Jay Khan, a former member of the Boyband US5, raised serious accusations against US music producer Lou Pearlman, who also brought out boy bands such as the backstreet boys and *nsync in his autobiography “Tariq and I”, which appeared on July 17th. The musician, who is called me a bourgeois name Tariq Jay Khan, explains for the first time publicly that he has been sexually harassed several times during his career.
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Jay Khan writes about sexual harassment by Lou Pearlman
In conversation with the “picture”, the singer said: “I owed Lou Pearlman a lot, he gave me the chance of my life. But he also had a dark side. The truth is that Lou was sexually assaulted with me. And I believe that I was not the only young singer to take a physical approach.”
“It was clear to me early on that Lou had a preference for young men,” writes Khan in his book. The now 43-year-old told Pearlman in situations that deeply disturbed him. Right at the beginning of her collaboration, the producer asked him to expose his upper body – allegedly to examine his muscles. “He felt my arms and chest,” said Khan.
Even after the fitness training, Pearlman always wanted to give him massages. Khan approved this, but found it extremely uncomfortable. He describes an incident during the founding time of US5 when he lived in Pearlmans Villa in Florida.
“Lou called me in the morning and asked me to get into his huge bedroom. When I entered the room in the undershirt, Lou was Lou in bed in his kimono, which I found strange. He asked me to sit next to him. Lou looked at me and said: ‘Do you know how proud I am on you?’ Then he hugged me and wanted to pull me into his big pillows, ”said Khan.
Then the situation was escalating: “Suddenly I felt his hand on my step. I was shocked and immediately pulled his wrist away. Then his head was under my chin and he kissed my chest. That was too much for me! I got up and said to him: ‘No, not with me!'” It was the last incident of this kind, then both worked together for a while.
What happened to Lou Pearlman?
Lou Pearlman can no longer take a position on the allegations. He died in prison in 2016, where he served a prison for serious financial fraud. However, US news already reported in 2009 that Pearlman tumbled boys and men.
While some young and young men only heard rumors, others reported that Pearlman exposed himself in front of them, showed them pornography, took them in strip clubs, gave them sensual massages and made them open to them. They also said that they saw other young people who left Pearlman’s bedroom late at night.
“Some boys joked about it. I remember that [ein Sänger] I asked me: ‘Have you already let yourself be banged by Lou?’, ”Steve Mooney told Vanity Fair. In his early 20s, Mooney worked as a personal assistant to Pearlman and lived in his house for two years, hoping to be included in one of Pearlman’s bands.