Former Newsboys frontman on Michael Tait allegations, his own fall and why redemption is possible

For years, John James was known as the energetic frontman who helped transform Newsboys from a garage band in Australia into one of the most recognizable names in Christian music, with hits like “Breakfast” and “Entertaining Angels,” among others. 

Then came the collapse: James left the Grammy-nominated group as his marriage ended amid a battle with addiction and depression. The faith he proclaimed onstage every night, he said, seemed buried beneath layers of shame and regret.

“I had a tragic fall with my own personal life,” James told The Christian Post.

Now, nearly three decades after his departure from the band he helped build, James is telling that story in full.

His new memoir, Newsboy: My Story of Hope and Second Chances, arrives at a complicated moment for the Christian music industry. The book's release coincides with ongoing fallout surrounding former Newsboys lead singer Michael Tait, whose departure from the band amid allegations of sexual misconduct has rattled longtime fans and renewed questions about accountability and hidden sin within Christian ministry.

Despite the timing, James, who left the group long before Tait took over as lead singer in 2009, revealed that the book came about at least a year-and-a-half “before the bombshell dropped with the Newsboys." 

"It was already in the works,” he said. 

Yet as headlines multiplied and the band's legacy came under renewed scrutiny, James said he felt convinced that the message of his own story was needed now more than ever.

"More than ever, my story of brokenness and redemption needs to be shouted louder than ever," he said. "We can never take the miracle of God's redemption off the table for anybody."

The memoir, from Broadstreet Publishing, traces a journey that began long before sold-out arenas and platinum albums. 

James writes candidly about a fractured childhood marked by abandonment, anger and instability, experiences that shaped him long before he ever stepped onto a stage. He eventually found music, formed a band with Peter Furler, Phil Joel and others in Queensland, Australia, and watched as Newsboys became one of the defining acts of contemporary Christian music.

But while the band's profile rose, James said his private life was unraveling.

By the late 1990s, he was struggling with alcohol abuse and emotional affairs conducted online during the early days of internet chat rooms. The double life eventually caught up with him, and after confessing his behavior, he was removed from the band in 1997, triggering a downward spiral that included divorce, addiction and depression.

Writing about those years, James said, was difficult, adding: "There were days when I was writing it, man, I just had to stop. I'm just on the ground in a ball of tears."

The process forced him to revisit memories he had spent years trying to bury; some stories in the memoir have never been shared publicly before, he said, while others remain private.

"You have to ask the Lord to give you a bit of thick skin," he said. "There may be some that are going to be quick to grab the stones again and throw them."

The result is not a tell-all account of Christian music's backstage culture, he emphasized, but about taking accountability for his own choices.

"If people are looking for a book that's going to pull the curtain back on CCM and arm us all with stones, get ready to throw them, this is not the book," James said. "I didn't have an ax to grind. … I totally took responsibility for the sin, for the brokenness and for that place of repentance."

That emphasis on repentance informs how James views the controversy surrounding Tait. While careful not to speculate about what current or former band members may have known, James said his own experience taught him how effectively a person can conceal serious struggles.

"There were a lot of terrible, sinful things that I made the tragic mistake of hiding from my brothers," he said. "I had one life when I was on the stage, and then when I came home, I had a personal life that was so different."

"My heart goes out to the people who were wounded, the victims, the people who were betrayed," he added. "It's absolutely tragic. … But if we become the redemption police and evaluate who can be redeemed and who can't, what hope is there for any of us?" 

The broader issue, James contends, extends beyond a single band or a single scandal. Though there’s collective dismay when pastors or public Christian figures fall, the singer offered the reminder that even those in ministry are vulnerable to the same temptations and weaknesses as everyone else.

"The one common denominator is people," he said. "Anyone can be great from a distance. Anyone can be lights, camera, action and have a great social media post. If you really want to know who I am, ask my wife. Ask what sort of husband I am. What am I like in the privacy of my home?"

Today, James spends far less time on stages than he once did. Alongside his wife, Tanya, he leads iReachUSA, a ministry focused on prisons, recovery centers, schools, churches and military installations. James revealed that shortly before speaking to CP, he had returned from a prison outreach where dozens of inmates responded to an invitation to follow Christ.

"We saw over 50 men respond to the Gospel," he said. "Moments like that, you have this incredible sense of awe of God."

The ministry, he says, has taught him that God often does His deepest work among people society has written off, and also rekindled his love of music. Approaching 62, he recently found himself singing again, sometimes in places far removed from the arenas where he once performed.

At a prison event, he sang an unfinished song written for the daughter he largely missed raising after his divorce. The lyrics contained everything he wished he could have told her.

"I just poured my heart out," he said. "And these guys just started to weep."

James shared how, if he could go back and speak to the young man who helped start Newsboys in a garage in 1985, he would encourage him to anchor himself in a relationship with the Lord, first and foremost, and surround himself with accountability. 

"Fight for your intimacy with the Lord," he said. "I would tell myself, fight for your family. Fight for your marriage. Stay connected to the local church."

But if there is a single message James hopes readers take from his memoir, it’s one of hope and restoration: "Nobody is so far removed, so far lost, so far broken that they can't experience God's redemptive power," he said. "Nobody."

"For forever I used to think that the story was all about me," he added. "That I was the star of my own book, the star of my own movie. It had nothing to do with me. It was always about this loving, redemptive God."

Newsboy: My Story of Hope and Second Chancesis now available.