Barnes Granddaughter, 16, Reveals Harassment in Music Industry

The teenage granddaughter of iconic rocker Jimmy Barnes has detailed the harassment she has suffered from fans after launching a music career. 

Ruby Rodgers, 16, who released her first EP last year, says that she has endured predatory behaviour from men old enough to be her father. 

The teen singer, who is the daughter of Mahalia Barnes and Ben Rodgers, told news.com.au on Wednesday that she is often approached by men at concerts.  

'When I'm doing gigs, or even online and you get DMs that are just so out of pocket, people seem to think they're entitled to you,' she said.

'People think it's okay to come up and touch you or talk to you in a way that is just so incredibly inappropriate.

'This behaviour has been normalised and it's made a lot of young women really scared.'

Ruby detailed her experiences on her new single Sixteen. 

'16 is the age of consent, but there's all these blurred lines,' she explained. 

'At 16, you're not a kid anymore, but you're also not an adult. And so it's constantly being unsure of where you stand.' 

Ruby has joined the family business, releasing her debut EP, Crisis, last year, through EMI Music Australia.

She was only 15 years old at the time, and has been writing music since 2023.  

Like her famous granddad and her singer mother, the talented teenager says music is an outlet for her emotions. 

'I've always been a sensitive person,' she told Unraveled Edit last year. 

 'Even in school, I always struggled to bottle my emotions up. But as I got older, I found writing, especially poetry, as an outlet.