blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has slammed Graham Sierota, drummer of indie-pop band Echosmith for sending “creepy” messages to his 13-year-old daughter, Alabama.
Earlier this week, Alabama Barker shared screenshots of Instagram direct messages she received from Sierota. The earliest messages received date back to 2016 when Alabama was just 10 years old. “I’m Graham from Echosmith and I think ur beautiful,” he wrote. A message that Alabama left on read.
On July 12th, Sierota invited Alabama to a family barbecue, to which Alabama responded “Ur like 40.”
Sierota responded, claiming “I just wanted to say I really like ur music and sorry for messaging and I’m 20.” To which Alabama replied, “Ok but u understand I’m a child?”
Alabama shared screenshots of the conversation to Instagram stories, and tagged the official Echosmith account “Hey guys! So once again I am bringing this to your attention because I’m a 13 year old girl and he is 21/20 super creepy.”
On Thursday, Travis Barker shared his disgust over the messages in a statement published on The Blast.
“When I found out a 20 year old man was trying to get in touch with my 13 year old daughter by filling her Instagram messages with party invites and compliments I was disgusted,” Barker shared. “That’s predatory behavior and there is nothing cool, normal or ok about it at all.”
Sierota has since issued an apology over his behaviour, “I had invited Alabama to my parents’ big family BBQ along with many other people, and it wasn’t until she responded that I realized her age at which point I apologized to her,” Sierota shared.
“I’m really sorry and feel very badly about this. I didn’t realize she was a minor and assumed she was my age. I made a careless mistake and this is a big lesson for me. I would like to apologize again to Alabama, her dad Travis, and her family.”
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