Jones alleges that he later woke up to Tait giving him oral sex. “I said no and pushed him off, but then, somehow, I passed out again,” Jones claims. “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, “I believe that Michael Tait drugged me.” Following the incident, Jones said that the recalled reporting the incident an undisclosed mentor and Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody.
Moody relayed to The Guardian that Jones did tell him about Tait, but he said Jones “didn’t frame it as ‘sexual assault.’ [Jones] described it as like frat-boy joking around while they were drunk, with [Tait] saying ‘what’s the big deal? A d*ck’s just a muscle.’ And Jason said ‘the next thing I know he’s sucking my d*ck.’”
RELATED: ‘I Make No Excuses’—Michael Tait Breaks Silence About Drug Abuse, Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Moody did however remember noticing a change in the way Jones’ carried himself. Before the incident, Moody described Jones as a person who was easy to get along with. But after the incident, Moody said, Jones developed mood swings ranging from depression to rage.
“After a late night studio, [Jones] couldn’t get the car shifter into gear and he just started screaming, hurling his body around, jerking the shifter violently like he was going to break it off,” Moody shared.
“I didn’t know what he was going through,” Moody said. “Looking back, I would’ve been a bit more attentive, but I was the typical 18-year-old who wanted to be a rockstar.”
Moody told The Guardian that when he told Tait what Jones told him, Tait denied the incident ever took place.
“I wanted to get ahead of [Jason] talking sh*t about us and ruining the whole thing,” Moody said as to why he brought it up to Tait. “Back then, there were rumors Michael Tait [was gay] and at that point, right after [DC Talk’s Grammy-winning album] ‘Jesus Freak,’ he was the biggest thing in Christian music history, and the scandal would’ve been a huge deal.”
Jones claims that he was fired as Evanescence’s manager shortly after Tait allegedly abused him. Jones said that he “hid away after that. I started snorting meth, then smoking it.”
Moody, who left Evanescence in 2003 to pursue a solo career and who also became roommates with Tait, said, “[Jones] was my best friend for so many years, and now I ask myself ‘how f**king blind could I have been?’”
Randall Crawford Alleges He Was Drugged and Sexually Abuse by Michael Tait
In 2000, Crawford was an aspiring musician who wrote songs for both Tait and TobyMac’s early solo projects and told The Guardian that he remembers being invited to Tait’s house after a relationship breakup.
