Adams responds to abuse allegations

Rocker Ryan Adams’ immediate response to The New York Times reporting on his allegedly abusive relationships with multiple women was to say he was “taking you down” with a lawsuit — which he quickly deleted and replaced with a more temperate series of tweets.

“I know you got lawyers,” he wrote before the piece was published. “But do you have the truth on your side. No. I do. Run your smear piece. But the legal eagles see you. Rats.” That tweet quickly was taken down, as the gravity of his position seemed to kick in.

“I am not a perfect man and I have made many mistakes,” he wrote in the first of three new tweets after the Times’ story appeared. “To anyone I have ever hurt, I apologize deeply. But the picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false. I would never have inappropriate interactions with someone I thought was underage. As someone who has always tried to spread joy through my music and my life, hearing that some people believe I caused them pain saddens me greatly,” he wrote in the final tweet for the time being.

Adams was responding to a detailed New York Times piece that alleged that Adams’ manipulative relationships with women were laid out by seven women and more than a dozen associates in their reporting.