A year and a half after multiple women reported abuse against him, including one who said he was a minor at the time, Ryan Adams has issued a new statement in The Daily Mail, saying that he is sorry and that, with professional help, he has become sober.
“There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I have mistreated people throughout my life and career,” he writes. “All I can say is that I’m sorry. It’s that simple. This period of isolation and reflection made me realize that I needed to make significant changes in my life.”
“I have passed the point where I would apologize for the simple fact that I am released and I know very well that any apology on my part will probably not be accepted by those whom I have hurt,” he continues.
“To many people this will seem like the same empty apology I have always used when they called me, and all I can say is that this time is different,” he writes. “I really realized the damage I have caused, it tore me apart and I am still recovering from the ripples of the devastating effects my actions unleashed.”
“No amount of growth will eliminate the suffering it had caused,” he continues. “I will never get rid of the issue and I am fully responsible for my harmful behavior, and I will do so for my actions in the future.”
Adams also says that “he has written enough music to fill half a dozen albums” while “working on this.”
Read his full statement at The Daily Mail.
The abuse allegations against Adams, which were first reported by The New York Times, include accounts of his ex-wife Mandy moore, Phoebe Bridgers, and an unnamed musician who was between 15 and 16 years old over the course of nine months when she says that she and Adams exchanged 3,000 text messages. Karen Elson, Liz Phair and Jenny Lewis made their own statements after the New York Times report, and Adams’ guitarist and tour manager also spoke out against him.
Adams called the allegations “terribly inaccurate” at the time, saying some parts were “completely false.”
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