Cold River Head Responds to Katie Armiger Allegations
The head of Katie Armiger's former record label home has responded to her claims about the circumstances surrounding their parting of ways, calling her allegations "malicious and completely false."
Armiger has released four studio albums via Cold River Records since 2007. Cold River President Pete O’Heeron said in a statement to Country Aircheck in June 2015 that Armiger had decided to "take a breather and decide her next career aspirations," and she responded with a post to Instagram, saying that statement was “not my words, and certainly not my intention.” Armiger also claimed that she no longer had access to her own social media accounts.
In a statement Wednesday (Jan. 27), she said that Cold River has filed suit against her, adding that her court response to that suit "speaks for itself." She implied that Cold River may have encouraged her to engage in some unethical behavior to get ahead in business, citing a number of past instances in which female performers have alleged sexual harassment in the music industry.
“My label had expectations for how I should behave to get ahead, particularly how I should interact with influential men in the industry," Armiger states. "I just wasn’t willing to take that approach. I wanted to make it with integrity and I still do."
In his reply on Thursday, O'Heeron openly questions Arimger's sincerity:
Cold River is saddened and disappointed to learn of Katie Armiger’s malicious and completely false statements against the label. It is interesting to note that this story never surfaced until Cold River was forced to sue Ms. Armiger for refusing to perform the remainder of her contracts with the label. Certainly, Ms. Armiger never made these false and malicious claims when Cold River was pouring a tremendous amount of money into promoting her career. It appears that Ms. Armiger is simply attempting to use these false claims to get out of her contracts and to gain publicity for her career, at Cold River’s expense. Her assertions are completely without merit and fabricated. In addition, while Ms. Armiger complains that Cold River promoted her career by focusing on her appearance rather than purely her music, it should be noted that, since refusing to perform the remainder of her contracts with Cold River, Ms. Armiger and her new “team” have actively campaigned for her to become Country Weekly’s Hottest Bachelorette. This paradoxical behavior belies the sincerity of Ms. Armiger’s claims and further evidences that she is simply trying to get out of her contracts with Cold River and generate free publicity for her career. Cold River looks forward to clearing its name in court and, when that day comes, hopes that Ms. Armiger will be as vigorous in apologizing to the label as she was in smearing its name.
Armiger says she hopes to release new music soon. For more about her lawsuit and statement on Cold River, read her side of the story.
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