Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor in a new lawsuit
In a new lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend Julia Holcomb, Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor.
The pair’s relationship occurred in 1975 when Tyler was 27 and Holcomb had just turned 16. After meeting at an Aerosmith concert in Portland, Tyler invited the teenager back to his hotel, aware of her age. According to the lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone, Tyler “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct” upon her at the hotel. Holcomb’s second encounter with the disgraced singer was at an Aerosmith concert in Seattle, after which Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to sign over her daughter’s guardianship to him.
Shortly after, Holcomb moved into Tyler’s Boston home, where he frequently supplied the minor with alcohol and drugs whilst repeatedly assaulting her. After Holcomb became pregnant, Tyler threatened to abandon her if she did not get an abortion. Around the same time, the house caught fire, landing Holcomb in the hospital, where she was forced to have an abortion.
In a 2011 essay, Holcomb wrote of the incident, “When I returned home to my mother, I was a broken spirit. I could not sleep at night without nightmares of the abortion and the fire. The world seemed like a dark place.”
In Tyler’s 2012 memoir, he claimed that the abortion was a mutual decision. “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives.” He added that the experience sent him down a drug and alcohol spiral.
The lawsuit also accuses Tyler of subjecting Holcomb to “involuntary infamy” after the musician discussed their relationship in his memoir, painting it as “a romantic, loving relationship.”
Holcomb’s lawsuit comes in the wake of California temporarily lifting its statutes of limitations on childhood sexual abuse allegations. Tyler is yet to respond to the lawsuit.
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