Joan Jett, Cherie Currie Steadfastly Deny Having Witnessed Runaways Bandmate's Rape

Although my impression from the explosive Huffington Post article alleging Kim Fowley raped Runaways bassist Jackie Fox in front of a room full of people -- including singer Cherie Currie and guitarist/singer Joan Jett -- was that Currie has acknowledged what had happened ("Currie claims that she spoke up and stormed out of the room" is what journalist Jason Cherkis wrote), both she and Jett have instead become offensively defensive, each issuing blanket denials.

Cherie Currie's statement:

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. When I return from Sweden I will seek a qualified polygraph examiner to put to rest any and all allegations. I will make public the questions, answers and results of that test. 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 and I'm glad to do it.

Joan Jett's statement:

Anyone who truly knows me understands that if I was aware of a friend or bandmate being violated, I would not stand by while it happened. For a group of young teenagers thrust into 70s rock stardom there were relationships that were bizarre, but I was not aware of this incident. Obviously Jackie’s story is extremely upsetting and although we haven’t spoken in decades, I wish her peace and healing.  

But let's step back here. The only person who really has a finger pointed at him is Kim Fowley. He's the bad guy, not Cherie or Joan ... or anyone else in that motel room. And Jackie is a smart woman, who has waited to come forward until she had fully come to terms with what happened to her, and why others did not intervene. (The bystander effect.) She's (now) the first to say that the other people were also violated and traumatized -- that seems to be her motivation in coming forward. Still, both Currie and Jett -- the two most famous bystanders -- clearly do not want people to know that they sat by idly while a fellow teenage girl was assaulted, so feel the need to respond. (And in Jett's case, conspired to cover it up in case Jackie told her parents and legal action was initiated.) The problem is, their denials do not ring true given the number of corroborating witnesses and the fact that Jackie's replacement -- who has no incentive to lie 40 years later -- recalls the rape being "joked about" all the time by her bandmates. (Lita Ford was reportedly not in the room at the time of the incident and Sandy West died in 2006.) Having seen the reaction to some things I wrote in my memoir about unflattering behavior by friends of mine when I was a kid, I can't say I'm surprised by the denials and defensiveness. Still, I can't say I get it, either. I can remember doing some pretty shitty things when I was a boy and I don't try to kid myself that I didn't. What I have tried to do is learn from my mistakes, making amends where possible, and try to steer my niece and nephew -- and even adults when asked for advice -- away from making similar mistakes. From my perspective, though, what Currie and Jett are doing now is far worse than what they did (or didn't do, in this case) as young girls.

Kari Krome, who is a key source for The Huffington Post piece having written songs for the Runaways and witnessed the rape, issued this statement (in which she makes it all about herself) that reads in part:

Krome wants to take this opportunity to stand by her statements and her solidarity and support for Jackie Fuchs. For as much pain caused by Fowley, coming forward with the truth has also been freeing for Krome. She realizes that the damage of Fowley’s attempts to control her by degradation, which chipped away at her self-esteem, has been lifted. Her epiphanies and her ‘post-Fowley confidence’ motivated her to make public the work she has held back as Fowley destroyed most of her trust and confidence in her work with clichés such as, “You will be nothing without me.” “I recognized that until speaking with Cherkis, I had not yet even cried about what happened,” Krome said, “nor was I aware of just how much she had been effected by Fowley.

My friend Kathy Valentine, who knows a thing or two about being a female rocker back in the day (and now!), had what I think was the best take on it yet.

She wrote:

If you haven't read Jason's piece about Jackie Fox's story, here is the link. Below is another interesting article interviewing him about the story. 

Read HERE.

I talked with him at length when he was doing the story about Jackie. As he says in this, I didn't know what his story was about. He asked me about Kim Fowley and I told him how difficult it was to take the man seriously. To me, at 18 years old, he seemed like a sleazy Hollywood version of Colonel Parker. Even at 16, when I called Kim from Austin after Jackie quit, to inquire about trying out for the Runaways, I thought he sounded like a creep--asking me a lot of sexual questions--and I was no innocent at 16, believe me. When I moved to LA, he told me and Carla Olson we'd never get anywhere without him. We laughed about that so much. I was annoyed at the accolades people heaped on Fowley after he died--I kept saying to MEN I knew, that they might not have such an esteemed opinion of him if they experienced him the way a young woman did. I never heard him refer to any female as anything other than a dog. When the Go-Go's became successful, Kim acted very differently, it was only then that I saw a less blustery blowhard version of who he was. Jackie is incredibly brave for finally speaking out about this. I told her, and I will say it here too: she has done FAR more for women by speaking out than the Runaways ever did. A lot of people are commenting on how awful it was that Joan and Cherie did nothing while Jackie was raped by Kim Fowley, and there's been a lot of talk about the bystander effect. I understand why it's possible someone did nothing at the time--it's not hard to see why young fucked up partying people would not act. Maybe they were glad it wasn't them. He was their ticket to being rock stars, touring, recording--living their dream.Maybe they thought this was part of rock and roll, that she got this messed up, too bad for her. She was an outsider in the band, and I've seen from personal experience how a faction will grab their unity by looking down on someone else. But people grow up, and they learn, and they have the chance to acknowledge, atone for, make amends for their past. The fact is that decades have gone by, books have been written, movies made. There were so many opportunities to let Jackie know that they regretted that night. The only shame left in this story is theirs to bear.

Also, Kathy on Joan's statement:

The band's biographer weighs in HERE.