Steven Tyler is accused of sexually abusing a minor and accusing her of forcing an abortion in the 1970s

Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, 74, has been accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s and forcing her to have an abortion, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

In the lawsuit obtained by the magazine, Julia Holcomb accuses the musician of sexual abuse and assault, in addition to intentionally inflicting emotional distress. She alleges that Tyler convinced her mother to grant him guardianship when Holcomb was 16 – which allowed her to live with him and have sex.

Julia says they were together between 1973 and 1976. Although the lawsuit does not mention Steven Tyler’s name directly, the woman had spoken about the relationship before and the lawsuit itself quotes from a memoir of the musician. In the book, without naming names, Tyler talks about “almost having a teenage fiancée” and that “her parents fell in love with me and signed a custody document so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me.”

Julia claimed, according to the lawsuit, that she was “powerless to resist” a life of “power, fame and riches”. She says she met the musician shortly after her 16th birthday in 1973, when Aerosmith played a show in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. According to the lawsuit, Tyler took her to his hotel room, where they discussed the girl’s age. He allegedly “performed several acts of criminal sexual conduct” before sending her back home in a taxi.

The musician also allegedly bought Julia a plane ticket to attend Aerosmith’s upcoming concert in Seattle, as she was a minor and couldn’t travel with him out of state. After the show, according to the lawsuit, he again performed sexual acts with her.

Julia claims to have become pregnant by Steven Tyler in 1975, aged 17, and to have had an abortion after he threatened to stop supporting her financially. After the miscarriage, she says she left the musician and moved back to Portland. She became a devout Catholic, according to Rolling Stone, she met a future husband and buried in her memory her experiences with the lead singer of Aerosmith.

Steven Tyler’s advisors chose not to respond to Rolling Stone magazine’s request for a position and declined to comment on the case.

This isn’t the first time that Julia Holcomb has spoken out about a relationship with the musician. In 2011, she commented on the accusations against the artist for a far-right website against abortion. Last year, she gave a testimonial for the documentary Look Away, which addresses the culture of sexual abuse in rock music.

Julia’s lawsuit comes in the final days of California’s Child Victims Act, a 2019 legislation that granted a three-year retrospective period for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come forward. The deadline for filing a lawsuit under this law is December 31, 2022.