Steven Tyler’s Grammy Party Raised $2.4 Million for Sex Abuse Victims
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler’s inaugural Janie’s Fund gala ball and Grammys viewing party on Sunday made $2.4 million for the charity, which helps protect and support female victims of sexual abuse. The event nearly doubled the organization’s financial success; it had brought in $2.5 million since its formation in 2015.
“The whole reason I’m in this is because I know what happens to a girl if she’s sexually abused at 14, sent out on the street to sell crack at 15, her mother has her hook at 16, she’s bringing johns home at 17 because she looks older,” Tyler told Forbes before the gala ball at Red Studios in Hollywood. “At 18, she’s left off at a bus station in Oklahoma, doesn’t know where she is or what’s going on. She’s broken. Now, she, for the rest of her life, has a problem with sex, has a problem with men coming on to her. There are men in America that murder people, they get caught with a gun in their hand they get seven f—ing years! She gets 70 years – 70 years of her life has been ruined and that f—ing kills me. That kills me.”
The gala ball, which included a live TV presentation of the Grammy Awards took place before 500 guests, and featured Tyler performing with his country band Loving Mary, along with appearances by Alice Cooper, Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, among other big-name guests. Janie’s Fund is named after Aerosmith’s 1989 hit “Janie’s Got a Gun.”
