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Jon Noble - Jacob's Dream

Jon Schaffer - Iced Earth

Real Name: Jon Ryan Schaffer
Born: March 15, 1968

Jon Ryan Schaffer is a songwriter and heavy metal guitarist born on March 15, 1968 in Franklin, Indiana. Jon Schaffer is the founder of the heavy metal band “Iced Earth”.

Jon Schaffer is currently working with “Iced Earth”.

Jon Ryan Schaffer

Jon Schaffer learnt playing guitar when he was a child. He bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen and started composing music. Jon Schaffer studied in ‘Northrop High School’ in Fort Wayne, Indiana. However, he left his studies at the age of 16 and moved away from his parent’s house to Tampa, Florida to start up his own band.

Jon Schaffer founded the heavy metal band “Purgatory” in 1985, which later transformed its name to “Iced Earth”. The band combine influences from power metal, opera, progressive metal, thrash metal, speed metal and NWOBHM. Jon Schaffer formed a side project called “Demons & Wizards” in 1999 along with Hansi Kürsch, lead vocalist of power metal band “Blind Guardian”. Iced Earth recorded their first demo and released in 1989 with the title “Enter the Realm”, which grabbed the attention and were soon signed by Century Media Records. The band released their first album “Iced Earth” in 1991 on Century Media Records. The band has gone through different changes with Jon Schaffer as the only permanent member of the band and the band’s main songwriter.

Jon Schaffer also performed has a lead singer on the Iced Earth songs like: “Stormrider” from “Night of the Stormrider”, “God of Thunder” and “Tribute to the Gods”. Jon Schaffer’s main musical influences were Iron Maiden, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Judas Priest and AC/DC band. Jon Schaffer has covered two songs from Iron Maiden’s album “The Number of the Best” on Iced Earth’s cover album “Tribute to the Gods”.

Jon Ryan Schaffer

Some of his albums include:

1991: Iced Earth
1992: Night of the Stormrider
1995: Burnt Offerings
1996: The Dark Saga
1998: Something Wicked This Way Comes
2001: Horror Show
2002: Tribute to the Gods
2004: The Glorious Burden
2007: Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part 1)
2008: The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Part 2)

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Johnny Winter - Solo

Johnny Winter was born as John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III on 23 February 1944 in Beaumont, Texas, USA. The American blues guitarist, singer and producer is the first son of John and Edwina Winter who played a crucial role in Johnny as well as his younger brother Edgar Winter's initial musical consciousness. Unfortunately, both Johnny and Edgar suffer from albinism or the inherited lack of pigmentation in the skin and hair.

Early Days

Both Johnny Winter and Edgar started performing from an early age and particularly Johnny’s recording career took off when he was just 15. Johnny released his debut record ‘School Day Blues’ with his band Johnny and the Jammers on a Houston record label in 1960. Johnny Winter was highly influenced by classic blue artists like Muddy Waters, B. B. King and Bobby Bland.

Johnny Winter

Later, while performing live, Johnny Winter used to time and again narrate the stories about how as a child he daydreamed of playing with Muddy Walters. Many years later, his dream became a reality when Johnny produced an album of the blues guitarist ‘Hard Again’ in 1977. The success of this record enthused Johnny to work with Muddy Walters again and again and he produced the blues guitarist’s next album ‘I’m Ready’ in 1978 and also the final record ‘King Bee’ in 1980.

Career

Although Johnny Winter became a popular star in the late 60s and early 70s owing to his association with Muddy Walters, he was literally discovered on the national scene through an article published in Rolling Stone in 1968. Soon after this, Johnny entered into a contract with the New York club proprietor Steve Paul and a deal to release a record under the Columbia label. And by the end of 1968, Johnny released his first solo album ‘Johnny Winter’, which reached the charts in the following year.

Johnny Winter started of with a trio comprising Tommy Shannon (bass) and John Turner (drums) called ‘Winter’ in 1968. Soon, he formed another band with former McCoys members and named it ‘Johnny Winter And’. His record ‘Live/Johnny Winter And’ achieved record sales during 1971 and his next album ‘Still Alive And Well’ released in 1973 achieved top position in the charts for long. ‘Still And Alive’ was recorded during his partial retirement owing to habitual heroin addiction.

Johnny Winter

Although, Johnny did not have any new releases in the early 20s, the period witnessed several significant re-issues such as Alligator’s ‘Deluxe Edition 2001’, and Columbia/ Legacy’s ‘Best of Johnny Winter’ in 2002 and ‘Fuel 2000’ that were a compilation of Johnny’s recording between 1969 and 1971. In 2004, Winter re-emerged with his new solo album ‘I’m a Bluesman’ after eight years.

The Final Years

Unfortunately, in 2001, physicians diagnosed Johnny Winter with ‘radial nerve palsy’ which prevented him from using his right hand albeit temporarily. Winter had become much frail owing to illness, bereavement in the family and heroin addiction. Nevertheless, he tried to make a comeback in 2004 with ‘I’m a Bluesman’ and sustained for a while. Although Johnny Winter failed to fulfill the early promises shown by him, his contribution to the blues is never to be undermined.