Just last week, former Runaways bassist Jackie Fuchs, mostly known by her stage name Jackie Fox, opened up for the first time in 40 years about allegedly being raped and drugged by the band's manager Kim Fowley. Fox claimed that Fowley had raped her in front of other people, including band members Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. Now, Jett has responded to what Fox said, denying she knew any of this was going on.
"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," said Jett Friday in a statement, according to Yahoo! Music. "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."
Fox's allegations first came to light Wednesday when the Huffington Post released a piece on the 55-year-old's confessions. She said Fowley not only raped her, but also gave her several quaaludes, in front of onlookers on New Year's Eve in 1975. "You don't know what terror is until you realize something bad is about to happen to you and you can't move a muscle," she said. "I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me."
Currie also released a statement denying she knew any of this was going on. "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," she said. "I will prove that 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."
"It turned into this really disgusting Grand Guignol-like theater performance that he put on," said Kari Krome, a witness who was also allegedly raped by Fowley, according to People. "And Jackie was dead, dead, dead drunk-like, corpse drunk. She was laying down on her back, sound asleep, out of it."
Fowley died in January after battling cancer.
Read the full story, titled "The Lost Girls," here.
