Joan Jett Responds to Runaways Rape Story (Updated 7/13)

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Fox/Fuchs top right/Jett bottom right

In an article that appeared on The Huffington Post this week, Jackie Fuchs pka Jackie Fox of the groundbreaking all-girl band The Runaways claims she was drugged and raped in 1975 at age 16 by the group’s late manager/producer and svengali Kim Fowley. Even more disturbingly, the article notes: “’I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me,’ Jackie says. She looked out from the bed and noticed [Cherie] Currie and [Joan] Jett staring at her.”

Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Jett denied witnessing the event to the story’s author. On Friday (7/10) she took to her Facebook page to comment further on the incident. “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.”

Fowley died on January 15 this year from bladder cancer. After Fuchs left the band in 1977, she eventually went on to graduate from Harvard Law School, where President Barack Obama was a classmate.

Update: Cherie Currie also posted a denial on her official Facebook page on 7/11. She says that when she returns from Sweden she will take a polygraph test to prove that she is 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,” writes Currie.

Fox also posted on Facebook today (7/13) about her experience since going public with her rape accusation. And replies to Jett and Currie, “I only wish that if my bandmates can’t remember what happened that night – or if they just remember it differently –they would stick simply to saying that. By asserting that if they’d witnessed my rape, they’d have done something about it, they perpetuate the very myth I was trying to dispel when I decided to tell my story.

“If we have any hope at all of putting an end to incidents like these, we need to stop doubting the accusers and start holding rapists, abusers and bullies accountable. What we don’t need to do is point fingers at those who weren’t to blame for their actions.”