I mean, i'm not surprised. I've read enough biographies to know that I wouldn't be friends with almost all of my musical heroes.

I agree with Sowhat about the degrees of wrong. Statutory rape is not the same thing (for me) as sex by force/without consent. Cosby is wronger than Kells, Bowie, Gaye, Page et al.

At the same time....I would still watch the Cosby show with my kids. The show isn't about drugging and raping women. In Kell's case....it would seem like some of his work IS about (or alludes to) having sex with underage girls. I'm not gonna listen to a song about him being a pied piper.

I'm not gonna fall into the trap of trying to excuse D Bowie's behavour. I also don't think it's 'inappropriate' to bring it up just because he recently died. I think that much of this thread is over-exaggerating the 'era' argument. People weren't cool with having sex with 14 year olds in the 70's. I think music stars on drugs were just generally assholes who had a sort of impunity because these stories weren't told at the time. The nature of the internet has torn down some of the built-in protection that celebrities had. If someone HAD tried to document this stuff in the 70's the industry could blacklist them and make sure their voice wasn't heard. That power and control doesn't exist anymore. And race certainly played a huge role in HOW that power and control was exercised.

Got me to thinking....just say I'm Paul McCartney. Should I try to address these things before I die? I wonder how receptive people would be to a formal, well-thought out apology\acknowledgement that was respectful to past victims. One that didn't shift blame to the 'era'....one that didn't say 'well everybody was doing it'....one that took ownership and accountability. There's not a doubt in my mind that at least some of these guys are haunted by this shit. Especially now that they got grandkids. I wonder if that might be worth something. Nobody's tried that....it may do some good.