‘Boy Band Confidential’ Research Documentation: The Biggest Insights
Ricky Garcia, a member of the 2010 boy band Forever in Your Mind, was managed by producer Joby Harte, who got them a deal with Disney that included a TV show and music.
As the band gained popularity and began touring, Garcia’s mother trusted Harte enough to care for her son. Harte also paid the duo’s rent and helped them with their bills, “blurring the lines between what was personal and professional,” Garcia said.
The group, plus Harte, went to Catalina for a week to work on music, where Harte gave them alcohol. The other members of the band remember seeing Harte take Garcia to the bathroom and lock the door.
“It was the first time I got drunk. I was in and out of a daze,” Garcia recalls. “When I woke up in Catalina, I was completely naked under the covers, and Joby came into the room and grinned at me like it was something funny. I found out that Joby had washed me.” Garcia had no memory of the incident and said Harte “could have done anything.”
The pattern continued. “I loved the party life. I got sick and he said, ‘Okay, you can take a shower,'” Garcia said. “And then he came into the shower with me because we were ‘buddy-buddy,’ but there were times where he touched me down there. And he tried… I froze. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t want to make the situation awkward for either of us. So I just went with it.”
Garcia didn’t tell anyone until Alli Nadine, the band’s talent management assistant, realized something was wrong and, after much prodding, told her the truth. Later, Garcia confronted Harte at his home and told him, “You harassed me.”
Garcia filed a civil suit against Harte in 2019, but was unable to file a criminal case due to lack of evidence. The case eventually went to trial in 2024, where Harte alleged that Garcia was coerced into lying by Nadine, who was angry that she had been fired and sought financial retribution. Harte was found guilty and ordered to pay $6 million to Garcia, who says he hasn’t received a dime so far, thanks to Harte filing for bankruptcy before the trial.
Garcia and Nadine married in 2023 and are expecting their first child together.
