This petition is a plea to the record labels involved to release the new music planned from Ryan Adams this year. Adams announced THREE albums of new material for 2019. An incredible gift to any fan of any musician. Fans were anxious for the massive helping of new emotionally damaged songs. However, after some unflattering stories surfaced about Adams earlier in the year it was eventually decided for all involved to shelve the first two full-length albums, Big Colors, followed by Wednesdays, one hopes only momentarily. Big Colors was originally scheduled first for April 19.

This petition is in no way meant to condone Ryan Adam’s alleged behavior with an underage female fan online and various female musical collaborators. There have always been some pretty uncomfortable rumors about Adams, and so now, there be some truth to them. This is not a tribute to his character or an endorsement of how he may operate professionally, but rather a hail Mary for the sake of the music. It’s in the eyes of this fan that Adams’ character and his music can be individually exclusive, separate from one another.

Once an artist releases their music into the wild, it belongs to the listeners it eventually finds. The music of Ryan Adams--it’s ours. The listener owns the music, it invades our heads, weighs down our hearts, and as listeners we are greedy. Greedy for that elusive ping of emotional shock waiting to be found in endless streaming MP3s, used CDs in broken jewel cases, beat-up vinyl, cassettes under carseats and the like. When I listen to Love Is Hell by Adams I think of a past girlfriend falling asleep in my arms on a city bus from New York to Philadelphia.

I definitely don’t ever once think about Ryan Adams manipulating Mandy Moore into a marriage, or turning pathetically weird on a Skype chat with a fan. Nor will I ever. I also don’t think about alleged deli meat being thrown at naked groupies while listening to the guitar solo in “Stairway to Heaven”; or David Bowie romping with fourteen-year-old Jody Fosters while belting out “FIVE YEARS”; or the handheld softcore porno series Backstage Sluts featuring faces of the Nu-Metal era while drifting back to ‘98. And we all know how dreadfully long that list could be. Let’s not act like we’re the Sanitation Police suddenly.

Ryan Adams might be a total selfish creepjerk who goads female artists into a working relationship only to turn when they don’t offer him their undivided attention and devotion. Are you really going to tell me I’m not allowed to listen to his music because of that? Listening to a Ryan Adams album is not a tacit endorsement of his abhorrent behavior. If people are upset that Adams continues to make a living as a songwriter, feel free to boycott his revenue stream any way you like, but don’t hold it back from the rest of us who can separate art from an imperfect life.

Currently the FBI is investigating the allegations made against Ryan Adams involving the underage girl. If they find ill behavior, then the law will work as it should and Adams should pay the penalty, do the time, whatever may be deemed appropriate. Plenty of musicians, artists, actors, writers and comedians have had the law drop the hammer on them. In most cases they were given the chance to right themselves as humans and have their art stand alone. Please, for the sake of his fans, release, as scheduled, the new music from Ryan Adams.

-let it ride-