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Jason Isbell issues call for fans not to “make up misogynistic nonsense stories” about his divorce
Rumours online have wrongly accused the women in his team of contributing to his divorce from Amanda Shires.
Image: Amy Sussman / Getty
Jason Isbell has shut down circulating sexist rumours about female members of his team following his divorce from Amanda Shires.
According to Isbell, people have been contacting the women who work for him and accusing them of “breaking up a family”. He has called on those involved to stop, arguing that “it’s hard enough already for anybody who isn’t a straight white man” in the music business.
Speaking to People last February, Isbell confirmed that himself and Shires are “getting along”, and despite the obvious difficulties and sadness faced during any divorce, he’s “in a good place”.
Now, Isbell has had to take to Instagram to release a statement among ongoing sexist claims that the women who work alongside him are somehow to blame: “I can’t believe I need to say this but my manager, business manager, tour manager, tour assistant and both publicists are all women. I’m very grateful for each of them. None of us have ever had any kind of romantic relationship in any kind of way.
“Please don’t make up misogynistic nonsense stories and post them online,” he adds. “It’s hard enough already for anybody who isn’t a straight white man in our business, and now there are folks contacting them and accusing them of ‘breaking up a family’. Stop it.”
And Isbell is not the only artist who has been accused of having romantic involvement with the women he works with. Last year, rumours wrongly suggested that Machine Gun Kelly had cheated on his partner with guitarist Sophie Lloyd, which was also of course just gossip.
Although Lloyd found such accusations hard to deal with at first, she was fully supported by those around her. In an interview following the false rumours, she said: “After a week it all died down…that’s the thing with gossip – it feels like the end of the world, but now I don’t even remember it. It literally lasts like a week, and then it’s done. People move on to the new thing.”
Back in September, Isbell released a 10th anniversary edition of his 2013 album Southeastern. He is touring through spring, summer and autumn. View all of Jason Isbell’s tour dates.