In a statement provided to E! News Thursday, Don McLean shared his side of the story. "This last year and especially now have been hard emotional times for my wife my children and me. What is occurring is the very painful breakdown of an almost 30 year relationship. Our hearts are broken and we must carry on. There are no winners or losers but I am not a villain. I may never recover from this but I will try and hope to continue to entertain you all as I always have," he said. "I ask God to give us the strength to find new happiness and I hope people will realize that this will all be resolved but I hope I will not be judged in this frantic media environment."
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Don McLean was put behind bars today.
E! News confirms the "American Pie" singer was arrested in Camden, Maine this morning. He was brought in on a domestic violence assault charge, a class D misdemeanor.
According to reports, police responded to a 911 call at the 70-year-old singer's home shortly before 2 a.m., after which McLean was taken into custody without incident.
Further details were not disclosed, including whether or not his wife, Patrisha, or two children were at home at the time.
McLean was booked at Knox County jailed and released at 4:30 a.m. after posting the $10,000 bail.
E! News has reached out to his camp for comment.
McLean sold his original manuscript for his classic "American Pie" at auction last year for $1.2 million. "I'm going to be 70 this year," McLean told Rolling Stone prior to the Christie's auction.
"I have two children and a wife, and none of them seem to have the mercantile instinct. I want to get the best deal that I can for them. It's time."
The iconic song, which reached No. 1 on the record charts and became one of the most well-known rock songs in history, was based on the 1959 death in a plane crash of early rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, known as "The Big Bopper." McLean famously labeled it "the day the music died."
McLean followed up "American Pie" with the Top 20 hit "Vincent" in 1972, about Vincent van Gogh, and released covers of "Crying" and "Since I Don't Have You" in 1980.
—Reporting by Holly Passalaqua
(Originally published on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, at 3:19 p.m. PT.)