By now, you have likely heard that one of the people allegedly participating in the Capitol building riots was Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer. A photo emerged showing a man who looks a lot like Schaffer storming the Capitol building earlier this week, in support of President Trump. This has resulted in local DC police and the FBI putting out a call for information on him. Initially, Iced Earth frontman Stu Block put out a vague statement, not condemning nor condoning the attacks. Then, the band released a vague collective statement condeming violence, while not directly addressing Schaffer's actions. Today, Block released a new statement.
As part of the statement, Block writes "I absolutely DO NOT condone nor do I support ANY acts of violence or anything else that ANY protester or rioter was involved in on January 6th at the US Capitol building." It should be noted he, once again, does not specifically name Schaffer.
Block's full statement reads: "First I want to thank everyone for the amazing support you have shown. Unfortunately It has come to my attention in recent days about a screenshot someone made. There were some very obsessive hateful people posting the screenshot that I did have to remove from my social media.
"I do want to extend my apologies for the poor way I worded two Facebook posts on January the 6th. I'm human and I make mistakes. My wording was absolutely misunderstood and not properly thought out on my part and I know people and media can interpret things differently.
"At that moment I saw a historical thing happening that perhaps would cause divide amongst people everywhere so I sent love out to everyone as well. I quickly took the post down after I realized that the post I put up with good intentions to encourage discussion about what was happening at that moment was severely misinterpreted by some. This was all happening before I found out about the horrible line that was crossed that day by protesters. I also carelessly misread a comment someone posted on my official Facebook page and replied incorrectly and for that I am sorry. I was in the heat of the moment. In the post, the commenter said: 'Are you condemning what happened today Stu?' I replied: 'and where in my statement would you get that impression?' In the craziness of responding to so many comments, some very hateful in nature which were also coming at me in rapid fire, I read the word as 'condoning' which I DO NOT!!
"I see that this inaccurate misinterpreted screenshot has been shared on various social media pages and I want to go on record to say this AGAIN:
I absolutely DO NOT condone nor do I support ANY acts of violence or anything else that ANY protester or rioter was involved in on January 6th at the US Capitol building.
"If you follow me, you know I am generally a man of Peace, Kitties and Music. I do believe in peaceful protest and expressing your grievances , I believe in questioning authority when it's appropriate, but I also believe that it should be done in a peaceful, respectful and intellectual manner and within the confines of the law.
"Again I apologize for any confusion. That's it that's all. I have been and will be taking a social media break and this is the only time I will ever address this inaccurate misinterpreted screenshot.
"Much Love and Stay Strong."
