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Steven Tyler‘s name has been removed from an upcoming gala in which he was set to be honored following a decades-old sexual assault allegation levied against the rocker.
The 74-year-old Aerosmith singer was originally listed as the celebrity honoree for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Power of Love Gala, but links to the original announcement of the honor have disappeared, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Tyler’s managers and the gala organizers for comment.
Last month, Tyler was sued by Julia Holcomb, who claims that he sexually abused her, plied her with drugs and alcohol and even pressured her into getting an abortion, beginning when she was only 16 and he was 25.
Disappeared: Steven Tyler, 74, has been dropped from publicity materials for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Power of Love Gala in Las Vegas following sexual assault allegations, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported; seen in 2019 in LA
The Review Journal notes that Tyler’s name is absent from the Keep Memory Alive website’s link to the gala, which is scheduled for February 18 and will be held at the MGM Grand Garden.
He was announced back in September as the most high-profile celebrity honoree at the event, while the philanthropist John Paul DeJoria, who co-founded the hair-care company John Paul Mitchell Systems, would be joining him.
DeJoria’s name is still included on promotional materials, but the connection to Tyler is now absent.
Despite Tyler’s disappearance from the marketing materials, gala organizers have not announced that he has been dropped from the event.
MIA: Tyler was originally the celebrity honoree at the Alzheimer’s gala, but his sudden absence suggests he may have been dropped; seen in November in LA
The Power of Love Gala helps to raise funds to combat Alzheimer’s disease and to help those afflicted with the brain disease and their families.
Aerosmith recently canceled the final six shows of its Deuces Are Wild residency at Dolby Live in Las Vegas due to Tyler’s ill health, though the nature of his health issues has not been revealed.
The frontman was swept up in controversy in recent days after a woman named Julia Holcomb filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles in the final days of a California law that temporarily lifts the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims under a ‘look-back’ window, which is now closed.
The suit, first reported by Rolling Stone, does not name Tyler, identifying him as ‘Defendant Doe,’ but it quotes directly from Tyler’s 2011 memoir describing the relationship.
Serious charges: He was sued in December for sexual assault by Julia Holcomb (pictured)
Holcomb has previously spoken publicly about her alleged relationship with the rock star.
In the lawsuit, she accuses the music legend of sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, alleging that he plied her with drugs after gaining guardianship from her mother and pressured her into an abortion.
A representative for Tyler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.
Though it did not name Holcomb, Tyler’s memoir fondly described his roughly three-year sexual relationship with a teen girl in the 1970s.
‘She was sixteen, she knew how to nasty, and there wasn’t a hair on it,’ Tyler wrote in the book, which names the girl as ‘Diana.’
Tyler wrote in the book he ‘almost took a teen bride’ and that ‘her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state.’
‘With my bad self being twenty-six and she barely old enough to drive and sexy as hell, I just fell madly in love with her,’ he wrote. ‘She was a cute skinny little tomboy dressed up as Little Bo Peep. She was my heart’s desire, my partner in crimes of passion.’
His own words: The lawsuit doesn’t name him, but quotes from portions of Tyler’s 2011 memoir in which he described a relationship with a 16-year-old girl when he was in his 20s; seen in 1976
Holcomb’s lawsuit alleges that she met him in 1973 shortly after her 16th birthday, when she attended an Aerosmith concert in Portland, Oregon, and returned to Tyler’s hotel room after the show.
The suit claims that after discussing Holcomb’s age, Tyler ‘performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon’ her.
According to the lawsuit, the relationship progressed and Holcomb ‘was powerless to resist’ Tyler’s ‘power, fame and substantial financial ability.’
In 1974, Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to grant him guardianship over her so they could travel across state lines, the suit alleges, echoing Tyler’s memoir.
Although Tyler had promised to take care of the teen and pay for her education and healthcare, he ‘instead continued to travel with, assault and provide alcohol and drugs to Plaintiff,’ the suit claims.
Under his thumb: The suit says Holcomb’s relationship with him lasted from 1973 to 1976. She accuses him of sexual assault, plying her with drugs and pressuring her into an abortion; seen in 2005
The following year, Holcomb says she became pregnant with Tyler’s son when she was 17, but that he pressured her into an abortion after an apartment fire, claiming the baby might have been injured by smoke inhalation.
Tyler mentions the fire in his memoir, but not the abortion. However, an Aerosmith autobiography from 1997 references a relationship with a teen girl, the apartment fire and an abortion.
Holcomb converted to Catholicism following her alleged relationship with Tyler, and became an anti-abortion activist who has repeatedly spoken out about her experience.
In 2011, after Tyler published his memoir, she wrote an essay for anti-abortion website LifeSiteNews.com, claiming Tyler snorted cocaine at her bedside during her abortion.
In charge: In 1974, Tyler convinced Holcomb’s mother to grant him guardianship over her so they could travel across state lines, the suit alleges, echoing Tyler’s memoir; seen in 1978
Holcomb also appeared on Fox News in 2020, telling host Tucker Carlson about the alleged relationship and abortion.
‘I met Steven Tyler when I was just 16 years old, and he became my legal guardian,’ she said in the interview.
‘He made the decision that he wanted me to have an abortion…and it didn’t really matter how I begged to keep my baby, that decision really wasn’t going to be in my hands.’
The lawsuit was filed under the California’s Child Victims Act, which created a three-year window for filing civil suits over child sexual abuse claims. The window expired on December 31, 2022.
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