2 More Michael Tait Accusers Come Forward, Including Former Evanescence Manager
Two additional men, one of whom was the former manager of the Grammy award-winning rock band Evanescence, have stepped forward to allege that former Newsboys and DC Talk singer Michael Tait committed sexual assault, adding the total number of public accusers to eight.
In a new report from The Guardian published Tuesday, Jason Jones, the founding manager of Evanescence, told the outlet that Tait drugged and sexually assaulted him in 1998.
“It destroyed me,” said Jones. “I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.”
He also claimed he was fired from Evanescence in 1999 after informing the band’s co-founder Ben Moody about the alleged assault, The Christian Post reported.
“Ben was only 18 at the time, new to the music industry, and I wanted to warn him,” Jones recalled. “[Tait] was flying Ben out to Nashville to write songs together, to see if he fit in Tait’s inner-circle.”
Moody, however, denies the claim that Jones was fired for reporting the assault.
"He didn't frame it as 'sexual assault,'" Moody said. "He described it as like frat-boy joking around while they were drunk."
Jones, who met Tait in 1994 through a mutual friend and immediately became part of his inner circle, said that the former singer drugged him and performed oral sex on him following a late night at Tait’s Nashville home in late 1998.
Despite saying "no" the first time, Tait continued to assault Jones two more times before the former manager brushed him off a third time while drifting in and out of consciousness. The next day, Jones flew home to Little Rock, Arkansas, and confided in a mentor, who chose to remain anonymous about the experience.
According to Moody, Jones' behavior changed following the incident, including mood swings and emotional outbursts, which ultimately resulted in the dissolution of their professional relationship, and Jones left Evanescence shortly before the band's commercial breakthrough.
"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 later struggled with a 5-year meth addiction in light of the trauma he suffered from the assault.
Randall Crawford, a songwriter and musician who worked with Tait and other DC Talk members, also alleged Tait sexually assaulted him in 2000. In a similar fashion to the incident with Jones, Tait drugged him with a shot of whiskey and performed a sex act on him while Crawford was unconscious.
After the alleged assault, Crawford experienced emotional trauma, brain fog, depression, and stage fright, which he believes ruined his music career. Although Crawford told two friends about the alleged assault at the time, he did not specifically name Tait until years later.
He also started attending therapy in 2020 following a brief reunion with Tait, who had offered to produce an album for Crawford's wife. At the time, the emotional toll of that meeting prompted him to pursue trauma counseling.
In the past month, several individuals, particularly men, accused Tait of sexually assaulting them when they were younger, including a woman who alleged the singer had drugged her and watched her get raped by a lighting technician while the Newsboys were on tour in 2014.
Tait, who stepped down from the Newsboys in January, issued a confession last month that he had been living a double life, including decades-long addiction to drugs and alcohol as well as having "at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way." He also noted that he completed a six-week stay at a treatment center in Utah.
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Originally published July 30, 2025.
