Jon Schaffer vs. BW&BK: You Decide...

So let me get this straight...Jon Schaffer ran away from home at 16 and spent his life playing music. Noam Chomsky (who is much older than Schaffer, to use Jon's own logic) has dedicated his life to the study of politics and social issues. And yet, Jon knows more about politics than Chomsky because he "lives in the real world."

SHUT THE FUCK UP, SCHAFFER.
 
Okay after reading the interview, Jon Schaffer was being a real asshole

"I don't want a Big Brother dictating my life."

Schaffer is a Republican (considering he was belittling democrats) and who is it that wants the National Security Act passed?

He also called CNN the Communist News Network...I wonder if he knows that CNN is not allowed to say anything bad about Bush?

At the end of the interview, the interviewer thanked him kindly and Schaffer just said, "I know you're going to twist my words around because you're with the press."

"They won't have to go through the dickheads at Blabbermouth who take things out of context and spread lies and innuendo" HAHAHAHA

and for Schaffer's reference, when the interviewer said "Bush Regime" he was talking about the Bush administration...From the Dictionary:
Regime (noun)
1. A political system
2. A social system
 
Horror Show saw my current beef with Jon starting to take shape. I loved the songs on the album, but I started to become unhappy with Jon’s role shifting from bandleader to dictator. On Horror Show, Jon was blessed to be accompanied by bass guitar legend Steve DiGiorgio and one of the most gifted drummers in metal, Richard Christy. Unfortunately, both members of the rhythm section were confined and restricted in their playing by Jon and his “musical vision.” Jon even went so far as to re-record some of Steve’s bass lines himself, which is something I will never understand. If Steve DiGiorgio agreed to play on my album, I would let him follow his own instinct and the album would no doubt turn out better because of it. I’ve never heard Steve record anything that was less than 100 percent cool. Richard was equally restricted and while he played passionately, he also played extremely typically and none of his signature off-the-cuff spice was heard anywhere. However unsettling the Horror Show proceedings might have been, the worst news was yet to come.

In 2003 the bad news really started to snowball. First came the disappointing news that young lead guitar protégé Larry Tarnowski had left the band in order to continue his studies. At first I wasn’t too upset with the news. Larry decided to quit the band and focus on school. So what? That’s good for him. Until recent interviews with Jon shed new light on the situation. According to Schaffer Larry left due to frustrations over his extremely limited role in the band. When Guitar World magazine suggested that Schaffer could have asked Larry if he wanted to play more, Jon almost seemed appalled by the suggestion. "Well, then it would not be Iced Earth, would it? Yeah, I could have let Larry play more to make him happy, but that's not the way I heard things. You can let people write stuff to be nice to them, but you can also ruin your career. Some people are not songwriters and some are. If they are, why don't they start their own fucking band, have the vision and make it happen?"

What?! So allowing your lead guitar player to play leads would in turn ruin your career? That makes no sense. Larry was brought into the band as a lead player and he should have been allowed to play. Otherwise, why bring him in at all? The lack of leads and guitar harmonies has, in my opinion, always been the most glaring fault in Iced Earth’s career. If anything, allowing Larry to play more would have made the last couple of Iced Earth albums even better. And so what if Larry wasn’t a songwriter? I don’t think it was ever suggested that Larry start writing complete songs by himself. I mean, the kid just wanted to play a few solos. He was brought into the band as an accessory to Jon’s playing and any creativity he might have had was squashed by Jon.

In a recent interview with Russia’s Darkside E-zine, Jon revealed that Larry didn’t just leave on his own accord, but was fired. “Quite frankly, Larry didn't bring anything to the table. So I said, 'Dude, it's better for you to just concentrate, go to school, get a career, forget about the music business.' He's just not made for it.”

Is that any way to treat a kid trying to make a career out of music? What if someone would have said that to Jon when he was still starting out? Jon would have been furious. If your going to fire him, why not send him off with a little encouragement, instead of acting like you’re the only person who can make it in the music business? And if Larry was fired then that should have been stated in the official press release, instead of lying by saying he just left. Disgusting.

For myself the worst part of this whole mess is the most recent part. At first I was very enthused to hear about the whole Glorious Burden concept. It sounded like it was going to be a killer piece of work and the promise of a 30+ minute epic with the addition of a symphony had me counting down the album’s release date in anticipation. That is until I heard the bad news. You know, the really bad news. Matt Barlow had left the band to pursue a more normal career that would give him more personal satisfaction. However, as bad as that news was, something else in the music world was keeping me on edge at the same time.

Rob Halford and Judas Priest had just announced their plans for a reunion tour and a new studio album, which is something that was probably decided upon long before the official announcement was made. So why is this relevant to the Iced Earth camp? Jon has long shared his admiration for Rob Halford as a vocalist and as a performer. So when Priest started talking about a Halford reunion, that would ultimately leave someone jobless. And that someone is none other than Halford wannabe Tim “Ripper” Owens. I believe that Jon had knowledge of this before most of the rest of us and when Matt expressed concerns about Iced Earth's current situation, Jon basically encouraged him to leave. Some hints that Jon had advance warning of Tim’s departure from Priest was given exactly a year before Matt left. In an interview with MetalReview Jon said, “I've worked with Matt and coached him through every single thing. Matt doesn't have the kind of personality that he would have done this if it wouldn't have been with someone behind him. I can do that with anybody. Take [Judas Priest frontman] Tim Owens, if we did a project together, I'll show you something that dude didn't even know he had inside of him, that's the way I work. I can pull shit out of people they don't even know they had. I'll push you to the limit. As far as that goes, everybody is replaceable including Matt and he knows that.”

Why would Jon just happen to mention Tim’s name in that interview? There’s lots of other great vocalist around he could have mentioned. I’ll tell you why he brought up Owens. He mentioned him because he knew that Owens would be the future frontman of Iced Earth. Jon slipped. He already knew that Owens would be coming into the band and he hadn’t told anyone. When asked about Matt and the prospect of him being replaceable, Jon committed a “Freudian slip.” In his mind, Owens was already Iced Earth’s vocalist and that’s why his name happened to be mentioned. I don’t believe that Jon was really worried about Matt’s loss. In an official release after Matt’s departure, Jon stated that he would begin the search for a new vocalist, a search that could potentially take years. So you can imagine my surprise when roughly a month later it was announced that not only had Iced Earth found a new frontman in Tim Owens, but that he had already re-recorded all of the vocals for The Glorious Burden. Not much of a search, huh? Maybe that’s because he didn’t have to search. He already knew who was going to come in. How’s that for loyalty? It’s not like Matt wasn’t a good singer. In fact, many people, myself included, believed Matt’s voice was the voice of Iced Earth. But Jon saw more commercial potential for his band with Owens in the fold. Sounds to me like he sold out a friend and a bandmate for a chance at further commercial success. To be honest, the lying about all of this pisses me off more than the actual line-up changes. Although I do admit that I hate the three or four songs that I’ve heard from The Glorious Burden. The unique feel that Barlow brought to the band is gone, replaced by a stale singer with no personal style. In fact, I can’t even listen to the unplugged version of “When the Eagle Cries” because Matt does the background vocals. Just hearing his voice on that song gave me a small glimpse of how great it would have been with him singing lead. When I hear Owens sing over Schaffer’s riffing, it just sounds wrong. In my mind, I can actually hear Matt singing on those tracks and it sounds so much better. But most importantly, it sounds like the Iced Earth that I once loved.
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:eek:

lets all bash Jon, yay!
 
i told everyone about John yrs ago. You guys know he had a couple ribs removed......so he could suck his own dick dont you? he really loves himself.
 
What little respect I still had for Jon Schaffer has been destroyed over the past year and his little "rant" over this interview is the icing on the cake. I don't see anything wrong with anything that the interviewer asked or said, granted I haven't seen the "edited" version, but I can't imagine how Schaffer's words could have been twisted to make hime look any worse. He comes across as an asshole time and time again, but not just an asshole that speaks his mind, which is one that you can still respect, but as one of those individuals that doesn't believe that he is ever in the wrong.

The personnel changes that have occurred lately are perfect examples of how much of an asshole that he is. He sings the praises of somebody as long as things are going well, but when they leave he always stabs them in the back with his comments about their "contributions" to the band, or rather HIS contributions in their contributions.
 
Schaffer said that if they had printed the interview in its entirety, there wouldn't have been a problem. Schaffer is a fucking jackass, I haven't seen the interview in the mag, but it doesn't look like there's a whole lot you can do to change the original interview in order to make Schaffer appear dumber than he already is. He probably got pissed off after he saw the interview in the mag and realized how much of a moron he sounds like. The guy claims to be an expert in history, yet it looks like his knowledge of history is about the same with that of an 11th grader.

Perri tried to be as accomodating as possible, considering that politically, Schaffer is at the other end of the spectrum, and all Schaffer did was bash him for his views, despite saying that he respects everybody's view. Anyways this interview further shows how much self-centered and idiotic Schaffer is, but that's nothing new.

It's good publicity for BW&BK too... No publicity is bad publicity. Especially since BW&BK's target audience holds more liberal views. All Schaffer managed is to make himself and his band look retarded. I think Schaffer knows the end of his lame band is near and tries to get all the publicity he can, through any means. Maybe that, and his horrible new video will help him secure enough sales to feed his crackwhore wife and get braces for his inbred son.
 
Guerrilla said:
Maybe that, and his horrible new video will help him secure enough sales to feed his crackwhore wife and get braces for his inbred son.
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which horrible video? the one with the eagles and 9/11 imagery, or the one where 'ripper' shadow boxes the whole time?
-neal
 
ledmag said:
i told everyone about John yrs ago. You guys know he had a couple ribs removed......so he could suck his own dick dont you? he really loves himself.
Click to expand...
JS: "The thing is, you're going to spin this however you want and I have no control over that. That's what most of the guys in the press do. I'll give an interview, and then they'll edit out certain things. It's like CNN, the Communist News Network. You deliver a story a certain way and try to get people to think a certain way. So, it's basically in your hands. You or your editor can make it look however you guys want it to. At the end of the day, I don't really give a fuck what people think. And you're more than welcome to print this. I am who I am. I don't have to answer to anybody. I'm not ashamed of anything I've done to get where I am. I'm an honest guy and I'm a straight shooter. And you can print all that. I won't be judged by another human being, especially some snot-nosed kid who's never had to work a day in his life for anything. You know how it is, man. A lot of people think they are a wealth of knowledge. I have real-world education. I left high school when I was 16, but I graduated from the school of hard knocks."

Ledmag and I have discussed this "JACKASS" many times. Yes Schaffer is talented but I can name many more people who are far more talented than he is. He acts like Iced Earth is the "greatest metal band of all time" and that is horseshit. Also, there are other people who have graduated from an even tougher "school of hard knocks" and nobody owes Jon Schaffer anything. His attitude and ego are for shit. Maybe if his attitude was better, more people would like and respect him and Iced Earth
 
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