When Adam Agee first learned he would be stepping into the role of lead singer for Newsboys, he had just four days to prepare for a national tour. The longtime frontman, Michael Tait, had stepped down unexpectedly, leaving the band with a major decision to make — and very little time to make it.
“I’ve probably done, I don’t know how many thousands of shows in my 25 years of playing music, and I think that’s the most nervous I’ve ever been,” the 44-year-old artist told The Christian Post, reflecting on his first performance as the band’s new lead singer. “But man, it has been so cool to see all these crowds just encourage us and love on us, and just wrap their arms around us.”
When Tait abruptly announced his departure in January ahead of the group’s “Worldwide Revival Nights” tour, Agee and the remaining members — Jeff Frankenstein, Duncan Phillips and Jody Davis — faced an existential question: Should Newsboys continue?
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“We asked ourselves the tough questions,” Agee said. “First of all, what are we going to do? Do we even keep going? Is this the end for Newsboys? Should we just hang it up?”
After prayer, conversations with mentors and soul-searching, the answer was a resounding “no.”
“We all came back and had the same thought: God’s not done with Newsboys just yet,” Agee said.
What followed was a sprint to rework the setlist, rehearse vocals and get Agee — who joined the band three years ago as guitarist and background vocalist — ready for the spotlight. “I was totally happy just being the second guy,” he said. “But then, here I am back at the front, which is fine. It’s great. I’m super stoked. But yeah, I was a little bit scared.”
That first show was in Missouri. The band had one day to rehearse, and then it was time.
“We were getting through the show. It was actually going really well, going way better than I thought it would,” Agee recalled. “We got towards the end, and there’s a couple thousand people in this arena, and it felt like 10,000 people and angels singing along with us. It was a special moment I’ll never forget. I said something on stage that night that has kind of been our rallying cry: ‘With Newsboys, sometimes the messenger might change, but the message remains the same.’ We’ve stuck to that.”
Founded in 1985 in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia, by Peter Furler and George Perdikis, Newsboys has evolved from a scrappy rock band to a global Christian music mainstay, with hits including “Shine,” “It Is You,” and “God’s Not Dead.” Now based in Nashville, Tennessee, the group has released 17 studio albums, six of which have been certified gold.
On May 30, Newsboys will release Worldwide Revival (Deluxe), a special edition album that completes the project first launched in 2024. For Agee, the release carries more weight than a typical follow-up.
“This project [is] special to me because I’ve been officially in the band now for about three years,” he said. “And so this was the first project that they asked me to help do some of the songwriting on. It’s super special not only to be invited into the band, but to be invited into the songwriting process.”
The deluxe edition features four new studio tracks, including “Fortress,” inspired by Psalm 91. “We’re doing a Bible read-through at my church right now, in two years,” Agee said. “Reading through the Psalms again, I just relate so much to that bipolar nature: one second it’s ‘God, where are you?’ and the next it’s ‘You are my fortress.’ I feel that deeply.”
He added, “I really love the line, ‘I will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.’ That’s where I want to be … under his shelter. Whatever season I’m in, I know that he has me right where he wants me.”
Despite the chaos of the past five months, Agee said the reception has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It was tough at first trying to figure out what we wanted to do,” he shared. “But it has been so cool to see these crowds just say how excited they are that Newsboys are continuing on and how they’ve been fans since the beginning, and they’re just going to continue to be fans. And so it’s been really sweet.”
Though Tait’s exit caught fans and the band alike off guard, Agee said there’s no animosity.
“We’ve been in touch a little bit, just trying to check in on him and see how he’s doing,” he said. “He seems to be doing well. I don’t know as far as future plans; I don’t know what he’s going to get up to. I think he’s just taking some time for himself, and then hopefully he figures it out soon, and then he’ll tell all of us.”
Still, there are more questions than answers surrounding Tait’s departure. In a social media post, Tait, who’d led Newsboys for 15 years, said his decision came after “prayerful reflection” and a sense of clarity. But Agee said the former DC Talk singer simply told the band “he was going to focus on himself.”
“I know that he left and he just gave us a few reasons why he was stepping down, and he just said he’s going to focus on himself,” Agee shared. “Other than that, I don’t really know, because we didn’t really discuss it further. Hopefully, he’ll make some kind of a statement soon, but that, again, is just up to him. We wish it had happened a little bit sooner, but there’s nothing we can do about that, and I think we’ve tried to make the most out of it, and we wish him all the best moving forward.”
As Agee steps into the role of lead singer, which he emphasized are “big shoes to fill,” he does so with more than two decades of experience, having fronted both Stellar Kart and Audio Adrenaline.
“At each point, whenever those things were coming to an end, I was always just like, ‘OK God, if this is it with music, that’s great,'” he said. “I can go teach high school, coach my boys’ baseball team, and be totally content.”
But each time he felt ready to walk away, a new door opened. “Then at each juncture, when I’m totally fine just giving it up, He opens up some other door that’s wild and crazy,” he said. “And it happens that this story is a pretty special one.”
He added, “I think there’s some really great things that we can do with Newsboys. I think we can really reach a lot of people.”
With several decades of experience in the Christian music industry under his belt, Agee also reflected on a growing trend within the Christian music industry: artists publicly deconstructing or leaving the faith, from Hawk Nelson’s Jon Steingard to Hillsong’s Marty Sampson, among others.
“I think what accounts for it is just the wealth of information available at our fingertips,” he said. “Back in the day, you knew what you were taught by whoever was teaching you. Now, anybody growing up has access to just about anything.”
He recalled his own faith crisis as a college student. “I took a world religion class … from a professor who was not just not Christian, he was pretty anti-Christian. And getting exposed to all of that, it kind of rocked my world a little bit as a 19-year-old kid.”
The turning point came through music. “He really grabbed hold of me and said, ‘This is what I want you to do.’ I didn’t even pick up a guitar until I was 19,” he said.
The artist said that while he doesn’t fault those navigating their faith journey, he hopes it leads somewhere purposeful. “Everybody wants to label it something, and so it’s being labeled deconstruction,” he said. “Which I think is OK, as long as it’s for a purpose to hopefully reconstruct.”
“My daughter’s 18, she’s getting ready to go to college. I hope that she is strong in her faith. I hope she figures it out for herself, because that’s the only way it’s going to stick,” he said. “We pray for anybody who’s deconstructing or going through that, that God will show up and give them the truth that they’re seeking.”
As Christian music begins to gain traction on mainstream charts — both Forrest Frank and Brandon Lake have broken into the Billboard top 100 for the first time in 11 years — Agee offered words of encouragement to younger musicians.
“I hope they can just stay strong in what they believe, and keep focused on what they should keep focused on,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff that tries to get in the way. But I feel like a lot of them are super solid. … You can tell when somebody’s saying something that they don’t necessarily believe.”
“I hope they just … keep it real. I guess that’s what the kids say,” he quipped. “Keep their focus on Jesus and try not to let anything distract them.”
Looking ahead, Newsboys aren’t slowing down.
“We feel really great about what’s happening on the live show,” Agee said. “We’ve kind of gotten to know this new dynamic in the band … and we’ve all talked about it. We’re excited to just get together and jam a little bit, like old school.”
“We might head to a cabin, write some songs, and see where it goes,” he said. “I think that’s what’s going to be awesome for Newsboys — to get back to grinding it out together and making the best possible music and art we can.”
He added, “We feel like there’s a movement of people seeking truth, and so we’re going to be there shouting the truth from the mountaintops. Whatever music we make is going to hopefully point people to Jesus.”
In Agee’s view, Newsboys isn’t about any one person. Despite unexpected shake-ups within the group, the artist said he’s confident God will continue to use the group for His glory.
“God’s got something to do with Newsboys. He’s got His hand on Newsboys for some reason. Back in 1985, he picked Newsboys to be the mouthpiece of what He wants to say to people. He’s still got his hand on it, and so we’re going to still keep trying to do whatever He wants us to do.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
