Who Is Kenny Harris? New Details About The Panic! At The Disco Guitarist Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
He was reportedly being inappropriate with girls as young as 13.
Instagram On Sept. 22, rock band Panic! At The Disco announced that they would be firing 27-year-old guitarist Kenneth “Kenny” Harris from the band following sexual misconduct allegations.
Harris has been a member of Panic! since 2013 and was performing in the ongoing Pray For The Wicked tour, which ends in early 2019. Panic! At The Disco was formed in Las Vegas in 2004, and their fame took off with the 2005 release of the single, I Write Sins Not Tragedies.
While frontman Brendan Urie is the only original member of the band remaining, none of the previous members departed with as much public scrutiny as Harris. What happened that caused the band to suddenly fire their guitarist mid-tour?
The scandal began on Sept. 20 when Twitter user @donasnooze (whose real name appears to be Ashley) tweeted a thread detailing Harris’s predatory behavior toward her when she was only 16 years old.
In the thread, Ashley says that she sent the guitarist a dog-filter Snapchat selfie in April of 2016 assuming that a celebrity of such caliber wouldn’t respond. To her surprise, he replied, telling her that she was cute and that she should send him more selfies.
The two continued to correspond, and Ashley had tickets to see Panic! At The Disco in July of that year. She asked Harris if he could toss her a guitar pick from the stage since her seats were so close.
He responded with the ever-ambiguous winking emoji and a request for a “pic.” Ashley says that she dodged the picture requests from then on.
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“He stopped snapping me after he realized he wasn’t gonna get what he wanted,” she tweeted.
According to Daily Mail, Harris is married and has a child. While one instance of creepy sexual advances toward a minor by a married man is more than enough cause to justify his firing, the allegations did not stop there.
Upon seeing Ashley’s Twitter thread, a multitude of young girls came forward to share their own, similar stories. Some were as young as 13 years old when Harris solicited them for pictures.
Ashley shared several screenshots other girls’ experiences from her direct messages. Each of the girls was between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time of their contact with Harris, and he requested selfies from all of them.
One anonymous submission detailed a sweet 16 birthday party at which one of the girls tried to send a photo of the party to another friend who could not attend. She accidentally sent it to Harris instead, who then requested inappropriate pictures of the girls.
They became scared when he requested nude images from them.
Billboard Magazine reports that, while the band hasn’t specifically addressed the Twitter thread or any other allegations, they tweeted that Kenny Harris would no longer be performing as part of the band due to a “personal matter.”
Somewhat ironically, he released a song in 2016 titled “Will U B Minor?” the title of which is both a play on the song’s key and an allusion to his brand of sexual misconduct.
"Oh well, it's a thirst that can't be quenched /It's a curse that can't be cured /There's no justice for you, baby /There's no settling this score," the lyrics read.
Harris has neither responded to his firing nor the allegations.
Emily Van Devender is a freelance writer based in Colorado. She is interested in politics, feminism, and psychology and enjoys photography and outdoor activities in her spare time.