Michael Tait, Christian Singer, Admits to "Unwanted" Touching of Men
Michael Tait is taking accountability.
After he was accused of sexual assault and drug abuse by multiple people, the Newsboys singer spoke out on the allegations, which the accusers said took place between 2004 and 2014.
"Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity are sadly, largely true," Tait wrote in a statement shared to his Instagram June 10. "For some two decades I used and abused cocaine, consumed far too much alcohol, and, at times, touched men in an unwanted sensual way."
The four-time Grammy winner went on to say that he's taking full responsibility for the incidents described in the reports, which were first published by Christian media outlet The Roys Report on June 4.
"I am ashamed of my life choices and actions, and make no excuses for them," Tait continued. "I will simply call it what God calls it—sin. 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."
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And the 59-year-old also noted that he's taken steps to correct his behavior. For one, he stepped away from Newsboys in January, leaving behind remaining members Jody Davis, Duncan Phillips, Jeff Frankenstein and Adam Agee.
"I did so to get help," Tait said of quitting the Christian rock group. "I was not healthy, physically or spiritually, and was tired of leading a double life. I spent six weeks at a treatment center in Utah, receiving help that may have saved my life from ultimate destruction."
And while the former DC Talk frontman said he's been "clean and sober since," he admitted that he still has "lots of hard work" ahead of him, and he said he'll forever live with the shame of "living two distinctly different lives."
As Tait put it, "I have hurt so many people in so many ways, and I will live with that shameful reality the rest of my life. I can only dream and pray for human forgiveness, because I certainly don't deserve it."
"I have even accepted the thought that God may be the only One who ultimately and completely forgives me," he continued. "Still, I want to say I'm sorry to everyone I have hurt. I am truly sorry."
Less than a week before Tait's confession, The Roys Report published a report accusing Tait of sexual assault and drug abuse that was sourced by over 50 people, three of whom were men who said they experienced his nonconsensual sexual advances when they were in their early 20s.
Since the report's release, Tait's Newsboy bandmates have also spoken out on the allegations.
'Last night our hearts were shattered when we read the news alleging drug abuse and inappropriate sexual actions by our former lead singer, Michael Tait,' the band wrote on Instagram June 5. 'First and foremost, our hearts are with the victims who have bravely shared their stories. If you are a victim, we urge you to come forward."
They added, "We absolutely do not condone any form of sexual assault.'
For free, confidential help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit rainn.org.
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Following the KFC Double Down (launched in 2010), internet sensations like the Turbaconducken, and the rise of the Cronut (released in May 2013), the food world was on the cusp of a major overhaul. Right when social media was starting to turn dining experiences into social currency, the ramen burger's novelty created a fervor. Whether he planned to or not, Shimamoto helped usher in a pessimistic new age of food, one in which producers developed formulas to guarantee social media success. The ramen burger became the poster child for a flood of mashups that had gone and would continue to go mainstream: the sushi burrito, the sushi pizza, the sushi burger, the spaghetti doughnut, the scallion pancake burrito, the Yorkshire burrito, birria ramen, birria pizza, and so on. Judging by what makes it to my feed today, these techniques still work. We might see fewer ramen burgers now, but we're still living in the ramen burger's world. 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While Shimamoto invested the same sort of time and attention into his product, the ramen burger's quality and flavor were almost beside the point for many consumers. Mike Chau, one of the city's original food Instagrammers, sees the ramen burger as a turning point; the burger's success led to an 'escalation' of people not only waiting in lines but also 'getting food for the sake of posting about it,' he says. Instagram, which had launched in 2010 and hit its first 100 million users in 2013, was beginning a period of rapid growth. (Chau distinctly remembers the ramen burger's first weekend, but with his wife days just away from giving birth, 'the line was so long that we just gave up,' he says. If you live in NYC, you probably recognize that kid: Chau runs the popular account @foodbabyny.) With its ability to draw customers primarily interested in posting online, the ramen burger quickly began to outshine its neighbors. 'A lot of people came to Smorgasburg for the ramen burger and then they discovered the rest of Smorgasburg,' Demby says. Other vendors took notice. It became obvious that it was crucial to stand out from the competition, both in person and online. 'People all started to look for their shot to make something like [the ramen burger],' Chau says. A few years later, the raindrop cake debuted at the festival. The ramen burger changed Smorgasburg — and Smorgasburg changed food culture. As eating increasingly became an activity and an aesthetic promoted through social media, people began to chase culinary spectacle over substance outside of food festivals. Virality became a new way of engaging with food in nearly all contexts. Ruby Tandoh writes in her forthcoming book All Consuming that the rise of Instagram 'allowed you to bypass thinking altogether and just look.' The ramen burger's formula for a viral food still holds true. Writer and pastry chef Tanya Bush recently theorized in i-D that the first step toward virality is manipulation (you give a familiar food a tantalizing new appearance) and the second hybridization (you mash it up with another food that people already know). Nail those two steps, as the ramen burger did, and you increase the likelihood of a dish that people will make an effort to seek out. It may be cynical to paint purveyors as shrewd manipulators of the attention economy and diners as disloyal clout-chasers. But it's the game. No one is really fooled anymore. Viral food trends don't seem as organic now, according to Allyson Reedy, author of The Phone Eats First Cookbook, a compilation of 'social media's best recipes' published earlier this year. Unlike 2013, when foods like the ramen burger could make the news basically unintentionally, viral food is now more clearly 'a manipulation,' Reedy says. 'It's more strategic and intentional.' Perhaps that's why the ramen burger became so polarizing. Before the dish was even a year old, it was already drawing ire along with imitators. By 2025, Taste Atlas, the publication whose food rankings are calibrated for social media engagement, put the ramen burger at No. 7 on its list of the 'worst rated foods in the world,' right between jellied eels and blood pancakes. It still routinely makes the rounds on Reddit's r/stupidfood forum. Some consumers decided the ramen burger was the moment internet food culture jumped the shark (even while its contemporary, the Cronut, skated by on Western esteem for French pastry culture). Shimamoto himself has been let down by social media-famous food. In the early days of Instagram, 'even if [food] was [made] for the 'gram, people were still putting their heart into the flavors,' he says. Now, 'it's really hard to judge' what he sees on social media, Shimamoto says. 'If you can get remembered for something, you'll have customers for a long time.' Shimamoto's cooking was always about more than virality. While the novelty of the ramen burger was the bun made of noodles, the 'heart and soul' was its shoyu glaze, he explains. 'That juice from the meat and the sauce, and then that texture from the noodles, is really what makes it.' While the burger might have gotten people in the door at Shimamoto's restaurants, he hoped to flex his broader culinary skills on bowls of ramen too — something on which he was an expert, as his blog proved. In Serious Eats, Sho Spaeth once described Ramen Shack as 'the most exciting place to eat ramen in the United States,' though the ramen burger's success 'always risked occluding [Shimamoto's] true skill as a ramen-making savant with seemingly perfect taste-memory.' In 2019, Shimamoto closed the New York City location of Ramen Shack. In 2022, he closed the Ramen Shack location in Orange County, California, as well, citing staffing changes and personal health issues. While he says that he never grew to resent the ramen burger, the business around it could be 'overwhelming at times, with everyone trying to get a piece of the pie.' Smorgasburg's approach to choosing vendors has also crystallized over the past decade-plus. Food that works at Smorgasburg has to be good, Demby says, but it also has what he calls a 'moment of theater.' 'You've got to get known for something,' he says. 'If you can get remembered for something, you'll have customers for a long time.' The ramen burger has much more competition now, but interest in it has remained relatively steady since 2017 (though vastly decreased from its 2013 to 2016 heyday). 'I didn't close my shops because I thought that the ramen burger was no longer sellable,' Shimamoto says. Whenever he posts the ramen burger on Instagram now, commenters tend to reminisce about the good old days. And whenever his kids or friends request one, he'll make the ramen burger — just on a smaller scale now. 'To this day, it's still great,' he says. Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
