I went fishing tonight and it brought me little of its usual peace. One of my closest friends has been accused of some truly awful things and it is taking me a while to process the whole situation. When I first heard of some of this, from Frankie himself, I will admit I didn’t

believe it. I mean all I’ve known of Frank is the kind of shirt off his back friend that is, at least for me, rare to find in this life. It is one thing to hear accusations directed at someone you don’t know, but I am in a position now in which they are pointed at someone

I feel I know very well. I am not yet at a point yet where I can publicly speak specifically towards Frankie. As you can probably imagine a long friendship, even one like this, demands personal conversation and not just taking to twitter.

But I can speak about myself. I must look inward now to see what I have been complicit and complacent with; and guilty of. I have no reference point to the amount of courage it must take to speak out about a personal experience of abuse. I have never had to be that brave.

I have always considered myself one to give every benefit of every doubt to a woman in that situation. But here I found myself not doing that because a man who was the accused was someone I held so close. To think that only applies to people with which I am not friends is part

of the more general problem and in this instance one to which I must admit guilt. I, as well as most musicians, have witnessed and been told about so many instances in which women have been treated like lesser beings in that world. The sound guy trying to tell an extremely

talented musician how to plug in her gear, the gropey front row dudes, the overheard conversations while she is on stage. I have seen it and heard it and let it go. I know this extends so far beyond music, but the music world is my experience.

I know I’ve been guilty of misogyny. In passive ways and active. As boys, especially old farts like me, many of us were bred with that as a requirement of manhood. I feel I’ve gotten much healthier in that respect but it is important to acknowledge its existence.

I prefer to save apologies for personal encounters so if I’ve made you feel any of this at any time please let me know. A blanket apology on twitter feels like a copout. I am raising a son now and am very thankful for all the strong women he has in his life

to help in shaping him in this way.I am generally not a very public person. In this instance though I feel public silence would be destructive.I have had some healthy conversations these last few days with some women in the Minneapolis music scene for whom I hold immense respect.

Their generosity in reaching out and to encouraging me to use whatever platform I may have for growth has been very much appreciated and is probably the reason i’m writing this now. Bless them.

As my manager said to me today, "a lot of us who were very comfortable are gonna be very uncomfortable for a while now and that is a good thing.” I feel like so much pain is being aired out and I hold on strongly to the hope that all of this can bring about some real change.

I am ready for it.