Two additional men, including the founding manager of the Grammy-winning hard rock band Evanescence, have come forward with allegations of sexual assault against Christian rock singer Michael Tait, bringing the total number of public accusers to eight.
Jason Jones, the founding manager of Evanescence, alleged in a new report from The Guardian published Tuesday that Tait, 58, drugged and sexually assaulted him in 1998. The alleged incident, he claimed, derailed his budding music career and led to his departure from the band before its breakout success.
“It destroyed me,” Jones said. “I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.”
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Jones claimed he was fired from Evanescence in 1999 after confiding in co-founder Ben Moody about the alleged assault. Moody denied that Jones was dismissed for speaking out against Tait.
“He didn’t frame it as ‘sexual assault,'” Moody said. “He described it as like frat-boy joking around while they were drunk.”
Jones insists he made it clear to Moody that he was assaulted, describing the incident in detail.
“I believe that Michael Tait drugged me,” Jones said.
Tait, who rose to fame as the frontman of DC Talk and later the Newsboys, posted a statement on Instagram in June acknowledging a decades-long addiction to drugs and alcohol and admitted to having “at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way.” He also stated that he had recently completed a six-week stay at a treatment center in Utah.
The artist stepped down from Newsboys in January. In a brief statement posted to the band’s social media, he described the move as “a shock to even myself,” citing prayer and fasting as part of his decision.
However, Jones’ allegations add to a growing list of accusations against Tait.
A previous investigation by The Guardian included claims from three men, and The Roys Report published allegations from three others. In total, eight men have now come forward publicly, alleging sexual assault by Tait.
One woman has also accused Tait of supplying a date-rape drug to a crew member who then allegedly raped her during a Newsboys tour.
Jones recalled meeting Tait in 1994 through a mutual friend and quickly becoming part of his inner circle. Jones, an Evangelical at the time, described the excitement of being around the Christian music icon and the discomfort he felt with the partying and sexual boundaries that accompanied it.
In late 1998, after a night of drinking at Tait’s Nashville home, Jones said he suddenly felt tired and was told to rest in Tait’s bed. He claimed he woke up to Tait performing oral sex on him. Despite saying “no” and pushing Tait away multiple times, Jones said he drifted in and out of consciousness and was assaulted again.
The next day, Jones flew home to Little Rock, Arkansas, and confided in a mentor about the experience. He later told Moody about the incident in hopes of warning him, as Tait had begun inviting Moody to Nashville for songwriting sessions.
Moody said he noticed a change in Jones’ behavior after the alleged incident, recalling mood swings and emotional outbursts that led to concerns about continuing their professional relationship.
“Looking back I would’ve been a bit more attentive, but I was the typical 18-year-old who wanted to be a rockstar,” Moody said.
Jones left Evanescence shortly before the band’s commercial breakthrough. He later struggled with meth addiction, a five-year spiral he attributed to the trauma of the assault.
Another accuser, Randall Crawford, has also come forward publicly for the first time, claiming that Tait drugged and sexually assaulted him in 2000.
Crawford said he blacked out after taking a single shot of whiskey offered by Tait and later regained consciousness to find Tait performing a sex act on him.
Crawford, a songwriter and musician who had worked with Tait and other DC Talk members, said the incident left him emotionally shattered.
“It ruined my career,” he said, adding that he experienced brain fog, depression and stage fright that made it impossible to release his band’s completed record.
Two friends of Crawford’s confirmed that he shared the details of the alleged assault at the time, though he did not name Tait until years later.
Both Crawford and Jones described being manipulated and “love bombed” by Tait in the months following the alleged assaults, which made them question their own experiences. They each said they continued to interact with Tait, believing their experiences were isolated.
In 2020, Crawford said he began therapy after reuniting briefly with Tait, who had offered to produce an album for Crawford’s wife. The emotional toll of the encounter led him to pursue trauma counseling. “I had buried the memory of that night for a long time,” he said.
Jones has been sober since 2008 and now travels the country sharing his testimony of addiction and abuse. He said he once contacted a law firm about potentially recovering lost earnings from Evanescence, but was told the statute of limitations had long passed.
Evanescence went on to win multiple Grammys in 2003, selling tens of millions of albums. Moody left the band shortly afterward and later collaborated musically with Tait.
“I believe we’d both be in the music industry today if it weren’t for Michael Tait,” said Crawford, who recently reconnected with Jones.
Jones echoed that sentiment, recalling a warning he once gave Moody about the music industry. “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench,” he said. “And that’s true for the Christian music industry as well. Even more so, in my case.”
The allegations surrounding Tait have sparked an outpouring of reactions from those in the CCM industry, including Skillet frontman John Cooper, who demanded a “full-throated condemnation of these acts.”
“We’re not condemning people. We’re condemning the actions of people. Full-throatedly, unapologetically, we do not shrink back,” Cooper said.
Cooper, who also serves on the board of Ascent Church in Nashville, stressed that “our testimony to the world is at stake” and emphasized that the survivors of Tait’s alleged abuse must be “prioritized.”
“We cannot turn a blind eye to this level of alleged injustice. We cannot do that!”
Cooper said the scandal raises serious questions about the witness of Christian artists.
“What kind of Gospel are we displaying to the world when … our biggest, most passionate, most famous Christian music icons … say, ‘I’ve been living a double life since the beginning?'”
“It makes it feel like our Gospel is not real,” he added.
