ICED EARTH founder and guitarist JON SCHAFFER has given an extensive interview about his involvement in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, appearing on the Iblis Manifestations podcast to discuss the three years since the incident and its impact on his life.
Schaffer, who was sentenced in October 2024 to three years of probation and 120 hours of community service — later pardoned by president Donald Trump — reflected on how the experience changed him: "It was a huge growth process. It was definitely a crucible, there's no doubt about that. A lot of people that went through J6 have just been destroyed. There were several suicides. Guys facing misdemeanors were so destroyed because of the amount of demonization going on in the media."
Schaffer spent nearly two months at Indiana's Marion County Jail before being transferred to Washington D.C., cycling through four different facilities over three months. "It was brutal in the county jails versus the federal prison. Torturous, in some of those places," he said.
On what carried him through, Schaffer was direct: "I really have to say the biggest thing for me that made me calm through the whole thing was my relationship with Christ. I was still pretty pissed off when I was locked up. But it started to calm. And of course there was a serious level of PTSD afterwards."
ICED EARTH have continued operating during and after Schaffer's legal troubles. No new album announcement has been made at this time.