Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler accused of sexually assaulting a minor in new lawsuit

Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler has been accused of sexually assaulting a minor in a new lawsuit from a former girlfriend.

The complaint, filed by Julia Holcomb, alleges that Tyler abused Holcomb when she was just 16 years old, going on to claim that he also forced her to have an abortion when she fell pregnant.

As Rolling Stone report, Holcomb alleges that when the pair began dating in 1973 – with Tyler aged 25 and Holcomb 16 – Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to pass over guardianship of her daughter to him. The lawsuit doesn’t name Tyler by name, but directly quotes from the singer’s memoir, where he said he “almost took a teen bride” and that her parents “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.”

The suit alleges that Tyler “coerced and persuaded [Holcomb] into believing this was a ‘romantic love affair’” going on to allege that, after meeting at an Aerosmith gig in 1973, Tyler “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon” her at a hotel.

Despite his guardianship of Holcomb requiring him to provide her with adequate medical care, the suit claims that Tyler “did not meaningfully follow through on these promises and instead continued to travel with, assault and provide alcohol and drugs to Plaintiff.”

Holcomb also claims that Tyler forced her to have an abortion in 1975 when she was aged 17, citing smoke inhalation from an apartment fire despite the suit claiming that a medical professional told her the fire had not damaged the baby.

In his 1997 memoir, Tyler wrote of a teenage romance, not naming Holcomb but referencing the house fire and guardianship. “She was sixteen, she knew how to nasty, and there wasn’t a hair on it,” he wrote, discussing how he became her guardian in order to be able to travel with her across state lines.

“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,” he wrote. “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.”

In a 2011 essay, Holcomb said of the alleged experience: “I became lost in a rock and roll culture. In Steven’s world it was sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but it seemed no less chaotic than the world I left behind. I didn’t know it yet, but I would barely make it out alive.

“I could not believe he was even asking me to have an abortion at this stage. He spent over an hour pressing me to go ahead and have the abortion. He said that I was too young to have a baby and it would have brain damage because I had been in the fire and taken drugs.”

NME has reached out to representatives of Tyler for comment.

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