Newsboys Founder Wes Campbell Files Defamation Lawsuit Over Michael Tait Stories
Lawsuit reveals more about relationship between CCM and child sponsorship groups.
Wes Campbell and the musicians of the Christian band Newsboys have filed a federal lawsuit against World Vision, The Roys Report, and concert promoters for an “orchestrated campaign to drive Campbell and Newsboys out of the Christian concert market.”
Video screenshot @You, God’s Music / YouTube
The lawsuit, filed in the Middle District of Tennessee, alleges the musical ministry of Campbell and the Newsboys has been destroyed by the defendants who published “defamatory articles fueled by competitors with anticompetitive motives.”
The lawsuit relates to an alleged rape of “Nicole” involving Matt Brewer and Michael Tait — former lead singer of Newsboys — some 11 years earlier; a story that Campbell claims “every word” of is false and defamatory, but which spread throughout the Christian community.
Campbell claims that “Nicole” reported to police in Fargo that the encounter was consensual and that even though The Roys Report had that information, it did not report her statement made contemporaneously to the events.
The lawsuit asserts the allegedly defamatory article was part of a larger anti-competitive battle between Campbell and his companies and Waterland, a Dutch venture capital hedge fund that acquired Transparent Productions, Premier Productions Holdings, and Rush Concerts.
Together these three companies promote about 80% of contemporary Christian music (CCM) concerts in the United States, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit admits, as MinistryWatch reported in February 2024, that “[a]rtists in the CCM Touring Market are dependent on nonprofit charities who, with the artists’ consent, solicit donors during CCM concerts.”
Charities generally pay artists about $200 per sponsorship obtained during a concert, the lawsuit says.
Campbell not only founded Newsboys, but also started Thriving Children Advocates (TCA), a professional fundraising organization that acts as an intermediary to partner charities and musical artists together for fundraising.
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Waterland allegedly approached TCA for acquisition, and learned of its potential value after TCA revealed its clients and what artists were being paid for use of their platform to raise money for charities. Waterland offered TCA $50 million.
However, after the offer was accepted, the lawsuit claims Waterland postponed closing the deal while it raised more capital.
TCA claims the actual reason for postponing was that Waterland, with its now near monopoly for promoting CCM concerts in the U.S., wanted to create its own platform similar to TCA for coordinating artists with charity sponsors.
The lawsuit asserts that Waterland revealed that it had reached an agreement with World Vision — which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit — for a $500 payment per child sponsorship obtained at concerts promoted by Waterland’s subsidiaries.
The lawsuit cites an example of what that sponsorship payment would mean for a group such as MercyMe. If 14,400 – or 6% — of its concert attendees in a year signed up to sponsor a child with World Vision, Waterland would receive $7.2 million.
With Waterland promoting 1,000 concerts per year, Campbell claims the group could see $60 million in revenue from World Vision for sponsorships.
He also claims the model he had used for sponsorship payments going to artists is being changed to a paradigm where sponsorship payments belong to the concert promoter.
TCA’s contract with MercyMe was up for renewal in August 2024 — a fact Waterland allegedly knew from its offer to buy TCA. Waterland made MercyMe a competitive offer, which MercyMe took to TCA. The group ended up staying with TCA after a new agreement was reached.
Campbell claims the decision by MercyMe to stay with TCA caused Waterland to find a way “to destroy” him, leading to “Nicole” and her story about Tait. According to the lawsuit, “Nicole” ended up working for a Waterland subsidiary by October 2024.
Waterland groups engaged in a “whisper campaign” to get customers and clients to leave TCA, according to the court filings.
The lawsuit describes the events involving “Nicole” as “consensual,” with no drugging by Tait and no cover-up.
Tait was also accused of sexual assault by three men, and he admitted to abusing cocaine and alcohol and touching men “in an unwanted sensual way.”
Nevertheless, Campbell claims the article by The Roys Report about “Nicole” was pivotal in MercyMe terminating its August 2024 renegotiated agreement with TCA.
In response to the lawsuit, Julie Roys told MinistryWatch, “The threat of this kind of ungodly retaliation is precisely why the truth about Michael Tait and the Newsboys remained buried for so long. But The Roys Report has never refused, and will never refuse to report a story due to fear. Our coverage was carefully reported, based on multiple independent sources and corroborated before publication. We stand by our articles and will defend against these baseless claims through the proper legal channels.”
Roys added that she won’t “litigate this in the press,” but added that “the suggestion of any coordinated effort or ‘conspiracy’ simply isn’t grounded in fact.” She also declined to comment on the individual referred to as “Nicole.”
The lawsuit includes many claims including for defamation, violations of the Lanham Act for using misleading statements about another’s commercial activities, of the Trade Secrets Act, of the Sherman Act, and breach of contract against MercyMe.
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