Pitchfork

Ryan Adams has been known to do some pretty crazy things, like kick hecklers out of shows, leave silly messages on Pitchfork's answering machine, and record bad rap songs. But even though we like to make fun of ol' Ry sometimes (ok, a lot of times), we aren't going to pick on him for something he didn't do.

Last week, the interweb was buzzing with rumors that Adams had demanded the shutdown of the message board on popular fan site RyanAdams.org, a privately-owned site over which Adams had no legal power. Allegedly, Adams and his management sought editorial control over the board's contents.

However, Pitchfork contacted David Smith, proprietor of RyanAdams.org, who set the record straight. "Ryan's management contacted me Tuesday, asking that the board be temporarily shut down," he disclosed. "Initially there were reports of censorship or an inability to deal with criticism and negative show reviews. But I've since had the opportunity to discuss the issue directly with Ryan...and apparently sensitive information of a personal nature had been exposed on the board which was a threat to the band. I won't go into details, but he was (understandably so) quite upset about this.

"I would like to stress that taking the board down was a voluntary action on my part. RyanAdams.org is a privately owned domain name, so I don't see a legal recourse. But out of respect for Ryan, I made the decision to comply with his request.

"I don't see the point of running a 'fan site' for an artist who disapproves of it, so the decision was an attempt at maintaining good relations with Ryan and his management."

Smith went on to explain that Adams' management has not requested any sort of direct editorial control. Instead, its members are interested in instituting technical changes to the webpage, "making it harder to create an account just to cause trouble, and easier to moderate when problems do occur."

Assuming the changes are accepted by both parties, the forum should return in the near future. If an agreement isn't reached, a last resort option is moving the website to disassociate it with Adams, though this "doesn't look likely," according to Smith.Adams and his management offered no comment on the situation.

Since the incident took place, a message intended to "dispel rumors" popped up on RyanAdams.org. One point reads that the incident prompting the shutdown "occurred while the band was in London, and Ryan's hotel room information was posted to the message board. In another incident, personal information about Ryan's parents was posted to the board."

Jeez, people-- you should know by now that pissing off the Adams Family in October is bad news!

In the meantime, RyanAdams.org regulars have moved over to the message board at alt-country.org