Five years after multiple women accused Bassnectar of sex trafficking and underage grooming, the resulting civil lawsuit has been dismissed. In official court filings obtained by The Festive Owl, the claims brought by three women were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled, in a Tennesse U.S. District Court after the parties came to a “confidential agreement.” The trial was scheduled to begin today, February 18th.

The details of the settlement are unknown at this time, and it’s unclear whether they will ever become public. Anonymous industry insider Festive Owl posted a simple one-sheet document on Tuesday, identifying the three plaintiffs Rachel Ramsbottom, Alexis Bowling, and Jenna Houston had dismissed their claims against the defendants Lorin Ashton (aka Bassnectar), his touring company Bassnectar Touring, and his record label Amorphous Music. Ashton was accused of sex trafficking, possessing and manufacturing child pornography, and endangerment, charges he has vehemently denied. A fourth woman dropped off the lawsuit after Bassnectar’s legal team required her to reveal her real name.

Ramsbottom, Bowling, and Houston all alleged similar experiences with the DJ, claiming he contacted them online when they were as young as 16. Using his “power and influence,” he allegedly groomed and sexually victimized young girls and paid them “large sums of cash and other items” in exchange for sex, often transporting them across state lines. The women filed a civil suit in the spring of 2021, though the Department of Justice declined to pursue criminal charges.

“This legal process has been long and difficult, with all parties already having endured a tremendous amount of strain on their personal and professional lives,” a joint statement by the plaintiffs and defendants reads. “As such, they have amicably decided to resolve this matter and move on in peace. Plaintiffs wish Lorin Ashton and the Bassnectar Community a bright future and Lorin Ashton wishes the Plaintiffs a bright future.”

“I am relieved to be able to put this behind me once and for all,” Ashton told Billboard when reached for comment. “To be clear, I did not engage in any of the wrongdoing of which I was accused in this lawsuit. I have never abused or assaulted anyone in any way, shape or form. I have also never been charged with any crimes. This process has been long and exhausting, and I am excited to get back to doing what I love most: making music and art for the world to enjoy.”

In December 2024, Bassnectar’s attorneys tried to get the case dismissed by arguing that the girls lied about their ages. Ramsbottom and Bowling both admitted to initially lying about their ages, but claimed that he clearly understood they were underage—particularly when Bowling reached out to the performer after she was turned away from his show for being under 18. According to the lawsuit, Bassnectar didn’t help her get into the show but instead “directed her and arranged for her to meet him near his hotel.”

Houston, who said she began communicating with Bassnectar online when she was 16, also admitted to misleading the musician about her age. In reviewing Bassnectar’s motion for dismissal, however, U.S. District Court Judge Aleta A. Trauger argued that the question remains whether the artist “deliberately ignored” what he saw for himself.

“The court finds that a jury must resolve the question of whether Ashton deliberately disregarded obvious facts from which he should have known that Houston was still a minor when they met,” the judge wrote. Based on photos of Houston from the time she met Ashton, she wrote that “no reasonable person would have believed she was 18 or older.” The judge even cited deposed testimony from Bassnectar when he agreed she “does not look like she’s 19 years old” in a photograph she allegedly emailed him.

After the motion for dismissal was rejected, Bassnectar’s legal team went after five audio recordings between the DJ and his alleged victims. Last month, his attorneys argued that the recordings were inadmissible as evidence because they were recorded without his knowledge over the phone and in person. With the charges dismissed, it’s unlikely that those calls or transcripts will ever become public. While those calls may never come out, the @evidenceagainstbassnectar Instagram account that brought many of these allegations to light in 2020 still hosts an audio recording of a phone call between Bassnectar and one of his alleged victims, in which she confronts him about allegedly statutory raping her when she was underage. When the unidentified female says that she was 17 when they had a relationship, Bassnectar agrees saying “It was so, so inappropriate.”

 

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When the allegations against Bassnectar first became public in 2020, the artist announced in a since-deleted post he was “stepping away” from music. He wrote that “I want to take responsibility and accountability,” while also maintaining “The rumors you are hearing are untrue, but I realize some of my past actions have caused pain, and I am deeply sorry.” After charges were filed the following year, Bassnectar claimed that the suit was “an attempt by opportunistic women…to frame years of friendship as trafficking so that they can exploit a statute for monetary gain.” In that same statement, Bassnectar demanded a jury trial.

Specifically responding to the child pornography charges, Bassnectar’s legal team stated, “Ashton asserts that, if materials within the statutory definition of ‘child pornography’ were ever received, Ashton: (1) possessed less than three matters containing any visual depiction proscribed by the relevant paragraph; and (2) promptly and in good faith, and without retaining or allowing any person to access any visual depiction or a copy thereof, took reasonable steps to destroy each such image.” He admitted to meeting with the women at several of the times they allege—including some when they were under 18—but denied that they had sex at those times.

In 2023, Bassnectar resumed performing publicly with a two-day curated event in Las Vegas. Later that year, he announced a two-night run in Asheville, NC which the venue canceled within 24 hours due to immense backlash from the public. He has since staged successful events in New York City’s Times Square and Miami, released an album in 2023, and launched a subscriber-only content platform called The Other Side. In the years since the allegations surfaced, Bassnectar has railed against “cancel culture,” calling it a form of “domestic terrorism” following the Asheville cancelations.

“But Cancel Culture does not care about the truth. It’s a modern form of domestic terrorism, where disturbed individuals incite chaos through lies, hostility, and intimidation. It’s a modern form of digital mob violence, where the ill-informed masses rush to judgement – issuing guilty verdicts and vigilante justice against innocent human beings,” he wrote. “We have the right to thrive. It is our mission to bring healing and radiate positive energy all across the country. We will not back down.”