Bob Dylan Isn’t The Only Musical Icon Who Allegedly Pursued Predatory Sexual Relationships With Minors
Male artists have been taking advantage of minors for decades.
Denis Makarenko/ YouTube / Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com In a new lawsuit, Bob Dylan is being sued for allegedly grooming a 12-year-old girl for sex and sexually abusing her in his Chelsea Hotel apartment in April and May of 1965.
The woman claims that Dylan — who would have been 23 and 24 at the time — used his celebrity status to gain her trust and exert control over her as part of a plan to sexually abuse and molest her.
She also claims that Dylan — whose real name is lowered her inhibitions by establishing an emotional connection and giving her alcohol and drugs along with threatening her with physical violence in order to sexually abuse her.
Dylan's representatives deny the claim and say it will be "vigorously defended."
The claims cast a shadow on an era of rock and roll where relationships between adult male stars and underage fans were dangerously normalized.
If true, the claims against Dylan are just one part of a long history of sexual abuse between musicians and underage fans.
Many musicians hid their "relationships" with minor in plain sight and though both parties may have believed these relationships were consensual, the age gaps complicate the boundaries of consent.
10 musicians who allegedly had relationships with underage girls.
These 10 artists deserve to be held accountable for pursuing minors and potentially pressuring them into sexual relationships.
1. Elvis Presley
Priscilla Presley was only 14 when she had met the King of Rock and Roll who was then 25 years old. They met while he was serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and was stationed in Germany in 1959.
Elvis once allegedly told his friend Rex Mansfield that Priscilla was “young enough that I can train her anyway I want.”
Priscilla has said the pair didn't have sex until they were married when she was 24 — Elvis wanted a virgin apparently — but her young age at the time of their first meeting certainly makes the relationship questionable to say the least.
Elvis has been accused of having sexual relationships with other teens before he started dating Priscilla.
2. Ted Nugent
In 1978, Ted Nugent became the legal guardian of 17-year-old Pele Massa as an arrangement with her parents. This is because he couldn’t legally marry her.
“It just really wasn’t a terribly appropriate situation in most people’s eyes,” said Massa years later, "And now, it would be criminal."
Courtney Love also once accused Nugent of having her perform oral sex on him when she was 12 years old and he was 28.
3. Steven Tyler
Julia Holcomb was 16 when she met Steven Tyler at a concert in Portland, Oregon. She was befriended by a 24-year-old woman who dressed her in revealing clothing and got them backstage at the Aerosmith concert.
Holcomb’s mother granted Tyler guardianship over her so that he could bring her on tour with him over state lines — yikes.
She ended up getting pregnant and Tyler pressured her to get an abortion at five months, only one week before the legal cut-off.
"He has talked of me as a sex object without any human dignity," Holcomb wrote in 2011.
"I have made a point over these long years never to speak of him, yet he has repeatedly humiliated me in print with distortions of our time together."
4. Jerry Lee Lewis
In 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, at the age of 22 while still married to his first wife.
Lewis had to cancel his tour after journalists caused an uproar about the age of Myra Gale Brown.
In a piece by Rolling Stone, they describe Myra as “too young to know there was anything unusual about her marriage."
5. R. Kelly
R. Kelly was the producer and songwriter of Aaliyah Haughton’s debut album. He also titled her debut album “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number.”
He illegally married Aaliyah in 1994 when she was 15-years-old. The marriage was annulled once her family and the public found out.
Her boyfriend at the time of her death in the 2001 plane crash, Dash said, “She just said he was a bad man, and she left it at that.”
This would not be the end of underage girls for R. Kelly. He has multiple charges against him for child pornography.
He even has a documentary called ‘Surviving R. Kelly” in which survivors tell their stories.
6. Jimmy Page
Lori Maddox was just 14 when she began a relationship with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Page was 28 at the time.
Maddox went into detail about a time when Jimmy Page who allegedly told her “I told you I’m going to have you.”
She also claims he had his manager Jimmy Cole take her to the hotel to meet him without her knowing where she was going.
They continued to see each other for the next few years, though the lines of consent seem to be completely blurred in their "relationship."
"Looking back, he had to be afraid of getting sued for being with such a young girl," Maddox later claimed while talking about their sexual relationship.
7. David Bowie
Lori Maddox allegedly lost her virginity to David Bowie at the age of 14 and he was in his mid-20s.
Maddox claims were at a hotel and they took a bath together and then had gone on to have sex together. The pair also allegedly had a threesome with another groupie, Sable Starr.
8. Marvin Gaye
Janice Hunter, the second wife of Marvin Gaye, revealed in her memoir “After the Dance” that they had met when she was only 17 and he was 34.
When the pair were out to dinner, Gaye allgedly had to bribe the waiter $20 for her to be served apricot sours because she was underage.
She claims their sexual relationship began shortly afterwards. She also alleges he became cruel and emotionally abusive during their marriage.
9. Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop reportedly wrote his song “Look Away” on his 1996 album about his relationship with Sable Starr relationship.
The lyrics entail that Pop slept with Sable Starr when she was only 13 years old and he was 10 years her senior.
The lyrics go, “I slept with Sable when she was 13 / Her parents were too rich to do anything / She walked her way around L.A."
Starr was preyed upon by many musicians when she was a minor, exposing the dark side of groupie culture.
10. Mick Jagger
Lori Maddox allegedly began having a relationship with Mick Jagger when she was 17 years old.
Maddox said, “I remember being 17 and hanging out at the Record Plant in LA. I was friends with the owner and everybody recorded there.”
She details a jam session between Mick Jagger and Stevie Wonder with three of the Beatles that went awry. She claims the session left Jagger upset and he took her to a bondage-themed bedroom.
She said, “We tried to have sex all night, but, at a certain point, he couldn’t get hard anymore.”
Ciara Litchfield is a writer and first-generation college student. She works in new and expert content for YourTango. She enjoys reading, napping, and her dog.