September 13, 2007
Famed rock & roll manager/author sues OUT for defamation
Rick Dunn READ TIME: 1 MIN.
The former-manager of rock legends the Iggy Pop and Ramones has filed a $100 million lawsuit against OUT magazine, claiming the GLBT monthly published fake quotes that portrayed him as a "sexual predator." Danny Fields filed the defamation suit against OUT in New York's Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month (Sept., 2007). The 65-year-old claims his career has been damaged beyond repair by the false allegations, which imply he bribed underage fans to have sex with him in exchange for meeting their idols. The lifestyle magazine quotes Fields, who is gay, as saying: "I don't remember ever being inhibited by saying, 'I'm the manager of the band. If you want to meet them, come to my hotel room and sleep with me, and I'll introduce you to them in the morning.'" But Fields - who was an influential figure in New York's 1970s punk rock scene and a published author - denies ever saying this. He tells the New York Post's gossip column PageSix, "My reputation is ruined because Out has called me virtually a sexual predator. It is atrocious." "The implication is while my bands were playing, I was trawling the audience for kids... like I used the performances as an excuse to cruise and pick up underage teens. The quotes are also so ungrammatical. I would never even talk like that. I have advanced degrees in English literature... They gay-bashed me."
An EDGE Founding Editor, Rick Dunn's writing has appeared in Bay Windows, The Windy City Times, Washington Blade, among many others. He also initiated The Boston Globe's very first (and last) gay column, Out & About in 2001. He was the editor of In Newsweekly from 1996 to 2003.
