Lydia Loveless

Bloodshot Records co-founder ‘steps away’ from label after Lydia Loveless accuses her partner of misconduct

* photo of Lydia Loveless via Bloodshot Records

Alt-country singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless shared a statement on Instagram accusing Mark Panick, the domestic partner of Nan Warshaw, co-founder of Lydia’s longtime label Bloodshot Records, of sexual misconduct. “I began my relationship with Bloodshot Records when I was 19,” Lydia writes. “They are a fun and creative group of mostly good people – in fact many of them I consider to be friends more than business colleagues. However, Nan Warshaw’s domestic partner Mark Panick has long been a source of strife for me.”

Here’s her full statement (spread across multiple pages of an Instagram gallery):
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt9YalTgNMp/

Bloodshot Records co-founder and co-owner Rob Miller made a statement in response on Twitter, disavowing Panick and emphasizing that he has never been employed by the label. “While I disagree with certain characterizations contained in the content of her recent social media posts,” he writes, “the story is essentially, and sadly, true.”

Here is Rob’s full statement:

Some — including Bloodshot-signed artist Sarah Shook — quicky questioned Nan Warshaw’s silence on the matter, but hours later Nan released a statement as well, saying she’d be stepping away from the label “for the moment.” “For more than 3 years this has been a weight on my heart,” she writes. “I’ve been struggling to address something I couldn’t talk about, because I respected Lydia’s privacy and her right to talk on her own terms, if at all. I am relieved Lydia is talking about it now.”

Here is Nan’s full statement:

Mark Panick also shared a response to the allegations on Twitter, writing, “I don’t want to invalidate anyone’s feelings by defending myself from these accusations. I have never set out to make anyone uncomfortable. I sincerely apologize if anything I did made anyone feel unsafe and or uncomfortable.”

This all comes shortly after the news about Ryan Adams, and it is not unrelated. Bloodshot Records also worked with Ryan Adams, releasing his 2000 album Heartbreaker. Following the allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct against him made by several women, but before she came forward with her own more specific allegation against Mark on Instagram, she wrote the following on Twitter:

Bloodshot followed the next day with their own tweets on the subject: