As a busy Grammys weekend kicks off with the MusiCares gala, ladies who say they’re survivors of sexual abuse within the music world are calling for that business to alter its tune.
“How a lot does music care?” requested Melissa Schuman, a recording artist and actress who alleged in 2017 that Nick Carter raped her within the early 2000s. Carter has denied the allegation.
Schuman, a former singer with the lady group Dream, is one in all 4 ladies and their authorized groups who participated in a press convention in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon earlier than heading to tonight’s MusiCares Individuals of the Yr Gala on the L.A. Conference Heart.
Legal professional Jeff Anderson, who represents a number of ladies with circumstances pending in opposition to music business defendants, mentioned report labels have participated in “systematic concealment” of abuses.
New legal guidelines handed in California and New York in 2022 have created a window for grownup survivors of sexual assault to convey civil claims in opposition to their alleged attackers which in any other case would have handed their statutes of limitations, leading to what attorneys say is a heavy inflow of survivors with claims. “The time is now to talk your reality,” Anderson mentioned.
Anderson known as on MusiCares to rescind the glory the group conferred upon Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler in 2020, citing a lawsuit alleging Tyler’s sexual assault of a minor within the Nineteen Seventies.
Anderson additionally known as on the business to cease the apply of requiring non-disclosure agreements in circumstances of sexual assault and harassment.
Zoey 101 actress Alexa Nikolas, jazz vocalist Sandra Booker and composer Nomi Abadi of the Feminine Composer Security League additionally spoke on the emotional press convention, as did legal professional Karen Barth Menzies.
“It’s time to show down the music and take heed to what numerous survivors of this business have needed to say,” mentioned Nikolas, founding father of the group Eat Predators, who has alleged sexual abuse by her ex-husband, Michael Milosh of the indie R&B band Rhye. Milosh has denied the claims.
Nikolas added, “The music business is the Catholic Church on steroids.”
