Two more men, including Jason Jones, the founding manager of the rock band Evanescence, have publicly accused Christian music superstar and conservative figure Michael Tait of drugging and sexual assault. The new claims bring the total number of men who have come forward with allegations against Tait to eight.
Jones alleges that after he was assaulted by Tait in 1998, he was fired from his role with Evanescence for speaking out about the incident, cutting him off from the band’s subsequent global success. “It destroyed me,” said Jones. “I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.”
Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody denied that Jones was fired for this reason. However, Moody confirmed that Jones told him about a sexual encounter with Tait, which he interpreted as consensual at the time. “I was a kid, only 18, and clearly didn’t realize what he was going through,” Moody said, adding that he now understands Jones was traumatized.
These allegations follow previous reports from the Guardian and the Christian news outlet The Roys Report, which detailed accusations from six other men. Tait, who gained fame as the frontman for Christian megabands DC Talk and Newsboys, has been a prominent supporter of Donald Trump. He has not directly responded to the specific allegations. In a recent Instagram post, Tait confessed to a decades-long addiction to cocaine and alcohol and admitted that he had “at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way.” He also stated he had recently spent six weeks at a treatment center.
Jones, who was a key figure in Evanescence’s early days, recalled being welcomed into Tait’s inner circle in Nashville in the mid-1990s. He claims that one night in late 1998, after feeling suddenly exhausted at Tait’s home, he went to sleep in the singer’s bedroom. Jones alleges he woke up to find his pants removed and Tait performing oral sex on him. He says he resisted, passed out, and awoke to the assault continuing. After resisting a third time, the assault stopped. “I believe that Michael Tait drugged me,” Jones stated.
Following the alleged assault, Jones says he warned Moody about Tait. The professional relationship between Jones and the band soon deteriorated, culminating in his departure in 1999. Jones says the experience sent him into a five-year methamphetamine addiction.
The second new accuser, musician Randall Crawford, was a mutual friend of both Jones and Tait. Crawford claims that one night in the fall of 2000, he was at Tait’s house and was given a single shot of whiskey. Despite having a high tolerance for alcohol, he says he blacked out almost immediately. He alleges his next memory is of being on Tait’s kitchen counter with his pants around his ankles while Tait was performing oral sex on him. Convinced he was drugged, Crawford fled.
The alleged assault had a devastating impact on Crawford’s career. His band, Webster County, had just finished recording an album, but he developed severe stage fright and depression, and the record was never released. “The joy and drive I had for music went away,” he said. “It ruined my career.”
Accounts from this period describe Tait as feeling “untouchable.” Crawford recalled an instance when campus security at Liberty University—the college founded by Tait’s mentor, Jerry Falwell—stopped Tait for speeding, only to laugh and ask for autographs. Afterward, Tait allegedly told Crawford, “I can do anything and not get in trouble.”
Both Jones and Crawford initially believed their experiences were isolated incidents. After reconnecting decades later, Crawford said, “Hearing Jason’s story recently broke my heart. I believe we’d both be in the music industry today if it weren’t for Michael Tait.”
Jones has been sober since 2008 and now works in addiction recovery. He said that a law firm later told him the statute of limitations had long passed for him to pursue any compensation from Evanescence. Reflecting on the industry, Jones quoted the journalist Hunter S. Thompson, adding his own postscript: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench… And that’s true for the Christian music industry as well. Even more so, in my case.”
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