Katie Armiger was 15 when she set out on her first radio tour, excited to launch her country music career in the way that so many others had. Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case.
In an interview with Fox News, Armiger, now 26, revealed that she experienced sexual harassment within the music industry almost immediately, and “was shocked” and “terrified” by the experience.
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“I was at a radio station in Texas and was taking a promo photo with one of the on-air DJs after doing my performances and he grabbed my butt during the photo,” she said. “And at the same time he was whispering in my ear, ‘When are you going to be legal?’”
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She continued, “I brought up my fears and I was told that’s how it was and if I wanted to be in music, I’d have to get over it.”
The singer decided to keep quiet, but in 2016, she was sued by her record label, Cold River, and Armiger filed a counterclaim alleging the label had told her to “sex it up” to achieve success. She alleges that the label told her to buy new clothes and “hug, kiss and flirt” with radio programmers.
While the singer cannot comment on the suit after settling with Cold River, who told Fox News at the time the suit was “baseless,” Armiger shared that she wanted to speak up after the recent sexual harassment allegations against high-profile men like Harvey Weinstein.
“There’s something really horrible going on behind the scenes,” she said of the country music community.
After detailing several other instances of her harassment, Armiger explained that she felt she had been blacklisted after coming forward.
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“When my story first became public and in the aftermath when I was finally to start looking for other opportunities in the industry, we went to [publishing houses] but we would be met with, ‘We’re not going to sign you, but we’re really a big fan and we just want to know your story and how are you?’”
She continued, “That was the consensus; that was everywhere I went. I would talk to booking agents and they were scared to work with me because they either thought somehow the tour would be canceled or I was a liability to work with.”
While she doesn’t want to name her harassers, she hopes her story will inspire change in the country community.
“I don’t think it will change until people start speaking out, and for the most part they’re too scared,” she said. “Look at my story — they’ll see that I spoke out and spoke my truth and thought for the most part people would believe my story. I didn’t ever think that it would be met with doubt or disdain.”
Photo Credit: Instagram / @katiearmiger
