Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's accuses former KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer of sexual assault
Jane Wiedlin is one of six women who have come forward with allegations that famed DJ Rodney Bingenheimer sexually molested them when they were underage. Jane was 15 years old when he assaulted her in a back room of his Los Angeles night club. She previously described the encounter in John Doe and Tom DeSavia’s 2016 book Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk.
Four years before founding The Go-Go's, 15 year old Jane was at Bingenheimer's club English Disco, which was known for its underage female clientele. 27 year old Bingengeimer approached her and took her into a back room. [sensitive content]Jane said that he rubbed his crotch against her crotch. He then told her to remove her belt because it was getting in the way and continued to rub his crotch against hers until he ejaculated. She said, “I wasn’t entirely sure what had gone down until we went back out. He disappeared [into the crowd], I went back to my friends, and my satin pants were a big mess. It was weird; it never occurred to me that that had been a crime. I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement started when I realized I was sexually assaulted by [an adult] when I was 15."
In 2019, Jane told "Rachel" (a pseudonym), a high school friend who used to go to English Disco with her, what had happened. Rachel told her that Bingenheimer had sexually assaulted her as well as another one of their friends, Limor Godwin.
Rachel said she was 15 when he fondled her in a back room at the club. She said at the time it happened, she didn’t think he was taking advantage of her, equating the incident to a rite of passage that came with being a part of that scene. But in retrospect, Rachel says, it was violating. “We were young and innocent. Once we saw girls who were 16 and 17 hanging out with these guys who were much older, it all seemed so normal that the idea that Rodney would try to get to know all of these teenage girls didn’t seem weird at the time. Years later when I thought about it, I was fucking infuriated. That the club was used as a way to groom young girls for rock stars is nauseating…. The whole idea of rock stars as gods, and that you should be grateful if you were one of the chosen, is so repulsive. I can’t even fathom that that was something we all thought was normal. Looking back on it, I’m horrified.”
Limor said that when she was 15, Bingenheimer took her into a back room at the club and [sensitive content]started kissing her, rubbing his crotch against her, and putting his fingers in her vagina.
After learning that Bingenheimer had assaulted both Rachel and Limor, Jane realized that her experience wasn't an isolated incident. She said, “I was fucking shocked that I didn’t know. It turned out he molested everybody, and nobody talked to each other about it. I think he just made his way through every girl that he could.”
Jane said that years after the incident, Bingenheimer became an early advocate for The Go-Go’s and played their music on KROQ before they became famous, which complicated her feelings on his behavior and whether or not to speak out. “I have these huge mixed emotions. The guy’s a fucking monster, but then he also helped us … the Go-Go’s got our first exposure because of Rodney,” Wiedlin said, adding that for years she blamed herself for what happened.
Bingenheimer has long been a mainstay of the Los Angeles music scene where he was known as the Mayor of the Sunset Strip (a title bestowed upon him by Sal Mineo) and radio’s “new music messiah.” In the 60s, Bingenheimer was a columnist for Go! magazine and a contributor to Phonograph Record, where he wrote about L.A.’s club scene and nascent bands like the Doors and the Byrds. After meeting Sonny and Cher backstage, he became their publicist.
In 1972 he opened his club English Disco on Sunset Strip. From 1976 to 2017, he hosted Rodney on the Roq (on famed radio station KROQ) where he built a reputation as a kingmaker for breaking artists and was the first to air music from renowned acts like Blondie, the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Smiths, Duran Duran, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Nirvana. In 2007, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Since being let go from KROQ, he has been hosting a weekly radio show on SiriusXM’s Underground Garage channel.
The accusations are not surprising considering what was already publicly known about Bingemheimer. In a Rolling Stone 1969 cover story on groupies, he was described as both a groupie himself - “in the sense that he hangs out with every group that hits town, then tells everybody about hanging out with the group” - and the gatekeeper between the teenage girls and the rock stars who he glommed onto. At one show, he announced to the crowd, “I’ll let you ball Ringo Starr - but you have to ball me first."
In The Mayor of the Sunset Strip, a 2003 documentary about Bingenheimer, actor-singer Michael Des Barres (who was married to famous groupie Pamela Des Barres 1977-1991) described Bingenheimer as the intermediary between the girls on the scene and musicians: “It’s almost like a drug dealer, except Rodney was dealing girls. Not in the sense of a pimp or anything, but the power that a dealer has; how everybody is your friend because you’re holding the coke. It was the same with Rodney. He just had access to these beautiful, beautiful little nubile girls with stars in their faces. Coupled with his enthusiasm for the acts’ genuine musical ability, and style and glamor, he also had this extraordinary posse of p*ssy.”
Other victims: [sensitive content]
Last year, Kari Krome, a founding member of The Runaways and their main songwriter, filed a lawsuit against Bingenheimer, alleging that he began sexually assaulting her when she was only 13 years old (he was 28 at the time).
Kourtney Kaye said that Bingenheimer came home one night with her brother. Bingenheimer came into her bedroom while she was half asleep, kissed her, put his tongue in her mouth, "fumblingly groped" her, apologized, and then did it again. At the time, she was 11 and he was 28.
“Amanda” (a pseudonym) said she met Bingenheimer at a restaurant in December 1985 when she was 17 and he was 38. He began taking her to bars and parties where she was usually one of the youngest in attendance. She said their relationship turned sexual very quickly and that he pressured her to use a vibrator and photograph her naked, both of which she says she refused. She filed a police report in 2018 but they declined to press charges.
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Four years before founding The Go-Go's, 15 year old Jane was at Bingenheimer's club English Disco, which was known for its underage female clientele. 27 year old Bingengeimer approached her and took her into a back room. [sensitive content]Jane said that he rubbed his crotch against her crotch. He then told her to remove her belt because it was getting in the way and continued to rub his crotch against hers until he ejaculated. She said, “I wasn’t entirely sure what had gone down until we went back out. He disappeared [into the crowd], I went back to my friends, and my satin pants were a big mess. It was weird; it never occurred to me that that had been a crime. I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement started when I realized I was sexually assaulted by [an adult] when I was 15."
In 2019, Jane told "Rachel" (a pseudonym), a high school friend who used to go to English Disco with her, what had happened. Rachel told her that Bingenheimer had sexually assaulted her as well as another one of their friends, Limor Godwin.
Rachel said she was 15 when he fondled her in a back room at the club. She said at the time it happened, she didn’t think he was taking advantage of her, equating the incident to a rite of passage that came with being a part of that scene. But in retrospect, Rachel says, it was violating. “We were young and innocent. Once we saw girls who were 16 and 17 hanging out with these guys who were much older, it all seemed so normal that the idea that Rodney would try to get to know all of these teenage girls didn’t seem weird at the time. Years later when I thought about it, I was fucking infuriated. That the club was used as a way to groom young girls for rock stars is nauseating…. The whole idea of rock stars as gods, and that you should be grateful if you were one of the chosen, is so repulsive. I can’t even fathom that that was something we all thought was normal. Looking back on it, I’m horrified.”
Limor said that when she was 15, Bingenheimer took her into a back room at the club and [sensitive content]started kissing her, rubbing his crotch against her, and putting his fingers in her vagina.
After learning that Bingenheimer had assaulted both Rachel and Limor, Jane realized that her experience wasn't an isolated incident. She said, “I was fucking shocked that I didn’t know. It turned out he molested everybody, and nobody talked to each other about it. I think he just made his way through every girl that he could.”
Jane said that years after the incident, Bingenheimer became an early advocate for The Go-Go’s and played their music on KROQ before they became famous, which complicated her feelings on his behavior and whether or not to speak out. “I have these huge mixed emotions. The guy’s a fucking monster, but then he also helped us … the Go-Go’s got our first exposure because of Rodney,” Wiedlin said, adding that for years she blamed herself for what happened.
Bingenheimer has long been a mainstay of the Los Angeles music scene where he was known as the Mayor of the Sunset Strip (a title bestowed upon him by Sal Mineo) and radio’s “new music messiah.” In the 60s, Bingenheimer was a columnist for Go! magazine and a contributor to Phonograph Record, where he wrote about L.A.’s club scene and nascent bands like the Doors and the Byrds. After meeting Sonny and Cher backstage, he became their publicist.
In 1972 he opened his club English Disco on Sunset Strip. From 1976 to 2017, he hosted Rodney on the Roq (on famed radio station KROQ) where he built a reputation as a kingmaker for breaking artists and was the first to air music from renowned acts like Blondie, the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Smiths, Duran Duran, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Nirvana. In 2007, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Since being let go from KROQ, he has been hosting a weekly radio show on SiriusXM’s Underground Garage channel.
The accusations are not surprising considering what was already publicly known about Bingemheimer. In a Rolling Stone 1969 cover story on groupies, he was described as both a groupie himself - “in the sense that he hangs out with every group that hits town, then tells everybody about hanging out with the group” - and the gatekeeper between the teenage girls and the rock stars who he glommed onto. At one show, he announced to the crowd, “I’ll let you ball Ringo Starr - but you have to ball me first."
In The Mayor of the Sunset Strip, a 2003 documentary about Bingenheimer, actor-singer Michael Des Barres (who was married to famous groupie Pamela Des Barres 1977-1991) described Bingenheimer as the intermediary between the girls on the scene and musicians: “It’s almost like a drug dealer, except Rodney was dealing girls. Not in the sense of a pimp or anything, but the power that a dealer has; how everybody is your friend because you’re holding the coke. It was the same with Rodney. He just had access to these beautiful, beautiful little nubile girls with stars in their faces. Coupled with his enthusiasm for the acts’ genuine musical ability, and style and glamor, he also had this extraordinary posse of p*ssy.”
Other victims: [sensitive content]
Last year, Kari Krome, a founding member of The Runaways and their main songwriter, filed a lawsuit against Bingenheimer, alleging that he began sexually assaulting her when she was only 13 years old (he was 28 at the time).
Kourtney Kaye said that Bingenheimer came home one night with her brother. Bingenheimer came into her bedroom while she was half asleep, kissed her, put his tongue in her mouth, "fumblingly groped" her, apologized, and then did it again. At the time, she was 11 and he was 28.
“Amanda” (a pseudonym) said she met Bingenheimer at a restaurant in December 1985 when she was 17 and he was 38. He began taking her to bars and parties where she was usually one of the youngest in attendance. She said their relationship turned sexual very quickly and that he pressured her to use a vibrator and photograph her naked, both of which she says she refused. She filed a police report in 2018 but they declined to press charges.
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