This article has been updated since it was first published.
Joey Armstrong, drummer for punk band SWMRS and son of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, has been accused of sexual misconduct by musician Lydia Night.
In a statement she shared on Instagram, the 19-year-old vocalist and guitarist for The Regrettes said she was calling out the “complete bulls**t” from Armstrong’s band, which “released an unbelievably hypocritical statement on social media.”
SWMRS had shared a statement in response to allegations of predatory behaviour by members of bands signed to Burger Records. (The label said in a statement on Monday it will make “major structural changes” and “create and implement active policy measures to address the culture that allowed such harm to occur.”)
Night said she was in a relationship with Joey Armstrong from the time she was 16 until just before her 18th birthday in October 2018. He was 22 at the beginning of their relationship.
“For so long I viewed it just as being toxic and not something valid enough to share but now I know that what I actually experienced was emotional abuse and sexual coercion by someone in a position of power over me,” she wrote.
“Because of our age difference, Joey would continually ask me to keep our relationship as hidden as possible and I did … This created an isolating mindset where I constantly felt alone.”
Night alleged Armstrong got sex by “shaming me for saying I wasn’t comfortable, gaslighting me or ignoring me when I didn’t give my consent.”
She detailed several sexual encounters she had with Armstrong while her band was on the road with his – all while her father chaperoned her.
Night said she ended the relationship but, months later, had to honour an agreement to tour with SWMRS. “We were treated like strangers from a band I had previously considered to be some of my closest friends,” she recalled. “It felt like SWMRS and their team were doing anything they could to exert power and punish me.”
Night said Armstrong recently wrote a letter of apology that did not acknowledge their age difference “or anything sexual at all.” She insisted she is not looking to cancel the musician or his band but hopes to “further the conversation on the intricacies of power abuse, grooming and manipulation that not only exists in the music industry, but in so many other industries.”
Armstrong responded with a statement of his own. “While I don’t agree with some of the things she said about me, it’s important she be allowed to say them and that she be supported for speaking out," he wrote. "I respect her immensely and fully accept that I failed her as a partner. I was selfish and I didn’t treat her the way she deserves to have been treated both during our relationship and in the two years since we broke up.
"I have apologized to her privately and I hope she can forgive me, if and when she is ready to do so. I own my mistakes and will work hard to regain the trust that I lost."