Michael Tait, who was the lead singer of the popular Christian bands DC Talk and Newsboys, has reportedly been accused of sexual assault by eight men.
Six men previously accused Tait of sexual assault, but now two more — including Jason Jones, the founding manager of the hard-rock band Evanescence — have added their names to the list, according to a report in the Guardian.
Jones told the newspaper that he was fired from the band — which had ties to Tait — in 1999, after he spoke about his alleged experience with the Christian rocker.
“It destroyed me,” Jones said. “I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.”
Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody, however, denies that the alleged incident was the reason for Jones’ 2003 firing, telling the Guardian, “I was a kid, only 18, and clearly didn’t realize what he was going through. I’m sure I missed a lot of things I’d recognize today. I didn’t realize he was traumatized.”
Nonetheless, Jones said Tait helped him and Evanescence obtain meetings with record labels, producers, and venue owners in the ’90s, adding that during this time, Tait would take him out drinking and smoking marijuana, at which point he admitted he was “living a double life as a closeted gay man.”
During one incident in 1998, Jones said he was drinking at Tait’s house when he felt tired and was told to go sleep in the Christian singer’s bedroom. Not long after that, he allegedly woke up to find Tait performing oral sex on him.
“I said no and pushed him off, but then, somehow, I passed out again,” Jones said. “I woke back up, and he was still doing it. I said no again, then nodded out. And then I woke up a third time, aggressively shouted, ‘No!’ and pushed him harder. It was then that he left me alone.”
Due to Jones continuing to pass out during the alleged experience, “I believe that Michael Tait drugged me,” he told the newspaper.
Randall Crawford, the eighth man to accuse Tait of sexual assault, told the Guardian that the singer invited him to his house in 2000 after a bad breakup and gave him a shot glass of Makers Mark whiskey.
“I told him, ‘Just one,’ and took the shot,” Crawford recalled, adding, “I had a pretty high tolerance for alcohol at the time, but I blacked out shortly after I took that one drink.”
Crawford said that his memory from the alleged incident came to him some time later, when he found himself propped up on Tait’s kitchen counter with his pants around his ankles.
“My legs were up in the air, and Tait was licking my anus,” he claimed. “I said, ‘What are you doing, dude?’ and then he said the weirdest thing: ‘Hey man, did you catch the Colts game last week?’ Like we were just hanging out, chatting.”
Crawford, who also believes Tait had drugged him, added that he fled the rocker’s house after that and has no memory of driving home.
Two of the other men accusing Tait also said they think the singer drugged them before their alleged assaults transpired, according to the Guardian.
Other sources told the newspaper that Tait had a rotation of attractive young men — some of whom they allege were underage — at his Nashville home around this time, adding that the singer had a “no clothes allowed” rule in his hot tub.
“He would put his penis against one of the jets, and tell us to do the same, saying ‘see, it feels good!’” one source, who visited Tait regularly during this time, said.
In June, the Guardian published another story featuring three other men who claimed Tait sexually assaulted them, as well as others who alleged the singer “engaged in inappropriate behavior such as unwanted touching and sexual advances.”
“This man destroyed my life,” Shawn Davis, one of the accusers, told the newspaper at the time, adding that he was a minor when he met Tait — who quickly acted as a mentor him and introduced him to drugs and alcohol.
Davis claims Tait drugged him when he was 17, and that he “woke up in the closet” to find the singer had pulled his pants down, “and he was giving me a blowjob.”
Another alleged victim, Adam, relayed a similar account, telling the Guardian that he remembers “waking up in his bed, my pants unzipped, and [Tait] was jerking me off.”
Like Jones, Adam recalls passing out during the alleged incident.
“I passed out again, then woke up, wondering, ‘What the fuck is happening?’ I went to the bathroom and had a panic attack, asking myself, ‘Am I supposed to go there and beat him up? Or am I supposed to play it cool?’” Adam said.
Israel Anthem, the third accuser in the report, said he was only 13 when Tait allegedly exposed his penis to him in a restaurant restroom.
“He was still at the urinal when I was washing my hands,” Anthem said, explaining that the two were discussing a new CD that had just come out when “I noticed his penis was out, and he was facing me, turned away from the urinal.”
“I thought he was putting his penis away, but then he was rubbing his penis, and making eye contact, while I was talking,” Anthem said.
In June, Tait responded to the earlier allegations in an Instagram post, titled, “My Confession,” where he admitted to having had a decades-long addiction to cocaine and alcohol, adding that he, “at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way.”
“Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity, are sadly, largely true,” Tait said.
“I am ashamed of my life choices and actions, and make no excuses for them,” he continued, adding that what he did was a “sin,” and “I don’t blame anyone or anything but myself.”
“While I might dispute certain details in the accusations against me, I do not dispute the substance of them,” the singer said.
Tait went on to explain that he “abruptly left Newsboys in January” to “get help.”
“I was not healthy, physically or spiritually, and was tired of leading a double life,” he said, adding, “I spent six weeks at a treatment center in Utah,” and “have been clean and sober since, though I still have lots of hard work ahead of me.”
This limited confession came before the allegations of fellatio and other sex acts surfaced; Tait has not yet commented on those claims.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
