'I've mistreated people': Ryan Adams apologizes a year after sexual misconduct allegations

Hannah Yasharoff
USA TODAY
Published 11:49 a.m. ET Jul. 5, 2020 | Updated 7:27 p.m. ET Jul. 5, 2020

A year and a half after The New York Times published a harrowing report detailing allegations that singer/songwriter Ryan Adams manipulated and harassed the aspiring female artists he championed, Adams has issued an apology.

In an essay published Friday in U.K.'s The Daily Mail and verified to USA TODAY by Adams' attorney Andrew Brettler, Adams wrote that there were "no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I've mistreated people throughout my life and career."

Seven women – including Adams' ex-wife Mandy Moore and singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers – accused Adams of championing rising female artists and then exploiting them and stifling their ambitions, often for his own sexual gain.

Moore said she empathized with the women who have accused her former husband of exploiting and stifling their ambitions because she experienced it herself during their six-year marriage.

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Ryan Adams apologises for 'mistreating' women

By Mark Savage
BBC music reporter

6 July 2020

Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams has written a lengthy apology for his past behaviour, a year after he faced allegations of sexual misconduct.

"There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I've mistreated people through my life and career," the musician said in open letter.

"All I can say is that I'm sorry."

Last year, seven women told the New York Times that Adams had offered to help them with their careers before things became sexual.

One of them, identified only as "Ava", showed reporters more than 3,000 explicit texts she said she exchanged with the star when she was 15 and 16.

The story also contained accusations of psychological abuse from the musician's former wife, Mandy Moore, who told the paper: "Music was a point of control for him."

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