Kid Rock Fires Nashville Publicist Kirt Webster Over Sexual Assault Accusations
Following the outing of Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct, people across all industries have followed suit in coming forward about sexual aggressors.
On Oct. 27, country singer Austin Rick (stage name Austin Cody) shared a story accusing Kirt Webster of the Nashville-based Webster Public Relations of sexual assault, which involved coercion and being drugged. Since the allegations surfaced, a number of high profile artists under the PR firm, like Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis and Billy Ray Cyrus, have terminated their business relationship with Webster. Staind's Aaron Lewis has severed ties as well, although the he has yet to publicly comment on the reasons behind the departure.
Kid Rock released a hard-lined statement to the music industry newsletter Lefsetz Letter, which can be read in full below:
The one comment I will address head on is on Kirt Webster. Which the shocking accusations of sexual assault and mistreatment of others I take dead seriously. I never witnessed or heard about any of this outside that he was probably gay, which I could care less about. We (BMG) cancelled his and his companies services upon not only hearing about these, but other rumors that are starting to swirl. I hope to god this shit he is being accused of is not true as he has been nothing but a good friend to me. But if it comes to light that it is, I will be the first to cut the head off the snake. Unfortunately, I believe sexual harassment is like cancer. We all know someone affected by it and it has to stop.
Rick's story of sexual harassment was further detailed in a report from Nashville Scene, where he alleged that Webster had ordered him to strip nude for the singer to appear in Playgirl magazine and proceeded to perform oral sex on the star. Another incident recalled groping at one of Webster's parties where Rick awoke to find himself in Webster's bed with the PR employee. As of press time, authorities have not levied charges against Kirt Webster, meanwhile country megastar Dolly Parton hopes the allegations are false.
Kid Rock's new album, Sweet Southern Sugar, was just released today (Nov. 3). Over the summer, the Detroit rocker made headlines regarding his potential run for senate in Michigan, but he swiftly denied that this would come to fruition on The Howard Stern Show. He'll support the album on tour starting in January of next year and to see if the "American Badass" is stopping at a city near you, click here.
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