Image #1: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
August xx, 2020
Remember that time, in 1980, when paramedics were summoned to the home of a major female rock star? Once there, the medical professionals found two young girls with the rock star? A 15-year-old was arrested on a drug-related charge and a 16-year-old was charged with prostitution? Yeah, me neither. The rock star in question was not a woman, of course. It was Don Henley of The Eagles (net worth: $200 million) and he was fined a mere $2,500 and only given probation for his transgressions.
How about the hard-rockin' chick who pulled strings to become the legal guardian of a 17-year-old girl in Hawaii rather than face kidnapping charges? Or the once-iconic female pop star who invited a Norwegian “escort” to her home under the guise of doing a nude photoshoot but ended up handcuffing him to a wall fixture and beating him with a chain? Surely you’re familiar with that pantheon four-piece girl band who once gave a press interview in the backroom of a music club — all the while being serviced by underaged “baby groupies” under the table?
Yeah, me neither. Those would actually be Ted Nugent (net worth: $20 million), Boy George (net worth: $35 million), and Led Zeppelin (collective net worth: $430 million).
Okay, one more try. Have you read about the female hip hop hero who was charged with participating in a gang rape, was subsequently convicted of first-degree sexual abuse and did a mere nine months? The victim is still labeled “accuser” while the rapper is posthumously worshipped to the point of hologram status? Yeah, me neither. Because that was the increasingly lionized Tupac Shakur (net worth of estate: $40 million).
Photo #2: Tupac Shakur sculpture (Creative Commons)
Name the problem
This is not to say a female pop star would never engage in any kind of criminal abuse. It is to say that the default setting for male musicians is a creep (at best) and more likely: sexual predator. But their talent — coupled with a deeply embedded male supremacist agenda — excuses us for “not knowing” about their crimes and/or giving them a pass when we do find out.
Consider Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Legendary rocker. Hall of Fame member. Net worth: $130 million. Career revived multiple times — including on television:
In 1975, Tyler met 15-year-old Julia Holcomb and decided he wanted to bring her on the road with him. To do so, the 27-year-old singer persuaded the girl’s mother to sign over guardianship of their daughter to him so he could travel across state lines with her without fear of being arrested.
“I was subordinate to him as in a parent relationship and felt I had little control over my life,” Julia Holcomb now explains. “I remember my surprise when Steven told me, and trying to take this in mentally. A sense of vulnerability came over me, knowing that I was his ward, but we were not married. He had not expressed his intentions of a long-term relationship with me.”
Holcomb eventually became pregnant and when Tyler’s apartment caught on fire, she ended up in the hospital where the singer forced her to get an abortion. Soon after, they split. “When I returned home to my mother, I was a broken spirit,” Holcomb remembers. “I could not sleep at night without nightmares of the abortion and the fire. The world seemed like a dark place.”
Tyler still refers to the whole thing as an “affair” — describing the teen as “a skinny young mall-chick who had more legs than a bucket of chicken.” In his memoir, Tyler calls Holcomb “my Little Oral Annie,” adding: “She lost her childhood. I lost my mind.”
But the male hero clearly did not lose his reputation, his money, or his enduring legacy. I mean, he somehow still gets invited to sing at Nobel Peace Prize concerts and is glowingly interviewed by Oprah. As “Sir” Paul McCartney (net worth: $1.2 billion) gushes: “Steven Tyler is one of the giants of American music, who’s been influential for a whole generation of Rock ’n’ Roll fans around the world. Long May He Rock!”
Reminder: None of this will change until we collectively name the problem.
Mickey Z. can be found here. He is also the founder of Helping Homeless Women - NYC, offering direct relief to women on the streets of New York City. To help him grow this project, CLICK HERE and make a donation right now. And please spread the word!
