Motown legend denies sexual assault allegations, continues U.S. tour

John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal on May 8, 2025

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Smokey Robinson’s national “Legacy Tour” schedule remains unchanged, including a Friday performance in Biloxi, Miss., days after former employees filed a lawsuit alleging a pattern of sexual assault. Robinson, through his attorney, has denied the claims.

Robinson’s attorney, Christopher Frost, said Wednesday that he plans to seek dismissal of the lawsuit filed by four ex- housekeepers. The women accuse Robinson of repeated sexual misconduct and allege the singer and his wife, Frances, violated labor laws. The former employees seek at least $50 million in damages.

“We will have more to say in the coming days as we make our legal response, and in time Mr. Robinson will respond in his own words,” Frost said in a statement to media outlets. “As this case progresses, the evidence (the crucial element that guides us) will show that this is simply an ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon — $50 million dollars, to be exact.”

As reported by KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, one of the women claims the first assault took place at Robinson’s Las Vegas home in 2007. The acts allegedly occurred through 2024, primarily at Robinson’s Los Angeles residence.

The ex-employees say Robinson assaulted and raped them, waiting to be alone with them before committing the acts. The women claim Robinson violated labor laws by creating a hostile work environment, making them work illegally long hours and lack of pay. Over time, all of them quit as a result.

A 1987 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Robinson has a long history of headlining in Las Vegas, dating to the original MGM Grand (today’s Horseshoe) in 1980. He most recently played The Venetian Theatre on April 2-5, in his ongoing series promoted by Live Nation Las Vegas. He has no Vegas dates currently scheduled.

Live Nation reps have not returned request for comment, nor has Robinson’s management.

Robinson’s tour dates are still on the books. He’s scheduled to play Beau Rivage Theater in Biloxi, Miss. on Friday, then a show at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., May 31.

Starring first with the Miracles, then as a soloist Robinson either wrote or performed several legendary Motown songs, “The Tears of a Clown,” “Shop Around,” “Going to a Go-Go,” “I Second That Emotion,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “My Girl” (by the Temptations) and “My Guy” (Mary Wells).

Robinson’s star power has boosted the Australian Motown act Human Nature into a long-running headlining turn on and off the Strip. Billed as “Smokey Robinson presents Human Nature: The Motown Show,” the act opened at Imperial Palace in May 2009. The popular act is in rotation at South Point Showroom.

The group’s founding brothers Andrew and Michael Tierney, as the Tierney Brothers, play the hotel’s Grandview Lounge at 6:30 p.m. Monday. The brothers had no comment Thursday on the claims against their mentor. The story of how Robinson discovered the act nearly 20 years ago, setting up their move to Las Vegas, remains on the band’s website.

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