MEMPHIS, Tenn. — R&B singer R. Kelly is on tour with Tyrese and Monica and headed to FedExForum next month in Memphis, but one father, Tim Savage, is not a fan and doesn’t want the show to go on.
“I am praying nobody goes to this guy’s concert. I want folks to know my daughter has been brainwashed. My daughter has so many problems going on with her and Mr. R. Kelly,” Savage said.
In a phone interview with News Channel 3, Tim Savage, formerly of Memphis, is speaking out about his daughter, Joycelyn. The aspiring singer is the woman at the center of controversy involving Kelly.
“They say that she was being used as a sex slave and being abused. All of these things going on in the compound.”
Kelly is being accused of having sexual relationship with Joycelyn Savage and several other women in an arrangement in which he allegedly controls them and cuts them off from the outside world at his compound.
“If she wasn’t being held captive, if she wasn’t being held against her will, why couldn’t she come home to see me, her sister, her grandmother, her other grandmother or come to her grandfather’s funeral?”
But Wednesday Joycelyn Savage released a video posted on TMZ to her family, especially her father, asking him to stop and saying what he’s done is a complete disaster.
Kelly has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney said, “Mr. Robert Kelly is both alarmed and disturbed at the recent revelations attributed to him. Mr. Kelly unequivocally denies such allegations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name.”
Carlee McCullough is the attorney representing the promoter bringing the show to Memphis. She said this concert is not about R. Kelly because it’s a festival including other acts. She also looks at the singer from a legal perspective.
“I think that the alleged victim has come out and she has spoken and as part of the legal profession we believe innocent until proven guilty, ” McCullough said.
Until then, a father says he has a message for his daughter.
“Joycelyn, you don’t have to, you just need to come home,” Tim Savage said.