Ryan Adams Is Being Investigated By The FBI For Soliciting Sexual Communication With A Minor
Prayers up for Bryan Adams who, as far as we know, has done nothing to warrant people all over the country smashing their 45’s of Summer of 69 over their knee. Because of that damn B, he’s always getting confused with singer/songwriter/alleged R.Kelly wannabe Ryan Adams who has just had his most recent album pulled by Universal Music Group in light of a New York Times investigation that alleges he solicited “explicit communications with an underage fan”. Additionally, according to Vulture, his ex-wife Mandy Moore, singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, and “several other female musicians” have accused him on sexual misconduct and abuse.
Ryan managed to slip entirely under my radar until he threw a hissy fit on Twitter in reaction to Mandy saying her life improved after their divorce. Who is this petty little unkempt asshat, I said? Now we know that him being a bad husband, and an even worse cat dad, were the least of his alleged misdeeds. According to NYT, the FBI is looking into his online communications and text messages with a young fan (whose middle name is Ava), starting when she was 14-years-old.
The Times reviewed extensive communication between Adams and Ava, including direct messages on Twitter that began when she was 14, and more than 3,000 text messages spanning a nine-month period when Ava was 15 and 16. The text messages from late 2014, when Ava was 16, included explicit photographs of her. She said the pair also conducted video calls on Skype, where Adams exposed himself during phone sex. The Times has reviewed screenshots of these interactions.
Apparently, Ryan asked Ava her age on numerous occasions and tried to get her to state she was 18 (via Vulture):
Adams repeatedly asked the girl her age and would coerce her into telling him she was 18 when he was unconvinced she was a minor and asked that she keep their messages private. “If people knew they would say I was like R Kelley [sic] lol,” he said in one message.
Lol, indeed Ryan. It’s all very funny until you wind up getting checked for a mammogram by Cliff Huxtable. As to the allegations of his mistreatment of adult women, Mandy claims that during their 6-year marriage, Ryan was “psychologically abusive”, tried to subvert her musical aspirations with verbal criticism of her talent and potential, and blocked her ability to make connections in the industry because of his “controlling behavior”. Jack Pearson would never!
Phoebe says that a brief romantic relationship she had with Ryan began with his sending her flirty texts soon after they began a professional relationship. She says he became “obsessive and emotionally abusive” and texted her asking she “prove her whereabouts, or leave social situations to have phone sex, and threatening suicide if she didn’t reply immediately”. Jesus, why are abusers so unoriginal? I’m not generally pro-book burning, but if all the copies of The Abusers Handbook were incinerated, I’d be more than OK with that.
When their relationship ended and she declined an invitation to tour with him, he became “elusive” about releasing music they had recorded together, yet continued to pursue her romantically. When one of her managers convinced her to open for him, on the first day of the tour he “requested she come to his hotel room where he was allegedly ‘completely nude’. A number of other women claim that Ryan “used his position in the industry to sexually proposition women in exchange for false promises of career guidance“. Again, derivative and lazy. Harvey did it better.
Ryan of course says he’s completely innocent. He didn’t know she was underage. He’s saddened that “some people” believe he’s caused them pain, when all he ever wanted to do was “spread joy through his music”. I think he must be confusing himself with Bryan Adams.
Pic: Instagram