Harvey Weinstein: Sir Tom Jones says sexual abuse is common in the music industry too

Artist says he felt 'terrible' after an encounter with a music industry figure early on in his career

(Getty)

Sir Tom Jones has said the music industry suffers the same issues of sexual abuse and harassment that are alleged to have taken place in Hollywood.

Speaking to the BBC on Radio 5 Live's Afternoon Edition, he discussed the allegations around disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein and said "things have always happened in the music industry as well".

"There's been people complaining about publicists and different things they've been expected to do to get a record contract, just like a film contract," he continued.

Asked whether he had experienced any issues himself he said: "Yes. At the beginning, yes. There were a few things like that. You just walk out... But what's tried on women is tried on men as well."

He said that the encounter where a figure in the music industry "tried to pull" him had made him feel "terrible".

"There's always that element there that people with power sometimes abuse it, but they don't all abuse it, there are good people," he said.

Singer Paloma Faith also recently spoke out over issues that affect the music industry as much as film.

Speaking to The Sun she said: "I see sexual exploitation constantly in the music industry... it happens in the music industry where women are made to feel that their main currency is their bodies by men."

Dozens of women have come forward with allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment against Weinstein, who has denied all accusations of non-consensual sex.

Most recently Game of Thrones star Lena Headey detailed two alleged encounters with the producer.

The first is said to have taken place at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 where he "made some suggestive comment and gesture" and Headey claimed she tried to laugh it off, telling Weinstein he was old enough to be her father.

She also claimed she ran into him years later in LA, where he kept asking her questions about her personal life. She alleges that when he invited her to his hotel room to show her a script, the "energy shifted".

Headey said she told him she was not interested in anything other than work.

"He was silent after I spoke, furious," she wrote in a statement. "We got out of the lift and walked to his room. His hand was on my back, he was marching me forward, not a word. I felt completely powerless, he tried his key card and it didn't work, then he got really angry.

"He walked me back to the lift, through the hotel to the valet, by grabbing and holding tightly to the back of my arm, he paid for my car and whispered in my ear: 'Don't tell anyone about this, not your manager, not your agent.' I got into my car and I cried."

Other Weinstein accusers include Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Cara Delevingne. In the wake of the allegations, Weinstein has been fired from his position at The Weinstein Company, which he co-founded which his younger brother Bob, and has had his Academy and Bafta memberships revoked.

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