Cult indie band The Posies are splitting up after several women made allegations of sexual misconduct against frontman Ken Stringfellow.
One woman accused the singer of forcing her into sex in a men’s toilet. Another woman said she had been in an abusive relationship with him since 2017.
A third woman claimed Stringfellow bit her, leaving marks, and that she one woke up to find him having sex with her.
Stringfellow has denied the claims, saying, “I am not down with violence”.
“I would never want to harm anyone with whom I have a relationship – sexual or otherwise,” he said in a statement.
“Consent has been the foundation of every sexual relationship I’ve had, and violence has never been a part of any of those relationships. It simply is not who I am as a person who respects women.”
The allegations emerged in an investigative report by Seattle radio station KUOW, which was published on Monday.
Stringfellow’s long-term bandmate Jon Auer told the station he had “left the Posies very quickly”, after hearing one woman’s account of sexual abuse.
“What she described to me was super disturbing, and it made my position immediately clear,” he said in an email.
“I confronted Ken about it on a phone call on August 4, 2021, and cancelled our upcoming shows, and flat-out told him that I wouldn’t be working with him anymore.”
Drummer Frankie Siragusa, who had been a member of the Posies since 2015, left the band earlier this summer, and confirmed his departure was prompted by the allegations.
