Virgin Records to Strike Back With Free-Speech Stickers : Pop Music: The chief of the album label urges an industrywide campaign against a national ‘witch hunt.’

The co-head of Virgin Records, the company whose roster includes such best-sellers as Paula Abdul, Soul II Soul and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, says that he believes it’s time for the record industry to strike back against what he perceives to be a national “witch hunt” against pop music.

Jeff Ayeroff, one of the few industry figures who has publicly opposed any form of record labeling, said Virgin Records will begin implementing its own brand of warning label for rock records starting in August--a pro-First Amendment sticker.

“Rock ‘n’ roll is the new Willie Horton,” said Jeff Ayeroff, co-managing director of the Los Angeles-based label, referring to the convicted murderer who became a focal point of President Bush’s 1988 campaign against Michael Dukakis.

“The industry is getting blamed for everything that’s going wrong in the country. Some people act like we’re a bunch of dirty little guys printing up pornography in the back room somewhere, as if people involved in the record business have no values.”

Ayeroff said that he sees elements of a witch hunt in such varied actions as the continuing 2 Live Crew obscenity controversy and the pending legislation in Louisiana that would mandate government-sanctioned warning stickers on “offensive” records.

The Virgin Records executive also cited the current lawsuit in Reno in which parents are seeking product liability damages from CBS Records and British heavy metal group Judas Priest because, the parents argue, subliminal messages in one of the band’s albums caused their sons to attempt suicide.

“The restrictions these anti-rockers want to impose on free expression are terrifying,” said Ayeroff. “They are trying to ban the music we love and redefine our culture. They want to impose their own brand of art on America. . . . the art of scaring citizens.”

Bob DeMoss, the “youth specialist” at Pomona’s Focus on the Familyc and a leading critic of explicit lyrics in pop music, accused Ayeroff of being irresponsible.

“Mr. Ayeroff is willfully ignorant of constitutional law as it pertains to limitations of speech in this country,” DeMoss said on Wednesday.

“Before he spends a lot of money misinforming Americans, he needs to go back to high school and study the perimeters of First Amendment law. He better get a handle on the fact that we are a society which draws boundaries regarding free speech.”

Jennifer Norwood, a spokeswoman for the Parents Music Resource Center, the nation’s most prominent proponent for voluntary labeling on albums with explicit lyrics, said that she has no problem with the First Amendment sticker, but she still disputes Ayeroff’s position on voluntary record labeling.

Ayeroff said that he believes the record industry has allowed anti-rock proponents to gain momentum by remaining silent--echoing a charge frequently leveled by 2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell, the independent rap entrepreneur whose record was declared obscene in a federal court in Ft. Lauderdale in June.

Since the obscenity ruling, Atlantic Records has signed a distribution deal with Campbell, pledging financial as well as moral support for the legally embattled rapper.

In addition, Capitol Records has pledged legal support to music retailers facing prosecution for selling controversial records bearing standard Recording Industry Assn. of America stickers.

Reacting to the threat of pending government-mandated warning label legislation in Louisiana, a number of industry heavyweights have also threatened to retaliate economically if the bill becomes law. Among these organizations are Warners/Elektra/Atlantic Corp., the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the North American Concert Promoters Assn., the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers.

Ayeroff and Virgin co-managing director Jordan Harris hosted a July 11 meeting of approximately 200 industry figures in Beverly Hills to discuss strategies for an industrywide assault on the anti-rock music forces. The main thrust of the meeting was to organize a voter registration drive for rock music fans, Ayeroff said.

Virgin’s red, white and blue label, which measures 1 1/2 inch by 4 inches, bears a silhouette of the statue of liberty and reads: “The First Amendment gives you the right to choose what you hear, what you say and what you think. CENSORSHIP IS UNAMERICAN. Don’t let anyone take away that right. Raise your political voice. Register to vote.”

In addition, Virgin printed up 70,000 anti-censorship posters and distributed thousands of copies of its latest release, “The Dance Hall of Shame,” to participants at the New Music Seminar this week in New York. The record contains no music whatsoever--symbolic of the vacuous kind of product, Ayeroff predicts, that companies will be forced to market in the future.