Country Bass Player Arrested on Child Sex Abuse Charges

Carsen Richards, who was the bass player and music director for pop country star Chase Matthew, has been arrested on numerous child sex charges. The 22-year-old of Hendersonville, TN was arrested after coming off the stage at the BBQ and Barrels festival at the Owensboro Convention Center in Owensboro, KY on Saturday, May 9th.

Richards faces two counts of second-degree sodomy and two counts of incest involving a person under 18 by a person three or more years older. The charges stem from alleged behavior where Richards sexually abused an autistic child beginning when the child was 12 years old. According to the criminal complaint in the case, the alleged incidents happened in December of 2020, and in December of 2022 when the victim was 14.

The mother of the victim first reported the allegations to the Winchester Police Department in Kentucky on November 24th, 2025, and the alleged victim was interviewed at a child advocacy center in Lexington, Kentucky on December 3rd, 2025. According to the complaint, the mother then confronted Carsen Richards about the abuse outside his apartment in Hendersonville, TN where he admitted, “There is nothing more I have regretted in my life … I made an awful mistake.”

According to the Owensboro Times, officers purposely waited to arrest Carsen Richards until he was leaving the stage at about 9:40 pm after the performance because Richards was known to be regularly armed, but does not bring firearms with him onto the stage. Police arrested Richards after he exited the stage, but before he got to the tour bus. He was unarmed at the time, and was taken into custody without incident.

Richards was booked into the Daviess County Detention Center on Saturday night (5-9), and held on $75,000 bond.

After the arrest and numerous media reports about it, country star Chase Matthew released the following statement Monday (3-11) afternoon.

This situation has honestly been one of the most shocking and heartbreaking things I’ve ever experienced.

When I first heard the allegations, I was sick to my stomach. I would never associate myself with a person I think could even be remotely capable of something like this, much less hire them to be on my team.

The reality is, you don’t always know what someone may be doing outside of your workplace, and nothing would have made me believe this was a possibility.

As of his arrest this past weekend, this individual was immediately removed from the band and is no longer associated with me or my team in any capacity.

And I want to be very clear: I do not support or tolerate behavior of this kind whatsoever.

I am truly disturbed and disgusted by the details of these allegations. My heart breaks for anyone affected.

Like you, I’m learning this information as it comes out publicly. I don’t know anything more than y’all know. This is an ongoing legal matter, and I trust that the legal system will go through the correct procedures to get to the bottom of this.

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