Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is facing a lawsuit from a woman he allegedly groomed, sexually assaulted, and then forced into an abortion in the 1970s when she was a teenager, according to Rolling Stone.
Following the enactment of California legislation that temporarily waived statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse allegations, Julia Holcomb filed the lawsuit stating that Tyler convinced her mother to give him guardianship, allowing her to go on tour with him at just 16 years old. Tyler was 25 at the time. A sexual relationship began, and though the lawsuit doesn’t directly name Tyler — instead naming the defendants as Defendant Doe 1 and Does 2 through 50, both Holcomb and Tyler have been open about the experience. Rolling Stone quoted Tyler’s book as saying he almost took a “teen bride” after “her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me.”
In the lawsuit, Holcomb said that she was “powerless” due to Tyler’s power, fame, and wealth; after being granted guardianship, he promised Holcomb’s mother that she would receive better care and support than she was receiving at home, including enrolling her in school and providing her with medical care as needed. Instead, the suit says, he “did not meaningfully follow through on these promises and instead continued to travel with, assault and provide alcohol and drugs to Plaintiff.” In his book, he wrote that he wanted the guardianship solely to avoid being arrested, according to Rolling Stone.
“She was sixteen, she knew how to nasty, and there wasn’t a hair on it,” he wrote. “With my bad self being twenty-six and she barely old enough to drive and sexy as hell, I just fell madly in love with her. She was a cute skinny little tomboy dressed up as Little Bo Peep. She was my heart’s desire, my partner in crimes of passion.”
Holcomb got pregnant in 1975, and Tyler allegedly forced her into an abortion; though she was unsure about it, he threatened to stop financially supporting her if she kept the baby. Afterward, however, Holcomb fled back to her home in Portland and became a devout Catholic; she remained quiet about the trauma until Tyler repeatedly profited from it through his memoir and an Aerosmith autobiography.
Previously, Holcomb spoke out about the effect the abortion had on her, and her hope of saving other women from the pain she experienced. “I know that I can’t go back and save my baby. But I can choose life now,” she said. “I can be a mother who guards and protects her children now. I would encourage you, any woman out there who’s had an abortion and regrets it, do everything you can to end abortion. I feel that giving life to my children is the greatest gift that God has ever given to me.”
In a new statement, Holcomb said she wants people like Tyler to be held accountable for how they exploit vulnerable children.
“I want this action to expose an industry that protects celebrity offenders, to cleanse and hold accountable an industry that both exploited and allowed me to be exploited for years, along with so many other naïve and vulnerable kids and adults,” she said. “Because I know that I am not the only one who suffered abuse in the music industry, I feel it is time for me to take this stand and bring this action, to speak up and stand in solidarity with the other survivors.”
Live Action’s Aiding Abusers investigation revealed that child sexual abusers often use abortion as a way to cover up their crimes with the help of abortion industry workers, including those at Planned Parenthood.
