Newsboys dropped by label after Michael Tait's 'confession' to sexual assault allegations
Adam Agee and his bandmates wanted to clear the air before they performed their set at Elevate, a two-day Christian music festival in Arizona over the weekend, telling fans gathered at Highlands Church in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale that they "encouraged" Tait to seek treatment after he had confessed to them in January that he had been living a double life and wanted help.
Agee said in a video posted to social media that they thought and prayed long and hard about "what was next," but ultimately felt like they still had "a ministry and a mission to do," which is why they continued perform.
"The last six months, we've played from New York to Florida to California to right here Arizona and we have seen the most amazing people and the most amazing crowds, and we've seen the spirit do things that have been, it's so encouraging, and we've just had the best time as a band with you guys on the road," Agee said.
The band's "world was rocked" by Tait's confession, where he revealed that the accusations made against him by fans in a June 4 report from Christian media outlet The Roys Report were "sadly, largely true," Agee said. Additional sexual misconduct allegations against Tait surfaced a week after the Christian singer's public admission.
"As a result of all this and the things that have come out that he's confessed to, we've been dropped from our record label, we've had the radio stations pull our music and we've been cancelled by promoters and venues all over the world but not tonight," Agee said.
Capitol Christian Music Group, the band's label, and Newsboys' management did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment June 25.
Michael Tait's confession 'devastating' for Newsboys members
Newsboys members denied any direct knowledge of the unwanted sexual advances Tait has been accused of, telling fans that the 59-year-old had only mentioned a "few things" about substance abuse and some personal struggles he was experiencing at home.
"And so, it was so shocking to us because it's not the guy that we knew, the guy that we knew, that, we've been on the road with," Agee said. "He was our family, he was our brother, and he was a friend to our families, to our kids."
The news has not only been "devastating" for them, but their families who have felt that "their names have been dragged through the mud" because of the situation.
Who is Michael Tait? What has he been accused of?
Tait was the former lead singer of Australian-formed Christian rock band Newsboys. The four-time Grammy-award winning vocalist replaced original member Peter Furler as the group's new lead vocalist in 2009. Tait officially left the group in January 2025 after 15 years.
Before he performed with Newsboys, Tait was a founding member of DC Talks, a Christian rap and rock trio that released five major studio albums together.
Five months after Tait abruptly left the band, The Roys Report published a years-long investigation into Tait's past, specifically allegations of unwanted sexual advances made by three male fans, who met the former frontman while on tour.
Three men, who were all 22 at the time of their encounters, told the outlet that Tait befriended them and were either intoxicated or drugged when the vocalist initiated and performed non-consensual sexual acts on them. Tait made friends with the men, one crew member and two musicians, while on tour in 2004, 2010 and 2014, according to The Roys Report.
Additional individuals, including one woman and four men, have come forward to share their stories about Tait, who they allege engaged in predatory behavior, or bared witness to it without intervening.
The woman who spoke with Roys Report specifically claimed that Tait drugged her and watched her be sexually assaulted by a Newsboys crew member, while the four men who spoke to The Guardian said that Tait had either attempted, or had engaged in unwanted touching, sexual advances or both.
The new set of allegations, published in The Guardian on June 13 and in The Roys Report on June 19 came a week after Newsboys and Tait himself addressed the contents included in the first report on social media.
Read Michael Tait's full statement
Contributing: Melonee Hurt and Liam Adams, The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network
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