Ryan Adams has apologised for “the ways I’ve mistreated people throughout my life and career” in a statement published on the Daily Mail’s website.
Adams, 45, offered no specific response to the multiple allegations of emotional and verbal abuse and harassment made against him in a New York Times report published in February 2019.
Seven women and more than a dozen associates of Adams described a “pattern of manipulative behaviour in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex”, the Times wrote. Adams’ ex-wife, musician and actor Mandy Moore, said that he was psychologically abusive.
Musicians including Phoebe Bridgers, Karen Elson and Liz Phair also alleged misconduct by Adams.
A young female fan alleged that she had an online relationship with the singer in her teens, which included “graphic texting” and explicit video phone sex. The FBI’s Crimes Against Children Squad opened an investigation into the young woman’s claims.
At the time of the New York Times article’s publication, Adams tweeted that the “picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate”. He added: “Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false. I would never have inappropriate interactions with someone I though [sic] was underage. Period.”
Now writing in the Daily Mail, Adams stated that he was seeking professional help to get sober and taking his mental health seriously. “To a lot of people this will just seem like the same empty bullshit apology that I’ve always used when I was called out, and all I can say is, this time it is different.”
He said that it “wrecked” him to realise “the harm that I’ve caused”.
He added that he had written enough music “to fill half a dozen albums” during his period away from the spotlight. “Some of these songs are angry, many are sad but most of them are about the lessons I’ve learned over the last few years.”
Mandy Moore told the NBC News programme Today that Adams had not contacted her to apologise personally. “I’m not looking for an apology necessarily, but I do find it curious that someone would do an interview about it without actually making amends privately,” she said.
In the wake of the allegations made against him, the release of a planned album, Big Colors, was cancelled, and Adams lost brand endorsements with Benson amplifiers and JHS pedals.
In July 2019, Adams made moves towards a comeback with a rambling statement posted to Instagram: “I have a lot to say. I am going to. Soon. Because the truth matters,” Adams wrote. “I know who I am. What I am. It’s time people know. Past time.”
It later emerged that Adams’s manager, Ty Stiklorius, had parted ways with the singer after told her in a text message: “I’m not interested in this healing crap. I want a plan and I want it to work. That’s it.” No new music from Adams emerged.