As previously reported, a recent interview with the Runaways bassist Jackie Fuchs (a.k.a. Jackie Fox) had her telling the Huffington Post that band manager Kim Fowley sexually assaulted her at a New Year's Eve party in 1975, in front of her bandmates. Following guitarist Joan Jett's statement that she was "not aware of this incident," vocalist Cherie Currie has spoken up about the harrowing allegations as well.
The Huffington Post piece had Fuchs claiming that she was given Quaaludes ahead of arriving at a Los Angeles motel following a Runaways performance. There, she said she went in and out of consciousness as Fowley offered a roadie the opportunity to have sex with her, which was declined. She said that Fowley then raped her himself.
"I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me," Fuchs said.
While Currie had told the Huffington Post that she had spoken up and stormed out of the room while this was happening, new posts on her Facebook page now claim that her interpretation of the incident is different than Fuchs.
"All I can say is if Joan, Sandy and I saw an unconscious girl being brutally raped in front of us, we would have hit him over the head with a chair," the singer wrote.
She added in a second Facebook post:
I have been accused of a crime. Of looking into the dead yet pleading eyes of a girl, unable to move while she was brutally raped and doing nothing. I have never been one to deny my mistakes in life and I wouldn't start now. If I were guilty, I would admit it. There are so many excuses I could make being only one month into my sixteenth year at the time that people would understand but I am innocent.
Currie is currently in Sweden, but mentioned she'll seek out a polygraph examiner when she returns to U.S. soil to clear her name of the allegations that she was complicit in the sexual assault of her bandmate.
"I will make public the questions, answers and results of that test," she wrote. "I will prove I am telling the truth. I will not allow anyone to throw me under the bus and accuse me of such a foul act. I will fight for myself. It is the only thing I can do."
In response to critiques from fans, the singer added: "I'm not denying statutory rape. It happened in that room. Just not the way Jackie said it happened."
Currie had previously delivered a different version of the story in her autobiography, Neon Angel, though it did not reveal Fuchs by name. According to Currie, she had originally tried to get Fuchs to go on record for Neon Angel, but the bassist had denied any wrongdoing at the time. Currie says that Fuchs and her lawyers had been battling with her over the chapter for years.
Currie also pointed towards a 2009 blog post from Fuchs that addressed the incident, with the bassist writing at the time: "We should respect one another, as people, as musicians, and most of all as humans. Sordid sex tales don't do that and aren't very interesting anyway. They should be left where they belong -- in Cherie's imagination."
In related news, Runaways biographer Evelyn McDonnell has spoken out about the article as well, specifically about how author Jason Cherkis handled the story. McDonnell, who wrote 2013's Queens of Noise, has called out "the story's sometimes sensationalist tone, the reporter's methods, and some of the response to it online – particularly the way other women tangential to this story (including Joan Jett and myself) are also being targeted and blamed, by men."
You can find McDonnell's full critique on Cherkis' piece over here.
The Huffington Post piece had Fuchs claiming that she was given Quaaludes ahead of arriving at a Los Angeles motel following a Runaways performance. There, she said she went in and out of consciousness as Fowley offered a roadie the opportunity to have sex with her, which was declined. She said that Fowley then raped her himself.
"I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me," Fuchs said.
While Currie had told the Huffington Post that she had spoken up and stormed out of the room while this was happening, new posts on her Facebook page now claim that her interpretation of the incident is different than Fuchs.
"All I can say is if Joan, Sandy and I saw an unconscious girl being brutally raped in front of us, we would have hit him over the head with a chair," the singer wrote.
She added in a second Facebook post:
I have been accused of a crime. Of looking into the dead yet pleading eyes of a girl, unable to move while she was brutally raped and doing nothing. I have never been one to deny my mistakes in life and I wouldn't start now. If I were guilty, I would admit it. There are so many excuses I could make being only one month into my sixteenth year at the time that people would understand but I am innocent.
Currie is currently in Sweden, but mentioned she'll seek out a polygraph examiner when she returns to U.S. soil to clear her name of the allegations that she was complicit in the sexual assault of her bandmate.
"I will make public the questions, answers and results of that test," she wrote. "I will prove I am telling the truth. I will not allow anyone to throw me under the bus and accuse me of such a foul act. I will fight for myself. It is the only thing I can do."
In response to critiques from fans, the singer added: "I'm not denying statutory rape. It happened in that room. Just not the way Jackie said it happened."
Currie had previously delivered a different version of the story in her autobiography, Neon Angel, though it did not reveal Fuchs by name. According to Currie, she had originally tried to get Fuchs to go on record for Neon Angel, but the bassist had denied any wrongdoing at the time. Currie says that Fuchs and her lawyers had been battling with her over the chapter for years.
Currie also pointed towards a 2009 blog post from Fuchs that addressed the incident, with the bassist writing at the time: "We should respect one another, as people, as musicians, and most of all as humans. Sordid sex tales don't do that and aren't very interesting anyway. They should be left where they belong -- in Cherie's imagination."
In related news, Runaways biographer Evelyn McDonnell has spoken out about the article as well, specifically about how author Jason Cherkis handled the story. McDonnell, who wrote 2013's Queens of Noise, has called out "the story's sometimes sensationalist tone, the reporter's methods, and some of the response to it online – particularly the way other women tangential to this story (including Joan Jett and myself) are also being targeted and blamed, by men."
You can find McDonnell's full critique on Cherkis' piece over here.