Top Hipgnosis Exec Sued For Sexual Assault, Harassment
A top executive at Hipgnosis Songs — the company that helped drive the music industry’s copyright acquisition boom while buying catalogs from stars like Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and the Red Hot Chili Peppers — has been accused of sexual assault, according to a new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles and obtained by Rolling Stone.
A former colleague of Kenny MacPherson, the CEO of Hipgnosis’s publishing arm Hipgnosis Songs Group, sued MacPherson on Wednesday, when he was president of music publishing company Chrysalis. (Hipgnosis is not named as a defendant in the suit.)
More from Rolling Stone
Hipgnosis Songs Group CEO Kenny MacPherson Placed on Leave Following Sexual Assault Claim
Elon Musk Sued for Falsely Claiming Random Man Was a Fed Posing as Neo-Nazi
Sara Lewis, who worked under MacPherson as an A&R at Chrysalis from around 2004 until 2008, alleges in the suit that MacPherson sexually assaulted her in her hotel room during a business trip in 2005, groomed and harassed her the previous year, and blackballed her when she tried seeking employment elsewhere, eventually causing Lewis to leave the music industry.
“This was my dream job. And I know that may sound trite. But I wanted to be in music,” Lewis, who was in her mid-to-late twenties at the time of the allegations, tells Rolling Stone. “And being transferred to work in A&R and to feel like I was being recognized for my talents felt gratifying. But once I was ensconced in the abuse and fully immersed in what it became for me, It was confusing, and devastating in every sense of the word.”
BMG which bought Chrysalis near the end of 2010, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. BMG is the largest independent music company outside of the major three record labels, and it oversees the music of artists like Tina Turner, Motley Crue and John Legend. Lewis has sued both MacPherson and BMG for sexual battery, sexual harassment and gender violence. BMG is the only defendant over claims of negligence, hostile work environment, labor violations, discrimination, sexual harassment in violation of the fair employment and housing act failure to prevent sexual harassment.
“On behalf of my client Mr. MacPherson, we vehemently deny all allegations made against Mr. MacPherson in Ms. Lewis’ unverified complaint filed earlier today,” MacPherson’s attorney tells Rolling Stone in a statement.
A rep for Hipgnosis declined to comment. A rep for BMG says the company “stands solidly against all forms of discrimination and abuse, and we are shocked and dismayed by the allegations. As a point of fact, BMG did not exist until October 1, 2008, years after the alleged events had taken place, and did not acquire Chrysalis until years later in 2011.”
Hipgnosis Songs has become one of the most prominent music companies in the industry and has played a major role in the much-covered catalog acquisition boom of the past several years. The company and its founder and chief executive Merck Mercuriadis helped drive up catalog values as they offered songwriters and artists hefty premiums for their work, leading competitors to follow suit. Since 2018, the company has bought copyrights from the likes of Neil Young, Richie Sambora, Mark Ronson, Justin Bieber and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Mercuriadis bought MacPherson’s publishing company Big Deal Music in 2020, renaming the company Hipgnosis Songs Group. MacPherson has built a reputation as a respected figure in music publishing from his tenure at Chrysalis and Big Deal, signing artists and songwriters including My Morning Jacket, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Ray Lamontagne and Teddy Geiger. MacPherson has served on the National Music Publishers’ Association’s board of directors since 2018.
The suit comes weeks before Hipgnosis Songs Fund is expected to vote on whether the fund continues as a publicly traded company, as well as whether to approve a $440 million asset sale to sell several catalogs Hipgnosis previously purchased to pay down the company’s debt.
Lewis claims in the suit that MacPherson began grooming and sexually harassing her shortly after he joined Chrysalis, with him allegedly “invading Sara’s personal space, standing a little too closely and leaning suggestively over Sara’s desk when speaking with her.” Lewis claimed she “was confused by his actions, but as a young aspiring employee, she naively believed that if she did not return the affection, he would simply stop.”
The harassment allegedly escalated when she was still an assistant in 2004, when Lewis purportedly went on a trip to Vancouver with MacPherson to scout a potential artist to sign. After attending the artist’s concert, MacPherson allegedly “invited himself” to Lewis’s hotel room and “leaned over her, placed his hands on her thigh, and confessed that he loved her and could no longer control his feelings.”
According to the suit, Lewis cried as she told MacPherson that she didn’t have the same feelings for him, and he left the room. After the trip, the suit claims, MacPherson’s behavior worsened, stating that he regularly cornered her at the office, tried to kiss her numerous times, and “at work lunches and dinners, he positioned himself next to her at the table, visibly groping her legs and even her vagina,” per the filing.
The suit also alleged that MacPherson would get Lewis expensive gifts such as luggage and Tiffany necklaces, and that MacPherson would guilt her into accepting them. By 2005, MacPherson regularly called Lewis to talk about his issues with his marriage, flirt with her on the phone and attempt to initiate phone sex, she alleges.
Lewis’s mental health rapidly deteriorated due to MacPherson’s treatment, with Lewis losing weight and suffering hair loss, according to the suit.
“Sara became a shell of a human being,” the suit says. “Even simple tasks, such as getting dressed for the day, were filled with anxiety-ridden decisions and flashbacks of sexually charged comments made about her appearance. What shoes she wore, the outfits she chose, and even the nail polish she used, were conscious decisions to avoid unwanted attention by MacPherson.”
The alleged misconduct crescendoed in 2005, when Lewis allegedly went on another trip with MacPherson to Chicago to visit a recently signed artist. After attending a concert, MacPherson went back to Lewis’s hotel room, where he allegedly told Lewis he loved her. Lewis said she reiterated that she wasn’t interested in a sexual or romantic relationship with him and claims he tried to have sex with her anyway.
“Undeterred, MacPherson forced himself upon Sara, undressing them both. MacPherson attempted to penetrate Sara, but was unable to maintain an erection,” the suit claimed. “MacPherson then forcibly performed oral sex on Sara as she laid motionless, repeatedly crying and saying “no,” and pleading for MacPherson to stop. Eventually, frustrated with Sara’s lack of participation, he relented.”
“The words that came out of my mouth on repeat were any version of ‘no, ‘I don’t want this,’ ‘this can’t be,’ ‘leave me alone,’ ‘don’t touch me,’” Lewis says.
According to the suit, Chrysalis did not have a human resources department to file complaints, so Lewis reported MacPherson to her direct supervisor Jamie Cerreta, who has worked with MacPherson for decades and is now also an executive at Hipgnosis Songs Group. Lewis spoke with Cerreta for over three hours about the allegations, but Cerreta “did nothing and never mentioned the topic again,” the suit alleged. (Cerreta did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)
“You almost snicker because the typical thought in a lot of these stories is ‘she came forward so many years after being silent.’ And largely, I’m beginning to find out many of us were not silent,” Lewis says. “I told people … and collectively everybody turned a blind eye because — I can’t speak for them — but I imagine it’s because they were concerned for their own situation.”
After reporting MacPherson to Cerreta, Lewis claimed that MacPherson stonewalled her, making it more difficult to perform her job. She claims he wouldn’t set meetings with Lewis and she couldn’t arrange meetings with others, making her job impossible to perform. She sought employment elsewhere but claimed that MacPherson blackballed her, causing her to leave the music business outright.
“I left with my tail between my legs. Kenny took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time,, my intimacy, my voice, my laughter, my trust,” she says. “My career was probably one of the least concerning things in the context of what Kenny stole away from me. Fifteen years later, you move through life, I’m always guarded. I’m always ready to defend myself and I’m always ready to be angry. That’s not something that a Band-Aid heals.”
Best of Rolling Stone
