Taylor shared that his experience in the CCM industry has been “generally positive.” He said:
I’ve been on both sides of the music industry, mainstream and Christian. When people tell me that there’s no difference, I say, ‘Oh, really. Well, then you haven’t worked in the mainstream music business,’ because my experience in the mainstream music business—and I’ve worked with some good people as well—but there is no backstop. You not only have to wonder if what someone is telling you is the truth or not, but you have to wonder if they’re deliberately lying to you to get what they want. And that has typically not been my experience in Christian music. Most people I’ve worked with were upright and honest, and…when scandals have come up, going back to Billy Ray Hearn, who was in charge of Sparrow Records, he took decisive action in ways that hurt their bottom line, but he did them because that was the right thing to do. I worked with Neal Joseph at Warner Alliance when they had Michael English, who was far and away their biggest selling artist, and they took decisive action, which I think was correct, and their label ended up folding eventually because of that. I worked with Roland Lundy at Word Records, and he was a guy who was just a person of great integrity, and I admire him to this day.
“So I have no doubt that there are bad players and there are people who get into Christian music for the wrong reasons,” Taylor admitted. “It would be naive to think otherwise.”
“Having run a record label, and even though our goal was to work more in the mainstream, I also know that it’s very difficult to work with artists to insist on high ethical standards,” Taylor continued. “And there were times, even during the Squint Entertainment time, when I was ready to cut one band loose. Because I was just fed up and got some good advice from my one of my mentors, who told me I should hang in there a little longer.”
“So I don’t want to act like any of these things are easy, but there is a point where you are either going to act with integrity or you’re just going to, you know, shove it under the rug and go for the cash,” he added. “I’ve tried to never do that.”
Taylor shared that to this day he still knows a lot of people in the CCM industry and believes they are in it for the right reasons.
Sharing his thoughts on Newsboys manager Wes Campbell, Taylor said:
“I found [Campbell] to be someone who was ethically challenged fairly early on, when I was working with Newsboys, and I confronted him multiple times on that stuff, because I don’t like working with people who are like that. And on those occasions, Wes would change some decisions that he was making based on pressure from me. And I remember times when he claimed to thank me for pointing these things out. But it just seems like it started happening with more and more frequency, to the point where I just flat out didn’t trust him anymore. I would say, in my experience with him, he’s not a trustworthy person or a particularly ethically-minded person. And since Peter left, [Campbell has] been the person who owns Newsboys and manages Newsboys. It’s his band. It’s not the band members’ band. They’re just hired on as salary positions. It’s Wes’ band, and it’s been that way, as far as I know, since he brought on Michael Tait.
Taylor expressed his anger after hearing the claims that Newsboys’ management was unaware of Tait’s alleged sexual misconduct, saying, “I’m sad, because I love the work I did with Newsboys…but as far as this stuff that’s come out, as far as I’m concerned, it can all burn.”
It is “utter nonsense to believe that Newsboys’ management were unaware of Tait’s alleged abuse,” Taylor continued. “Frankly, it makes me really angry. The thought that [Wes Campbell] didn’t know what his own brother was covering up is utter nonsense.”
“Sorry,” Taylor apologized, “I’m not good when I’m angry, and it just makes me crazy angry.”
Taylor argued that Christians can’t use the excuse that they struggle with sin to get away with such egregious acts.
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