The founding manager of rock group Evanescence has accused the Christian rock singer Michael Tait of sexual assault. 

Jason Jones recalled a harrowing night where he believes he was drugged and assaulted by the 59-year-old singer. 

‘It destroyed me,’ Jones told The Guardian. ‘I was achieving my dreams at an early age, and Tait changed all that.’ 

The latest accusations bring the total number of his alleged victims up to eight. 

Tait had gained fame as a rockstar in the Christian mega-bands DC Talk and Newsboys, both renowned for promoting sexual abstinence and sobriety along with religious messages.

The singer acknowledged the validity of multiple accusations of sexual assault after a two and a half-year investigation by The Roys Report, revealing 20 years of grooming, substance abuse, and sexual assault.

In June, he penned an extensive confession stating: ‘Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity, are sadly, largely, true.’

He abruptly left Newsboys in January to ‘get help,’ acknowledging he was not healthy ‘physically or spiritually,’ and added he was ‘tired of living a double life.’

One of Jones’s biggest dreams was to meet DC Talk, which he achieved in 1994 in Nashville, but he found a different man that he expected. 

The founding manager of the rock group Evanescence, Jason Jones, accused the 58-year-old Christian Tait (pictured), recalling a harrowing night where Jones believed he was drugged and assaulted by the singer.

Tait was a celebrated rockstar in the Christian mega-bands DC Talk and Newsboys, known for promoting sexual abstinence and sobriety, alongside religious rhetoric. Pictured: DC Talk trio Toby McKeehan (left), Michael Tait (right), and Kevin Max (center) 1997.

Jones recalled to the outlet that he was shocked by Tait’s tendencies to grab other men’s genitals at random before he learned Tait was living as a closeted gay man. 

As a Christian, Jones was sober and a virgin at in 1995 as he collaborated with Ben Moody to co-produce the first Evanescence demo. 

Yet, he found himself in Tait’s party world, where he would smoke cigarettes and marijuana or drinking the night away with Tait.

‘I had this band that I was trying to take places,’ Jones said, recalling his discomfort with the party scene he found himself in. 

‘And [Tait] had the power to open doors for us in the industry. So I went along with whatever, but didn’t know what it would cost me.’ 

Jones recalled to the outlet how Tait did help open doors for the band and connecting him to record labels, venue owners, producers as well as musicians. 

Sources alleged to The Guardian that Tait had many attractive young men through his home in Nashville, some of which were underage. They added that Tait had a ‘no clothes allowed’ rule in his hot tub. 

‘He would put his penis against one of the jets, and tell us to do the same, saying, “see, it feels good!”,’ one source told the outlet. 

Tait posted on Instagram in June, after a six-week stay at a treatment center in Utah, about his struggle with addiction to drugs and alcohol and admitted to having ‘at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way’

As a Christian, Jones was sober and a virgin at in 1995 as he collaborated with Ben Moody to co-produce the first Evanescence demo. Pictured: Amy Lee (left) and Ben Moody (right) of Evanescence during 2003 MTV Video Music Awards

It was a night in 1998 that Jones recalled feeling suddenly tired one night, and he was offered to fall asleep in Tait’s bed. 

‘I felt honored that he felt that close to me, that he trusted me enough to let me sleep in his bed,’ Jones said. 

But he remembered waking up with his pants missing and Tait performing oral sex on him. 

‘I said “no” and pushed him off, but then, somehow, I passed out again. I woke back up and he was still doing it. I said “no” again, then nodded out. And then I woke up a third time, aggressively shouted “no!” and pushed him harder. It was then that he left me alone,’ Jones told The Guardian. 

Jones said that in hindsight, he believed that he had been drugged by Tait. 

Moody said he noticed a change in Jones’s behavior almost immediately, including mood swings, depression, rage and paranoia. 

‘Looking back I would’ve been a bit more attentive, but I was a typical 18-year-old who wanted to be a rockstar,’ Moody said. 

Jones said he struggled with a meth addiction through a five-year spiral following the assault. 

The singer admitted truth to the string of accusations of sexual assault following a two and a half year investigation by The Roys Report detailing the 20 years of grooming, substance abuse and sexual assault 

Tait released a lengthy statement on Instagram in June, entitled My Confession, where he all but confirmed the allegations 

Tait posted on Instagram in June, after a six-week stay at a treatment center in Utah, about his struggle with addiction to drugs and alcohol and admitted to having ‘at times, touched men in an unwanted, sensual way.’

The star’s growing list of accusers also included one woman who claimed Tait supplied a date-rape drug to a crew member who then allegedly raped her during a Newsboys tour, Christian Post reported. 

Randall Crawford also came forward publicly and claimed Tait drugged and sexually assaulted him in 2000. 

Crawford had worked with Tait and other members in DC Talk, and one night found himself blacked out after one shot of whiskey offered by Tait and awoke to find the star performing a sex act on him. 

‘I believe we’d both be in the music industry today if it weren’t for Michael Tait,’ Crawford said. 

‘The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench,’ Jones added. ‘And that’s true for the Christian music industry as well. Even more so, in my case.’