Los Angeles music industry legend Rodney Bingenheimer is being accused of sexually assaulting six women - including musician Jane Wiedlin - when they were teenagers.
The allegations against Bingenheimer, who presented hugely popular (and hugely influential) KROQ radio show Rodney on the Roq, and owned infamous LA nightclub Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, are collated in an exclusive Rolling Stone article.
Bingenheimer's club, located at 7561 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, was a favourite haunt of rock stars in the 1970s, with Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Who, The Monkees, Marc Bolan and Iggy Pop among those who regularly dropped by when in the city, having known the owner as one of America's most influential and important 'taste makers'. Partly because of its rock star clientele, the club was equally well-known for its popularity with teenage girls, with the likes of Lori Mattix and Sable Starr becoming famous in their own right for their friendships with iconic rock stars.
In the Rolling Stone article, Jane Wiedlin, who co-founded the Go-Go's and also scored solo hits such as Rush Hour, says that she was sexually assaulted by Bingenheimer when she was 15, and he was 27.
"It was weird," she says, "it never occurred to me that that had been a crime. I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement started when I realized I was sexually assaulted by [an adult] when I was 15."
Four other women, all minors at the time, have shared allegations of similar experiences, to Rolling Stone. A sixth woman, Runaways songwriter Kari Krome, has filed a lawsuit against Bingenheimer, and the estate of late Runaways manager and LA scenester Kim Fowley, accusing them of sexually assaulting her when she was 13.
Bingenheimer, who life is celebrated in the acclaimed 2003 documentary The Mayor of the Sunset Strip, has not responded to the allegations in the Rolling Stone article.
