that Tyler “coerced and persuaded [Holcomb] into believing this was a ‘romantic love affair’,” claiming that after meeting at an Aerosmith concert in 1973, Tyler “committed several acts of criminal sexual conduct” with her at the hotel.
Despite Holcomb's conservatorship requiring him to provide her with adequate medical care, the lawsuit alleges that Tyler failed to fulfill his promise and "instead continued to travel, assault, and provide her with alcohol and drugs."
Holcomb also claims that Tyler forced her to have an abortion in 1975, when she was 17 years old. She cites smoke inhalation from an apartment fire, but the lawsuit alleges that a medical professional told her the fire did not harm the baby.
In his memoir, Tyler recounted a teenage romance, not naming Holcomb but referencing the fire and the guardianship. "She was sixteen, knew how to be indecent, and there wasn't a hair on her head," he wrote, revealing how he became her guardian so he could travel with her across state lines.
“With my bad self being twenty-six and her barely old enough to drive and sexy as hell, I simply fell madly in love with her,” he wrote. “She was a skinny, cute tomboy dressed as Little Bo Peep. She was the desire of my heart, my partner in crimes of passion.”
In a 2011 essay, Holcomb said of the experience: “I got lost in rock and roll culture. In Steven’s world it was sex, drugs and rock and roll, but it didn’t seem any less chaotic than the world I left behind. I didn’t know it yet, but I was unlikely to get out alive.”
“I couldn’t believe he was asking me to have an abortion at that stage. He spent over an hour pressuring me to go ahead and have the abortion. He said I was too young to have a baby and that I would have brain damage because I had been in the fire and used drugs.”
Steven Tyler has not yet commented on the accusation.
