Two extra males have come ahead to accuse Christian rock famous person and Maga firebrand Michael Tait of drugging and sexually assaulting them – together with Jason Jones, the founding supervisor of the American hard-rock band Evanescence.
Jones mentioned he was fired from the band – which had ties to Tait – for talking out about his alleged assault. Jones mentioned the firing, which he claimed occurred in 1999, lower him out of Evanescence’s large success starting in 2003.
“It destroyed me,” mentioned Jones. “I used to be reaching my goals at an early age, and Tait modified all that.”
Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody denied Jones was fired from the band for talking out towards Tait.
Moody mentioned he does recall Jones telling him a couple of sexual encounter with Tait, however on the time Moody interpreted it as consensual.
“I used to be a child, solely 18, and clearly didn’t notice what he was going by,” Moody mentioned. “I’m positive I missed a number of issues I’d acknowledge in the present day. I didn’t notice he was traumatized.”
In all, eight alleged victims have now come ahead publicly with sexual assault allegations towards Tait. A earlier investigation by the Guardian reported allegations of sexual assault by Tait towards three younger males whereas one other from the Christian information outlet the Roys Report reported allegations by three different males.
Tait grew to become well-known because the frontman for DC Discuss and Newsboys, two Christian mega-bands identified for packaging conservative rhetoric about sexual abstinence, sobriety, Christian nationalism and the approaching rapture in catchy rock songs. Tait has been a supporter of Donald Trump and served as a key bridge between Trump and evangelical voters.
Tait has not responded to questions from the Guardian in regards to the allegations towards him. However in an Instagram put up in June, Tait confessed to a decades-long habit to cocaine and alcohol and admitted that he had “at occasions, touched males in an undesirable, sensual manner”.
Within the put up, Tait added that he had lately “spent six weeks at a therapy heart in Utah”.
Jones was described by pals who knew him within the Nineties as a happy-go-lucky Christian teenager, bursting with ambition and creativity. Rising up in Arkansas, Jones remembers, certainly one of his largest goals was “to satisfy DC Discuss”.
Jones achieved that dream in 1994 after shifting to Nashville to handle the band of his pal, Randall Crawford, who was additionally pals with Tait and launched the 2.
Jones recalled going to McDonalds with the DC Discuss frontman and being mobbed by so many teenage followers they needed to depart earlier than getting their meals. “That sort of factor occurred so much,” he mentioned.
Jones was thrilled to be welcomed into Tait’s internal circle, but he was bowled over by what he described as Tait’s proclivity for randomly grabbing different males’s genitals. He mentioned he finally realized that Tait was dwelling a double-life as a closeted homosexual man, which was turning into an issue for a band mentored by Ethical Majority co-founder Jerry Falwell, who referred to as Aids “God’s punishment for homosexuality”.
Whereas stunned, Jones held no detrimental emotions towards Tait’s sexuality, even taking him to homosexual golf equipment in Little Rock (at Tait’s request) when DC Discuss carried out there.
Jones was usually touring forwards and backwards from Nashville to Little Rock, and in 1995 he met aspiring musician Moody – the 2 of them hitting it off and collaborating on a venture that may come to be named Evanescence.
After co-producing the primary Evanescence demo, Jones returned to Nashville and started speaking up the band to his pal, Tait.
Jones, as an evangelical, was sober and a virgin on the time. However he recollects getting caught up in a whirlwind of partying with Tait in 1995, chain-smoking cigarettes and marijuana and shutting down bars, then returning to Tait’s home to proceed consuming. Jones mentioned he was uncomfortable with all of it, however was anticipating Tait’s approval so he complied.
“I had this band that I used to be making an attempt to take locations,” Jones recalled. “And [Tait] had the facility to open doorways for us within the business. So I went together with no matter, however didn’t know what it could price me.”
Jones’ used his reference to Tait to assist Evanescence get a foot within the door in Nashville, talking with A&R folks, report labels, venue homeowners, producers and musicians.
Sources that want to stay nameless alleged that Tait had a rotation of engaging younger males at his Nashville dwelling presently, a few of them underage, and that Tait had a “no garments allowed” rule in his sizzling tub. “He would put his penis towards one of many jets, and inform us to do the identical, saying ‘see, it feels good!’” recalled a supply who visited Tait usually presently, and needs to stay nameless.
“He was all in regards to the shock issue,” recalled Crawford, who was shut with Jones and Tait all through the 90s. “He was all the time saying ‘let’s make out in entrance of those folks!’ And I used to be like ‘no, you’re gonna destroy your profession.’ However he felt untouchable. And in some methods, he was.”
Round this similar time, Crawford recollects Tait driving him by the campus of Liberty College – Falwell’s Christian faculty the place DC Discuss shaped – dashing at 60mph and getting pulled over by campus safety, who turned from anger to laughter when seeing Tait behind the wheel, even asking for footage and autographs.
“After they left, Michael turned to me, calm as ever, and mentioned: ‘I can do something and never get in bother.’”
Jones recollects consuming at Tait’s home one evening in late 1998, simply after DC Discuss completed rehearsals for his or her Supernatural album tour. Jones remembers feeling drained all of a sudden, and Tait beneficial he fall asleep in his bed room. “I felt honored that he felt that near me, that he trusted me sufficient to let me sleep in his mattress,” Jones mentioned.
A while later, Jones recollects waking up, his pants lacking, and Tait was giving him oral intercourse. “I mentioned no and pushed him off, however then, in some way, I handed out once more. I woke again up and he was nonetheless doing it. I mentioned no once more, then nodded out. After which I awakened a 3rd time, aggressively shouted ‘no!’ and pushed him tougher. It was then that he left me alone.”
Wanting again, Jones mentioned, “I consider that Michael Tait drugged me.”
Two alleged victims from the Guardian’s earlier report additionally say they consider they have been drugged by Tait earlier than their alleged assaults. As well as, a feminine accuser cited by the Roys Report mentioned she believed that Tait equipped Rohypnol or another sedative to a crew member on a Newsboys tour, who then drugged and raped her whereas Tait watched.
Distraught and in want of consolation, Jones flew dwelling to Little Rock the day after he mentioned he was assaulted. There he confided in a pal and mentor – who needs to stay nameless – that he had had “a nasty expertise with Tait,” however wouldn’t go into particulars. “He wasn’t the identical after that,” Jones’s pal recalled.
Jones mentioned that in early 1999 he had additionally confided in his pal and Evanescence co-founder, Ben Moody, about being sexually assaulted by Tait. “Ben was solely 18 on the time, new to the music business, and I wished to warn him,” Jones recalled. “[Tait] was flying Ben out to Nashville to jot down songs collectively, to see if he slot in Tait’s inner-circle.”
Moody remembers issues otherwise.
“He didn’t body it as ‘sexual assault,’” Moody mentioned. “He described it as like frat-boy joking round whereas they have been drunk, with [Tait] saying ‘what’s the large deal? A dick’s only a muscle.’ And Jason mentioned ‘the following factor I do know he’s sucking my dick.’”
Jones mentioned he stays assured that he informed Moody the total particulars of the assault, together with that he verbally and bodily resisted Tait 3 times as his consciousness got here and went.
Moody mentioned he quickly observed a change in Jones’s demeanor. Jones, a passionate, fun-loving man who was straightforward to get together with, started struggling manic swings from despair to rage to paranoia after which to dissociation. “After a late evening studio he couldn’t get the automobile shifter into gear and he simply began screaming, hurling his physique round, jerking the shifter violently like he was going to interrupt it off.”
Moody mentioned he and the band started questioning if they need to proceed working with Jones. Looking back, Moody mentioned: “I didn’t know what he was going by. Wanting again I’d’ve been a bit extra attentive, however I used to be the everyday 18 12 months previous who wished to be a rockstar.”
Moody mentioned that in a cellphone name with Tait, he talked about that Jones had informed him a couple of sexual encounter between them, which Tait then denied. “I wished to get forward of [Jason] speaking shit about us and ruining the entire thing. Again then there have been rumors Michael Tait [was gay] and at that time, proper after [DC Talk’s Grammy-winning album] Jesus Freak, he was the largest factor in Christian music historical past, and the scandal would’ve been an enormous deal.”
Jones and Moody differ on whether or not he was fired or stop, however each recall the incident with Tait – nonetheless it was characterised – because the turning level of the connection.
“I hid away after that,” Jones recollects. “I began snorting meth, then smoking it.”
His isolation and drug binge would proceed for 5 years.
Moody mentioned he regrets how issues went down with Jones again then. “He was my greatest pal for therefore a few years, and now I ask myself ‘how fucking blind may I’ve been?’”
Evanescence went on to be one of many largest bands on the planet, profitable “Finest New Artist” and “Finest Arduous Rock Efficiency” on the Grammys in 2003 and finally promoting tens of hundreds of thousands of albums.
The next 12 months, Moody and Tait would go on to be roommates and musical collaborators, with Tait singing on Moody’s solo album, and Moody producing Tait’s solo album, Loveology. In 2003, Moody left Evanescence to pursue his solo profession.
Evanescence co-founder Amy Lee and different representatives of the band couldn’t be reached for remark.
Like Moody, Crawford remembers his pal Jones as a “a contented man, an actual sweetheart, however all that modified after 1998. I may inform one thing had occurred. He didn’t inform me about it on the time, however he has since. And I consider him, as a result of the identical factor occurred to me.”
Crawford first met DC Discuss when the band was filming the music video for its first single, Heavenbound, in 1989. Crawford was working in a movie show in the identical Nashville mall the band was filming in. He liked their debut cassette and once they got here by to catch a film he launched himself and gave them a reduction.
Crawford remembers his pal Jason Jones getting squeezed out of the administration place of Evanescence in early 1999, and that “it had one thing to do with Tait”, however was unaware of specifics on the time.
Again then, Crawford was an formidable musician, and was being employed to jot down songs for solo tasks for Tait and DC Discuss’s Toby Mac (the band went on “hiatus” in 2000, and by no means formally reunited). Mac’s venture was later nominated for a Grammy and Dove Award. Crawford had additionally simply signed his personal report deal for his band, Webster County.
Crawford recollects being distraught over a breakup one evening within the fall 2000, and Tait inviting him over to hang around. “You’ll bounce again,” he recollects Tait saying, as he handed him a shot glass of Makers Mark whiskey.
“I informed him ‘only one,’ and took the shot,” he recalled. “I had a reasonably excessive tolerance for alcohol on the time, however I blacked out shortly after I took that one drink.”
Crawford mentioned his reminiscence picks up a while later, discovering himself propped up on Tait’s kitchen counter, his pants round his ankles. “My legs have been up within the air, and Tait was licking my anus,” he claimed. “I mentioned ‘what are you doing, dude?’ after which he mentioned the weirdest factor: ‘Hey man, did you catch the Colts recreation final week?’ Like we have been simply hanging out, chatting.”
Crawford mentioned that he fled Tait’s home, however has no reminiscence of driving dwelling. He mentioned he’s satisfied that Tait drugged him.
Two shut pals of Crawford’s have corroborated his story. One among them confirmed that Crawford informed him particulars of the alleged assault on the time, however solely named the perpetrator two years in the past. The opposite pal mentioned he was informed the entire story on the time.
“I used to be by no means the identical after that,” Crawford mentioned. “The enjoyment and drive I had for music went away. Instantly I had stage fright for the primary time, brain-fog, anger points, despair, and was even suicidal for a time. It ruined my profession.”
Regardless of having completed recording the album for his band, Crawford felt unable to carry out as a musician, and the report was by no means launched.
Each Jones and Crawford recall considering their assaults have been remoted incidents and continued to have some involvement with Tait. Jones accepted a cellphone name from him when Tait’s father handed away and he was distraught, and Crawford says he was “love bombed” by Tait and succumbed to future advances.
After not talking for years, Tait re-entered his life in 2020. Crawford’s spouse was a musician herself, and Tait had supplied to provide her album.
“I had buried the reminiscence of that evening for a very long time,” Crawford mentioned. After seeing Tait once more, Crawford mentioned, a number of emotions got here to the floor and he discovered himself weeping uncontrollably within the bathe. After confessing to his spouse what had occurred, she inspired him to enroll in EMDR trauma remedy, which he mentioned had been useful.
“Listening to Jason’s story lately broke my coronary heart,” he mentioned of reuniting along with his pal, Jones, many years later. “I consider we’d each be within the music business in the present day if it weren’t for Michael Tait.”
Jones has been sober since 2008. After leaving the music business he labored in banking and co-directed a sober dwelling facility. At this time he travels across the nation sharing his story of abuse and habit (not mentioning Tait’s identify when recounting the expertise).
Shortly after getting sober Jones contacted a regulation agency to ask about potential compensation he might be owed from Evanescence. In response to his 2008 correspondence with the regulation agency that he shared with the Guardian, the agency informed him that, due to the statute of limitations, his window for a go well with towards Evanescence had closed years earlier. Jones mentioned the legal professionals informed him that, had he pursued the matter sooner, he might be entitled to as much as tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in compensation.
Moody disputed the notion that Jones has ever had the appropriate to compensation for his administration efforts within the early days of Evanescence.
Wanting again 27 years later, Jones recalled the evening he informed Moody about what had occurred to him. Warning him not solely about Tait, however in regards to the music business typically, he recited a quote from the journal journalist Hunter S Thompson, who mentioned: “The music enterprise is a merciless and shallow cash trench, an extended plastic hallway the place thieves and pimps run free.”
“And that’s true for the Christian music business as effectively,” Jones mentioned. “Much more so, in my case.”
