Rocker Ryan Adams’ immediate response to The New York Times reporting on his allegedly abusive relationships with multiple women was to say he was “taking you down” with a lawsuit — which he quickly deleted and replaced with a more temperate series of tweets.

“I know you got lawyers,” he wrote before the piece was published. “But do you have the truth on your side. No. I do. Run your smear piece. But the legal eagles see you. Rats.” That tweet quickly was taken down, as the gravity of his position seemed to kick in.

“I am not a perfect man and I have made many mistakes,” he wrote in the first of three new tweets after the Times’ story appeared. “To anyone I have ever hurt, I apologize deeply. But the picture that this article paints is upsettingly inaccurate. Some of its details are misrepresented; some are exaggerated; some are outright false. I would never have inappropriate interactions with someone I thought was underage. As someone who has always tried to spread joy through my music and my life, hearing that some people believe I caused them pain saddens me greatly,” he wrote in the final tweet for the time being.

Adams was responding to a detailed New York Times piece that alleged that Adams’ manipulative relationships with women were laid out by seven women and more than a dozen associates in their reporting.

— Variety