Echosmith drummer Graham Sierota, 20, has apologized for messages he sent to Travis Barker’s 13-year-old daughter, Alabama.
The musician told Page Six he invited her to his “parents’ big family BBQ along with many other people” and that it “wasn’t until she responded that I realized her age at which point I apologized to her.”
Alabama, Barker’s daughter with ex-wife Shanna Moakler, previously updated her Instagram Stories with screenshots of direct messages Sierota allegedly sent her, including three outreaches from September 2016, when she was 10 and Sierota was 17.
“Hi,” Sierota said in those earlier outreaches, according to the screenshots. “By the way I’m Graham from echosmith and I think ur beautiful.” The images show that Alabama didn’t respond at the time.
Then, on July 12 of this year, the drummer allegedly made contact again, sending an invite to the BBQ party.
“Ur like 40,” Alabama responded.
“I just wanted to say i really like ur music and sorry for messaging and I’m 20,” Sierota allegedly wrote back.
Alabama replied: “Ok but u understand I’m a child?”
Alabama later posted the screenshots online, according to The Blast. “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,” she wrote in one of the posts.
Barker, 43, addressed the messages too. “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,” the Blink-182 drummer told The Blast. “That’s predatory behavior and there is nothing cool, normal or OK about it at all.”
Amid the controversy, Sierota apologized. “I’m really sorry and feel very badly about this,” he told Page Six. “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.”
