ICED EARTH Mainman Shuts Down Fan Club, Cites FACEBOOK's Success As Reason

ICED EARTH founder Jon Schaffer today closed his band's fan club, the Minions of the Wicked, citing the success of Facebook as the reason.

"When we launched Minions of the Wicked," Schaffer said, "the real power and usefulness of social-network sites like Facebook was unknown to us. Everyone knew about MySpace. Practically every band was already there. Twitter was more or less still in its infancy. Consequently, very few bands used it. Facebook existed, of course. But it was a big question mark. How could bands like ours use Facebook to keep in touch with fans?"

He continued: "On September 1st of this year, we launched the official Iced Earth Facebook page. We had no idea what would happen. All we knew is that other bands were on Facebook, and hundreds of fans requested that we be on it as well. So we asked our publicist, Bill Murphy, to create the official ICED EARTH Facebook page for us with one stipulation: That he be as passionate about it as he is about our music. He was. And we were blown away by the response we got. In two months' time, we added over 6,400 followers. Over six thousand four hundred! And it grows by nearly 100 per day. In Facebook, we found the perfect way for us to talk to fans, and — more importantly — to hear from them. In real time. We were thrilled."

But Schaffer's elation was diminished by the realization that ICED EARTH — like many metal bands today — was now charging fans for information and interaction with the band that they could get free just by clicking "Like" on Facebook.

"With the world's economy in such rough shape, and people having to scrape together their hard-earned money to buy basic necessities," Schaffer said, "we thought we could best serve our fans by giving them communication, interaction, access to the band, fun giveaways, and exclusive news on Facebook, without charging them a dime."

According to Schaffer, Minions of the Wicked fan-club members will still receive their membership t-shirt, plus something extremely rare — two free unreleased live ICED EARTH tracks, different from the ones just posted on the ICED EARTH web site. No one but current Minions will likely ever hear those two tracks, which are from the 2008 edition of Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting festival, featuring Matt Barlow on lead vocals.

"I'm honored that the fan-club members chose to support ICED EARTH. I will always be grateful to them for their loyalty to us," said Schaffer. "In return, I want to give them what they asked for when we started the fan club. Only this time, it's free."

ICED EARTH's forthcoming DVD, "Festivals Of The Wicked", will feature full-length concerts from several European festivals — namely Wacken Open Air in 2007 (with Tim "Ripper" Owens on lead vocals); and Metalcamp and Rock Hard in 2008 (with Matt Barlow on lead vocals) — a rockin' road movie, a long interview with Schaffer, and more.

ICED EARTH completed a four-city U.S. tour in September with the following lineup:

Jon Schaffer - Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Backing Vocals
Matt Barlow - Lead and Backing Vocals
Brent Smedley - Drums
Troy Seele - Lead Guitar
Freddie Vidales - Bass Guitar

Jon's SONS OF LIBERTY band, featuring Schaffer on lead vocals, made its live debut on this tour.

Schaffer is currently working on a new ICED EARTH album (scheduled for release next fall) and a special project he will only say fans will "freakin' love."

Schaffer formed ICED EARTH in Tampa, Florida, in 1984. Since then, he has released 10 studio albums, one live album, two compilations, and three boxed sets. With worldwide sales topping one million albums, ICED EARTH has earned a seat in the pantheon of America's most successful heavy-metal bands.