The Christian rock band the Newsboys and their co-founder Wes Campbell have filed a wide-ranging lawsuit in the wake of scandals that brought their career to a halt. The suit alleges a combination of defamation and antitrust violations, going after dozens of defendants, ranging from competing Christian music group MercyMe to the World Vision charity, along with the top concert promoters in the CCM business, and the journalists who have been at the forefront of breaking news about the Newsboys and their disgraced former singer, Michael Tait.
“In this case, Wes Campbell, and the four musicians comprising the Christian musical artists known as the ‘Newsboys,’ their families, and the ministries they have dedicated their lives to build, have been destroyed by the actions of the Defendants, including their publication of defamatory articles fueled by competitors with anticompetitive motives,” the suit contends.
The lawsuit does not cover the original story published in June 2025 by the Roys Report about Tait’s alleged history of aggressive sexual behavior toward men, which was followed by the singer offering a short confession about drug use and touching men “in an unwanted, sensual way.” (He had resigned from the group a few months prior to the Roys Report’s exclusive, without explanation.) Instead, the suit focuses primarily on a subsequent article in the same publication, titled “Woman Accuses Michael Tait of Drugging Her and Watching While She Was Raped; Says Newsboys Tour Manager Covered It Up.” The legal action says that not only was the rape allegation untrue, but that it was concocted in league with a competitor to scotch a $50 million deal and ultimately destroy a touring-related business headed by Campbell.
According to the sprawling, heavily detailed, 265-page-plus suit, the sexual encounter between “Nicole” and Michael Brewer, a lighting technician working for the Newsboys, did happen in a Fargo hotel room in 2014 — and was indeed witnessed by Tait as a spectator — but was consensual. As for Tait’s participation, the suit says, ““his only involvement was to watch two adults having sex, something many people watch daily on the internet. It certainly was no crime.”
The suit repeatedly refers to the rape allegation as “the Fargo Fabrication.” The sexual encounter between Brewer and “Nicole” only became a story of rape, Campbell’s suit contends, when the woman was fired by the Newsboys and went to work for a company that was looking to steal business away from Thriving Children Advocates, Campbell’s principal business. TCA acted as a liaison between touring Christian artists and the charities that are pitched during their shows, providing a substantial part of their income on the road.
Alleges the lawsuit: “The ‘non-story’ of Nicole’s consensual liaison in 2014 that had 11 years later morphed into a story of rape cannot be understood apart from the anticompetitive battle that was going between on the one hand, Wes Campbell and his companies, and on the other Waterland, a Dutch venture capital hedge fund. Solving the mystery starts and ends there.”
MercyMe, the band behind the “I Can Only Imagine” song and movies, is cited in the action as the top act in the Christian touring business. The group had a lucrative relationship with Campbell’s TCA for many years before breaking a newly renegotiated contract in 2025, the suit alleges. The contention is that the band sought to cut out TCA, the middleman, to have its relationships with sponsoring charities — like World Vision — go directly through Waterland. The suit says that Waterland and its subsidiaries Transparent Productions, Premier Productions Holdings and Rush Concerts “together promoted almost 80% of the Christian music concerts in America,” and were looking to fold in the formerly outsourced relationships with charities into its own business as well.
As part of the “coordinated scheme to eliminate TCA as a competitor,” the suit says, “the Newsboys are unlawfully boycotted,” “in violation of the Sherman Act.”
The suit says most other artists followed MercyMe in ditching TCA in the wake of the news reports about the Newsboys and Campbell. In the lawsuit’s version of things, the Roys Report was a pawn used by Waterland to spread a false rape story and fatally undermine all of Campbell’s businesses. (The suit only glancingly mentions the initial story about Tait’s sexual aggressions with men and does not appear to take issue with those allegations, however much they may have also affected the business of the Newsboys and their founder.)
Reached for comment, Julie Roys, the founder and publisher of the Roys Report, said, “We have not been served with the complaint, but we are aware of it. As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation. The Roys Report stands by its reporting and will address the allegations through the appropriate legal process.”
The Roys Report is a Christian website that has specialized in acting as a watchdog in bringing light to misdeeds among prominent Christian pastors and leaders. Earlier this week, Julie Roys won a first-place award for religion story of the year from the Religion News Association, honoring her coverage of the Tait/Newsboys scandal.
Variety also has seen communications between Roys Reports lawyers and Campbell’s attorneys, prior to the suit being filed, in which Roys’ attorneys said that if any legal action was taken, the Roys Report would seek to have the case dismissed under Texas’ anti-SLAPP statute.
The Newsboys and Campbell published the lawsuit on their social accounts and said they do not intend to comment to the press beyond that. The full lawsuit can be read here.
For music business observers, the most interesting aspect of the suit may lie in its detailed assertions about how much the Christian music (CCM) touring industry relies on alliances with charities to achieve a profit. Major Christian tours frequently include interludes in which a pitch is made for a charity, and not all attendees may be aware that the performers receive a share from the pledges that come in during a show.
“Artists in the CCM Touring Market are dependent on nonprofit charities who, with the artists’ consent, solicit donors during CCM concerts,” says the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. It goes on to say that “nonprofit charities who have used artists’ ‘public platforms’ to generate donors or ‘sponsors’ have historically paid the artists based on the number of sponsors generated at each concert,” putting the past standard rate as approximately $200 for each fan signed up as a sponsor.
In this telling, Waterland had approached Campbell to acquire TCA as its nonprofit sponsorship arm and offered TCA $50 million — an offer that was accepted. However, Campbell’s attorneys say Waterland asked for a few days to raise capital to close the deal. During that time, the suit says, Waterland realized that, with the supposed monopoly already in place, they “could create their own platform to market to nonprofits for sponsorship payments” — negating the need to pay an outside company $50 million. TCA contended that it had already turned over all the confidential information about how it conducts business before Waterland pulled out of the deal.
Moreover, TCA contends in the suit, Waterland had “struck a secret deal with World Vision, the world’s largest charity… to pay Waterland $500 for each sponsorship in return for exclusive or near-exclusive rights,” a sum above the average $200 per fan signed up. (The suit notes that TCA and World Vision had had a “not friendly termination” of their own deal in 2019.) When MercyMe, which was renegotiating with TCA, brought up the $500-per-sponsor offer, Campbell’s attorneys say he agreed to meet that number for a new contract. Yet ultimately MercyMe split with TCA anyway. (The individual members of MercyMe are all named as defendants, along with the group collectively.)
The suit says, “MercyMe became a knowing participant in the antitrust violations being perpetrated by the Waterland defendants and World Vision…” It further contends that Christian music artists Tauren Wells and Danny Gokey (frequently spelled as “Goyke” in the legal filing) “both breached contracts and are touring with LiveCo/TPR and World Vision.” Gokey and Wells are not named among the 33 defendants in the suit, however.
Variety has reached out to reps for Waterland, LiveCo/TPR and MercyMe for comment on being named as defendants in the suit.
The lawsuit asks for recovery of the $50 million Campbell contends was lost in the scotched deal with Watermark, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and retraction of “defamatory statements.” It was filed in the Tennessee court by Ben C. Broocks of Broocks Law Firm in Austin, Texas, and G. Kline Preston IV of Kline Preston Law Group in Nashville.
None of the three remaining members of the Newsboys are named specifically as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, only the group collectively and Campbell as the co-founder, so it is not clear whether the musicians are individually participating or endorsing the action. Nonetheless, it is being presented as a suit on their behalf, with the post to the group’s social media being headlined: “Newboys Break Their Silence — in Federal Court.” Replies on the group’s social accounts have been halted.
