ACL Festival 2017 - Week 2, Day 1
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Ryan Adams issues new apology a year and a half after abuse allegations

UPDATE: Mandy Moore and Karen Elson respond to Ryan Adams’ apology

A year and a half after allegations of abuse were made against him by multiple women, including one who said she was underage at the time, Ryan Adams has issued a new statement in The Daily Mail, saying he’s sorry and that, with professional help, he’s gotten sober.

“There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I’ve 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’ve gotten past the point where I would be apologizing just for the sake of being let off the hook and I know full well that any apology from me probably won’t be accepted by those I’ve hurt,” he continues.

“To a lot of people this will just seem like the same empty bull***t apology that I’ve always used when I was called out, and all I can say is, this time it is different,” he writes. “Having truly realized the harm that I’ve caused, it wrecked me, and I’m still reeling from the ripples of devastating effects that my actions triggered.”

“No amount of growth will ever take away the suffering I had caused,” he continues. “I will never be off the hook and I am fully accountable for my harmful behavior, and will be for my actions moving forward.”

Adams also says he’s “written enough music to fill half a dozen albums” while “working through this.”

Read his full statement on The Daily Mail.

The abuse allegations against Adams, which were first reported by The New York Times, include accounts by his ex-wife Mandy Moore, Phoebe Bridgers, and an unnamed musician who was 15-16 years old over the course of nine months when she says she and Adams exchanged 3000 text messages. Karen Elson, Liz Phair, and Jenny Lewis came forward with statements of their own following the New York Times report, and Adams’ guitarist and tour manager also spoke out against him.

Adams called the allegations “upsettingly inaccurate” at the time, saying that some parts were “outright false.”

UPDATE: Mandy Moore and Karen Elson respond to Ryan Adams’ apology