ICED EARTH‘s founding guitarist Jon Schaffer has given his first interview since being sentenced to three years of probation and 120 hours of community service in connection with his involvement in the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. 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.

Speaking to the It Is Later Than You Think podcast of Cornerstone Church, a non-denominational Church in Trafalgar, Indiana, Schaffer stated about what started the buildup to his involvement in the events of January 6 in part: “In the famous interview that I did (at a November 2020 Donald Trump rally in Washington, D.C.) that they showed everywhere, I said, this isn’t about President Trump. I mean, I believe that he’s a good man who loves his country. But the American people are worked up because we’re sick of the tyranny. And he happens to be the figurehead against that. But for me, I would’ve been just as pissed off if they stole the election from the Democrats, because that means that’s the end of our republic, which actually has been hijacked for a very long time… I’m just anti-tyranny. I want people to be free. I want people to be able to be free to speak their minds, to worship, to live, to prosper. That’s what we’ve been told our whole lives that’s what our country stands for. We realize how much we’ve been lied to, but the fact is that’s what it was founded upon. And they have demonized everything about our history to the point that if we don’t bring common sense back into this discussion, it will be unrecognizable.

“Now I realize my behavior wasn’t the greatest behavior and wasn’t the smartest thing that I ever did, but it was entrapment — one hundred percent,” Schaffer continued. “I mean, there’s no doubt. The truth is gonna come out about this. The bad thing is I know better. But I let my emotions get a whole handle on me, and I think there was a force at work there, which I can’t really put into words.”

Reflecting on the events of January 6, 2021, Jon said: “It took me an hour to get to the Capitol because trying to walk quickly through masses of people like that was not an easy thing to do… It was only a mile, but, which normally I could knock that out pretty quick. But it was just packed. There were people all around you and moving at different paces and some very unfit people moving at really slow paces — I’d say a lot of those. But it was already chaos when I got there. And I just went kind of in a straight line.”

Apparently suggesting that the people at the Capitol merely held a protest against an election they claimed was fraudulent and that the rioters were welcomed into the Capitol by police officers, Schaffer continued: “It was sort of like an energy flow going that way, but it was obviously a lot of chaos already going on. From what I heard, people started before Trump was even done speaking, heading over there, stirring up trouble. And so I don’t know how many of those people would be agent provocateurs… But I was going in and went up the stairs… I didn’t see any entrances being breached. I actually didn’t see any of that. So I don’t know where that took place. I just saw the same videos that other people have. But I was going up the stairs and I felt what sounded like concussion grenades going off. It was loud. It sounded like it was within the building. And then tear gas canisters were blowing up over the top of us and these girls were coming down the stairs. They were probably 50 feet apart, crying. They’re destroying stuff up there. That’s not what this is about. So I’m, like, getting more charged up, like, ‘What’s going on?’ I didn’t know what was going on. I did not expect that patriots were setting off flash bangs or concussion grenades or whatever I was hearing. It doesn’t make sense because that’s not what the movement’s about. It’s not a violent movement. You could see that. It’s a very family-oriented movement. I would say that most of the people are just freedom loving, probably a lot of Christians and a lot of of good-hearted Americans… And so destroying property, that’s not what we do. That’s not our thing. So it became more and more alarming as I was getting higher up the stairs. And there were people on the scaffolds and a lot of stuff was being said and yelled and people were yelling and I saw guys coming down that had been sprayed, which is kind of a weird thing to see when you see it for the first time, because it takes a second for you realize, and then, of course, I found out. (Laughs) But they can’t see. But they look normal when you’re looking at ’em. But then you see that they can’t see ’cause they’ve been tear gased or pepper sprayed or whatever, chemical irritant. And so I just went up. I don’t even know if I had a model of the Capitol, if I could tell you where I was. But there were scaffolds right next to the stairway that was going up and there was a deck up there.. But it looks like it would be a place that maybe they do photographs or something. The doorway that I went in, there was no handles on the doorway. These were doors that I’m certain are very secure. I saw the police officer — he was masked up, but I still identified him; I recognized him — communicating. I saw him through the glass communicating. He was on the other side of the door. The door was not opened at this point, and he was looking up at the camera communicating, and I’m assuming that he was telling central command there to unlock those doors, because those doors, I can almost guarantee you, are magnetically sealed. I mean, it’s the Capitol of the United States. You’re not gonna be able to just take a hammer and break a window and reach around and grab… And there was no handles on the exterior anyway… I saw him do it… Or at least maybe they weren’t mechanically open, but whatever the mechanism is, the magnetic mechanism. And so he opens the door and a few people come out, and just as the door was closing, there was another group of people that yelled, ‘Hey, can we go in there?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, come on in.’ They let ’em in. Then the door closed and some period of time later another group came rushing out, and that’s when they said, ‘The cops are afraid. They’re beating an old man in there. Let’s go.’ And that’s what I got caught up in was that last thing. And it wasn’t too long after that I got in there that I saw the cop that was communicating to open the door just standing very calmly up in the stairs. ‘Cause like you go through the hall and there’s a ways down, there’s a staircase up here. And he’s, like, three or four steps up, just with his arms crossed, looking at everything. And then the police officers are backpedaling because we’re coming in. And then I caught off to the side — which, hell, at this point could be crisis actors for all I know. I don’t know. It was just pandemonium. I start yelling at ’em. The police, when it looked like to me like an old biker vet was getting hit with a baton by the one that was on the far end on the right, and I started yelling at him and yelling about them not keeping their oaths and ‘Congress is full of criminals.’ ‘What are you doing?’ Whatever. Not nice things, I’m sure, I was saying. But then I got sprayed.”

Going on to say that January 6 was simply a day of protesting and not a real insurrection, Jon said: “I mean, you’re talking about the most armed citizenry on the face of the planet. Somehow all those insurrectionists forgot their ARs (firearms) at home and their handguns and everything. It’s almost like that was never the intention.”

Schaffer went on to describe in detail how he came to embrace Christianity as a result of his ordeal. “The spiritual journey, I think I’ve kind of been on it for a while, but let’s say it came into focus by going through this,” he explained. “I did start reading the Bible, but I wasn’t really there… Like I’ve said, it was the beginning. Actually, it wasn’t the beginning, but this has been a slow process ’cause I’m a very bullheaded individual… That’s when my faith journey started. Being in solitary, lots of thinking, realizing the power and the evil that you’re up against and dealing with those people.

“You would’ve thought it was hard enough being in there that was the ‘come to Jesus’ moment,” he continued. “It was the step before the ‘come to Jesus’ moment. It was one of the steps before. And it was really when I realized how outta whack I was when I had the falling out with my daughter, and that was terrible and ugly. And I found a church — well, horribly enough, it was the day after Christmas that I found a church that was in the area that I was living at in Florida. And I went there for a few times and it just started to feel a little bit like religion. And then I went to another one in the area within a 10-minute, 15-minute drive. Also felt a little bit like religion. And then my friend invited me to his church, which was an hour and a half away. But I just fell in love with the place. It was Lakeview Church in Tarpon Springs. And so I would go there, stay at my friend’s house Saturday night, get up and go to church. We’d do it maybe once or twice a month. Most of the time it was streaming, ’cause that was a long, long trip. And sometimes I would go over there just for the service — leave really early in the morning, get there and drive back — but it’s a lot of time in the car. And I had asked — his name’s Pastor Tim Miller — I asked him to baptize me. And we did that at his house, in his pool. And it still wasn’t all the way there. I was on my way there.”

Asked what made him want to get baptized and whether it was a public display for him to show that the old Jon Schaffer is dead and that the new Jon Schaffer is out there, Jon said: “Just that. I know that it doesn’t guarantee salvation or something like that. That’s not the point. It was a more of that I had no choice when I was a baby, and this was a choice that I wanted to make. That’s all, really. There’s nothing more to it. And so I did. And then I moved back to Indiana and found you wonderful people at Cornerstone Church and realized how much we have in common. And I don’t know. It’s just amazing the way God works. And so I think the next level after me studying God’s word, going to Lakeview Church — I still watch Lakeview Church services on Sunday nights when I get home from work. Because I learn, and I like to learn. The next step was when I forgave my parents. That was a big step. It was a huge one. ‘Cause I didn’t realize it. It was just one of those things — the Holy Spirit told me, revealed it to me somehow. Like, ‘Dude, you can’t not forgive your parents.’ .. And it’s still a journey. I think it’s always gonna be a struggle just because the human aspect of it.”

Schaffer also clarified one of the things he acknowledged in his plea agreement — that he is a founding lifetime member of the Oath Keepers, a large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias.

“There’s the whole fake story of the Oath Keepers thing,” Jon said. “I mean, yes, I signed up to be a supporter of Oath Keepers when it first started, and I don’t even remember what year that was. I’d say it was like (200)9, (20)10, (20)11. I don’t know when they started, but it was right at the beginning, I saw an interview with (Oath Keepers founder) Stewart (Rhodes) and I was just, like, ‘Yeah.’ I mean, who wouldn’t want elected officials and first responders in military to take their oath seriously? Why is that a bad thing? So, yeah, I sent whatever the money was — I don’t even remember the cost; it was eight or nine hundred bucks — and you get the ultimate swag and the lifetime membership and whatever. And I guess technically I am a founding member because I sent them money and I was probably one of the first, ’cause I was super excited when I heard about it, ’cause I realized even at that time, like, we’re in serious trouble. I had been awake for a while. So, anyway, they created the whole narrative. I didn’t have any information on Oath Keepers, and I’m not even sure that those guys broke any laws. The only person I identified was the cop that opened the door.”

He later added: “The Oath Keepers thing, that was a narrative that they created to try to get others to break, as if I had some kind of information. I mean, dude, I am a touring heavy metal guy. I’m not the founder leader of a militia. And I’m not even sure that they did anything wrong. I don’t know. I didn’t see any violence. I saw the mainstream media saying, ‘They walked up the stairs in a military stack formation.’ I’m looking at the footage. It looks kind of like they’re making their way up the stairs. But that was the narrative, and I couldn’t say anything. I was threatened to make any public statement — threatened. ‘It’s gonna go very bad for you at sentencing if you say anything.’ ‘Cause they knew they were creating a false narrative.”