In his first detailed interview since his involvement in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, Iced Earth founder Jon Schaffer has described the immense personal and professional fallout as a “gift” that “brought me into a personal relationship with Christ.”
Speaking on the Tom Woods Show, Schaffer opened up about the spiritual transformation he underwent in the years following his arrest and guilty plea for his role in the riot. He described the period of solitary confinement and professional ostracism as a “crucible.“
“It was a painful growing process. And it really has been a gift, in the big picture, to really see who is loyal and who I can trust and who I know are really there,” Schaffer said. “That’s a big deal. It brought me to Christ.”
He elaborated on his renewed faith, explaining that while he grew up in a Christian school, he had “rebelled big time” against organized religion.
“But I really didn’t get along with organized religion; I had a problem with that. But I always thought that Jesus was a serious bada**. Seriously,” he explained. “But this brought me into a personal relationship with Christ, and that’s been the biggest gift of all through all of this. But then there’s other things, like finding out who your friends are, what really matters. It was a crucible and it was a gift. It was hard, but it was a gift.”
Schaffer also explained his motivation for joining the march to the Capitol, stating that as a “pro-freedom guy,” he was deeply concerned about government overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believed it was the collapse of the republic,” Schaffer said of his mindset at the time, citing corporate profiteering and the erosion of civil liberties as his catalysts. “I hate to see western civilization collapse, but I think there’s fertile ground to spread the ideas of liberty.”
