{"id":2778,"date":"2025-06-14T18:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T18:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/needtobreathe-bear-rinehart-bo-abuse-allegations-response-1235999675\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T18:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T18:37:10","slug":"needtobreathe-bear-rinehart-bo-abuse-allegations-response-1235999675","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/needtobreathe-bear-rinehart-bo-abuse-allegations-response-1235999675\/","title":{"rendered":"NEEDTOBREATHE\u2019s Bear Rinehart Responds to Brother Bo\u2019s Allegations of Childhood Sexual\u00a0Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tNEEDTOBREATHE<\/a>\u2018s Bear Rinehart<\/a> is speaking out following allegations of childhood abuse made by his brother Bo Rinehart.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday (June 12), 43-year-old Bo, the former guitarist for NEEDTOBREATHE, shared a statement on social media alleging that he was sexually abused by multiple people during his childhood, including his older brother Bear, 44, the rock band\u2019s lead singer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is Bo. I am an alcoholic. I am a sinner, but I am a believer. I believe in God\u2019s grace, and I believe that his mercy has shown that he is consistent, even though we don\u2019t deserve it,\u201d Bo wrote on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cI am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I\u2019ve been sexually abused by a Camp counselor. I\u2019ve been sexually, physically and emotionally abused by my brother. And I\u2019ve been abused by my youth pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cI believe that God has bigger plans for me and part of those plans are telling my story because it\u2019s so hard for anyone to tell stories like these. Even when my faith has been crushed, I know that God still has provisions for me. If you\u2019re out there and you\u2019re thinking, nothing can be done, no one can help, there\u2019s no way out\u2026 I\u2019m with you\u2026 but I believe in a God who always finds a way. Don\u2019t give up and don\u2019t lose hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBo, who left NEEDTOBREATHE in 2020, later shared a photo of Bear with the caption \u201cSexual Abuser\u201d in a since-deleted Instagram Story, according to Relevant Magazine<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Saturday (June 14), Bear responded to his brother\u2019s allegations with a lengthy post on the Instagram account for Wilder Woods, his solo musical project outside of NEEDTOBREATHE.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel the need to comment on the deeply hurtful and misleading accusations that my brother Bo made the other night on social media,\u201d Bear wrote<\/a>. \u201cI love Bo deeply and I always will. Since his departure from the band over five years ago, we have done everything in our power to treat him with respect and privacy. I would never choose to disparage him, especially at a time where he is clearly in pain. But as a father and husband, I must protect my family from claims that misrepresent the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cUntil now, I had chosen to not share this publicly \u2014 not because I\u2019m ashamed, but because I\u2019ve wanted to protect my family. I have three young boys, and I wanted them to hear about my story from me directly, when the time is right and not through social media or online speculation. Bo\u2019s post has now made it impossible for me to remain private about this period of our childhood any longer. I can only hope that God has a plan for this down the road. I have always respected Bo\u2019s right to speak about his own story, but I cannot allow him to misrepresent mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBear went on to claim that \u201cmy brother and I were both sexually abused at the age of 8 and 6 by a teenage counselor\u201d at a Christian camp where they grew up in South Carolina. \u201cNeither of us received support for these events until well into adulthood and were both left to navigate the rest of childhood and adolescence with deep pain and confusion,\u201d the musician wrote, adding that he later \u201cfound freedom\u201d after counseling and support from loved ones.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBo\u2019s recent accusation of me conflates our shared experience of abuse with a childhood incident he misrepresents,\u201d Bear continued. \u201cWhile going through a two day intensive counseling session with Bo five years ago, I learned that he was hurt by things that happened in our early teen years as well. At that counseling session I took full responsibility for any part I played in that pain. We processed those moments of shared trauma in detail and left with an understanding that we were two young boys trying to cope with the unimaginable. To now label me an abuser in such a heartless way is not only deeply painful, but is also wildly misleading and feels intentionally harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBear concluded his message by expressing hope that he and Bo can reconcile someday. \u201cI truly do pray for this healing,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI believe that all of us are broke and in need of a savior. My brother and I are no different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBillboard<\/em> has reached out to NEEDTOBREATHE\u2019s representatives for further comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 2023 interview with People<\/a><\/em>, Bo opened up about coming to terms with his experience of sexual abuse as an adult, revealing that it was perpetrated by three different individuals. He did not provide further details.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt takes time,\u201d Bo said at the time. \u201cAt some point in our lives, we get to this stage \u2014 and it\u2019s generally with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, it\u2019s in their late 30s or early 40s \u2014 where it starts to surface whether you want it to or not. You\u2019ll start to see how your life\u2019s kind of breaking down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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NEEDTOBREATHE\u2018s Bear Rinehart is speaking out following allegations of childhood abuse made by his brother Bo Rinehart. On Thursday (June 12), 43-year-old Bo, the former guitarist for NEEDTOBREATHE, shared a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275,96,94,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genre-rock","category-music","category-music-news","category-nsfs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}