ICED EARTH founder and guitarist Jon Schaffer recently sat down with Marc J. Victor and Andy Marcantel of Attorneys On Retainer to tell his side of the story regarding his involvement in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and provide a client testimonial for the Attorneys For Freedom law firm. You can watch the entire 75-minute chat below.
Speaking about his political activism prior to the events of January 6, 2021, Jon said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m very pro founding principle America, and we’ve obviously drifted pretty far from that. So that’s bothered me for a long time, for whatever reason. It probably has a lot to do with my father and studying. And I just love the story of the founding of this country. As imperfect as we are, it’s the best. And we can be better — we can definitely be better than what we are now.
“I don’t like to get into the left-right part of this, ’cause that’s not where my passion is,” Jon explained. “It’s pro freedom. And I want our country and the world to get back to that, and that’s what I’ve tried to express. And a lot of people have put me in a box of being a right-wing extremist and this kind of stuff. And I don’t consider freedom to be extreme.”
During Schaffer‘s detention hearing in the U.S. District Court in July 2021, his lawyer, the aforementioned Marc J. Victor, told a federal judge that the guitarist had gone through “two months of hell” after he was detained, with other inmates allegedly targeting Jon with death threats and allegedly assaulting him with human excrement while he was behind bars.
“It was intense,” Jon told Attorneys On Retainer. “I mean, it was definitely intense. I was in general population for a couple days, but because I was all over the news, they moved me into solitary.
“I’ve been through a lot of intense things in my life, lived hardcore, being a teenager splitting from home, starting a heavy metal band and doing what you’ve gotta do to make that happen was intense. But dude, nothing compared to J6,” Schaffer continued. “So it was a crucible. And I’m thankful for it. I feel blessed in so many ways because you find out who really loves you, who are the parasites, who are the ones that really love you. And I’m blessed, man, ’cause there were a lot of people that stood beside me, even if they didn’t publicly. And I get that, but that doesn’t matter… It was a blessing, the entire thing was, because it got me… I stepped off the hamster wheel of the music business and was able to look at my life and reflect, and for that, as brutal as it was, that time of self-reflection, which is all you can do… I mean, it took probably three weeks for me to be able to get a Bible. We weren’t allowed to go to the library. They denied us access to the law library. There was literally nothing. And it’s been an incredible journey, and it’s life-changing in all of the good ways. And that’s what I can say about it.”
Reflecting on his success as the leader of what was considered to be one of the premier American power metal bands of the late 1990 and early 2000s, Jon said: “I’ve never been one to buy in to the rock star lifestyle anyway. I don’t need the hero worship, I don’t desire it, but I am a songwriter. That was my driving force. That was the thing that made me climb through all of the mountains of shit that I did for decades. It’s because of that. I had these ideas, heart and soul, totally in, and to be able to make that happen in a production and to see the final result was very satisfying. That was the most satisfying part of my career. All the rest of it was… I actually didn’t like it. I didn’t like the business. I don’t like dealing with the media. I don’t like those things. I don’t like the drama. I don’t like the narcissism. I don’t like all of that part of it. It’s too much. It’s very ego driven, and actually it’s a very superficial kind of lifestyle. The songwriting and the song craft is not, and the passion and love of playing, it’s not, but when you get into the business professionally, it changes, and you get a little bit jaded. At least I did. And it was an awesome career, and it was an awesome life. And I got to experience many amazing things and travel all over the world and meet some incredible people and visit all these different cultures. And it was awesome. And maybe the songwriting thing will come back, but at this particular point in my life, without the desire to write songs, that spark isn’t there, then I don’t wanna deal with all the rest of it. The only reason that I endured all of it was because of the song craft.”
Last fall, Schaffer was sentenced to three years of probation and 120 hours of community service in connection with his involvement in the January 6, 2021 riot. He was also ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution and a $200 financial assessment. Schaffer later became one of about 1,500 people accused of crimes related to the riot who were pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Schaffer‘s sentencing had been delayed for years, initially due to his ongoing cooperation with the Justice Department’s investigation into the Capitol riot, and then as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear another defendant’s appeal of the obstruction statute used in hundreds of January 6 cases.
Regarding being pardoned by Trump, Schaffer told Attorneys On Retainer: “It was a huge deal. And I have to say that’s what makes me think Trump is not your regular politician, because there’s so many promises made and almost none of them ever kept. And that was just an amazing thing. Because I know some people there, I’m sure, did some bad things, and what I did was stupid, that’s for sure. We believed that our… And I think our country’s in serious trouble — I mean, serious, serious trouble — but at that point, and you gotta preface it with the whole summer of love and all that; that’s the mindset that people were in. But I’ll always be grateful to President Trump for this, big time, and I know everybody else will be too.”
Addressing the fact that he agreed to cooperate with investigators when he pled guilty to federal charges in April 2021 and potentially testify in related criminal cases in hopes of getting a lighter sentence, with some people assuming that he had valuable information about other members of the Oath Keepers extremist group to give to authorities, Jon said: “It’s quite possibly the hardest part of it. As much wreckage as the whole thing caused, and I own my behavior, so I’m not the victim here. I screwed up, that’s for sure. But the fallout — there was a lot of that with family and friends, business, all that stuff — but I think that was the thing that bothered me the most. ‘Cause the people that know me, they know my honor’s a big deal. My word is a big deal.”
Although Schaffer was initially charged with six crimes, including engaging in an act of physical violence and targeting police with bear spray, he pleaded guilty to only two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress; and trespassing on restricted grounds of the Capitol while armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
Following the initial reports that Schaffer was involved in the riot, his ICED EARTH bandmates distanced themselves from his actions. Singer Stu Block and bassist Luke Appleton later posted separate statements on social media announcing their resignations. BLIND GUARDIAN frontman Hansi Kürsch also quit DEMONS & WIZARDS, his long-running project with Schaffer. The allegations also apparently affected Schaffer‘s relationship with his longtime record label Century Media, which had released albums from both ICED EARTH and DEMONS & WIZARDS. As of mid-January 2021, the Century Media artist roster page did not list either band.
This past April, Schaffer told Riffs From The Couch that his newfound faith and his relationship with Jesus Christ played a significant role in helping him get through his ordeal.
“Well, I would say that as brutal as it’s been in the big picture, it’s been the biggest gift of my life to go through this, not only for the cause, but for the fact that it is what led me to Christ,” Jon said.
“My life’s journey has been incredible — I mean, you can’t make this stuff up — and so it’s, like, it took that to break my stubborn… I was very stubborn, very, very hardheaded and very driven,” Jon explained. “But I realized that all the things that I’d been writing about [in my songs] and the sort of the warnings and stuff through the catalog and various projects, and that I feel like God was working through me and I didn’t even know it. And so when I was locked up in solitary, the only book that I could get was a Bible. And even that request took about three weeks to get it. And I started reading and… ‘Cause I was a Christian when I was a kid. Then I went to a religious school and things changed for me after that experience. And I’ll get into more of that in my testimony. But if it wasn’t for this, I am certain that I was on a path to destruction and that it took this and this time, these years of solitude, to understand and learn, and I’m still learning. I have a lot to learn. I think there’s a lot to the Bible. But I look at the Bible as a… We’re in a fallen state, and the Bible is like the operator’s manual to help you not just live, but thrive in the fallen state. And Jesus is the only way — that is absolutely clear to me now. And this has come in various steps of my…”
Schaffer added: “I’ve always been awake to corruption and held very strong views against government corruption and what’s happening and this level, but when you start to understand it from a biblical standpoint, then it gets real and that’s when the dots start connecting. And I just feel like — without getting too deep in the weeds about everything that happened — if it wasn’t for what happened, I would not have been saved and called by Christ. And I feel like this is the beginning of a new chapter. I don’t know what that looks like, and that’s okay, ’cause he’s in the driver’s seat.”
Earlier in April, Schaffer teased a possible return to music, telling the It Is Later Than You Think podcast of Cornerstone Church, a non-denominational Church in Trafalgar, Indiana: ”There’s a few releases that I’ve got up my sleeve that we’re gonna be working on. In terms of new material, I’m gonna give that a little bit of time. I need to know that there’s clear artistic direction and not something that’s manufactured by me. Because I’ve done enough records in my career to know some of ’em were wedged into schedules because tours on either side and you’re kind of forced into a writing mode because of schedule pressures and other commitments. And sometimes working under pressure is really great, and other times you’re going through the motions. And so whatever I would do going forward, I only wanna do something that’s gonna be great. I don’t want anything to be forced. And I want it to glorify God. And I think there’s just so much, from a creative standpoint… There’s actually been some biblical stuff throughout my catalog anyway, but from the eyes of a Christian now, like, man, there’s so much inspiration there that hopefully would have a good effect on people. So I hope that comes back to me. I hope that it’s, like, ‘Okay, it’s time. Activate.’ But I don’t know… I think it’s just gonna take a little bit of time to feel free again. Even if it was all an illusion anyway. With my lifestyle, man, I felt like I was. But when I started waking up, I knew it was all B.S. I could [force creativity], but it’s not gonna be great. I want it to be great… I know the rough spots in the catalog. I know how it works, and if that’s my calling, to be creative again, then I’ll do it. But I don’t know. It’s gotta be something. It’ll move me. I’ll know it, put it that way. It’ll be unstoppable. That’s the way it was before. So it’s, like, ‘Oh, here it comes. I can’t stop it. It’s going.’ But we’ll see. Yeah, it’s not my timeline. I’ve surrendered that.”
