A professional musician since 1963, Carl Leach has been the lead trumpet player with Golden Era Musicians since 1993, where he worked alongside Ron Miscavige for two decades. Prior to joining the religious order, Carl was the lead trumpet player for singer Tom Jones and also played lead trumpet for more than a decade at the Flamingo Hilton Showroom in Las Vegas. He has performed with such stars as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Liza Minelli, Liberace, Tony Bennett, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Ben Vereen, Joel Grey and the 5th Dimension. He also performed on The Mike Douglas Show, as well as in such iconic musicals as “West Side Story,” “A Chorus Line,” “Mame” and “Hello, Dolly.”

 

I have close personal knowledge of Ron. As a trumpet player myself, I literally worked alongside him for 20 years.

This guy is a con man from the word go. The materials he has written in his “memoir” are false. Because of his name, and the great respect we all have for his son, we overlooked many of Ron’s misdeeds. If his last name was Smith or Jones, he would have been long gone from here years ago.

In all the time I was here, Ron was unproductive and pigheaded. He had no work ethic. And now because he can’t make a living on his own, he is trying to make money off his son. I manage a very large library of music which Ron rarely visited. Our music director spent hundreds of hours trying to coach Ron to learn new music and to help him with his scores. I personally would hear Ron making up humorous music pieces—just messing around—instead of doing his job.

I am a professional and I have played for virtually every star act around. Ron never practiced his parts. When it came to live performances, he would just stop playing until it got to a place where he could play and would start again. This is just like having to lift a heavy load with someone else and in the middle of picking it up the other guy decides he doesn’t want to. He drops it, leaving the other guy to pull it off by himself. He had a problem with playing out of tune, which is a grave indicator of a poor player.

On performances, his microphone would be turned down or muted (turned off) so people could not hear it in the house.

Because Ron would refuse to practice playing his trumpet, his parts for live shows were eventually reduced by the orchestrator to something no one would notice if it was missing. On performances, his microphone would be turned down or muted (turned off) so people could not hear it in the house. Also, as the only accomplished and lead trumpet player, I did all the trumpet recording in the studio and had to also play Ron’s parts. Then Ron would complain about me taking away his job. He did record about 12 times from 2000-2012, or about once a year. Every one of those parts had to be combed through by the recordist to get something usable. Several times I had to go in and re-record those solos.

I also have many experiences with Ron being belligerent as a musician. At a rehearsal for a show I told Ron that he had missed a trumpet part when we were rehearsing. Ron said aloud for the whole band to hear, “You are trying to undermine me.” I responded, “No, you just aren’t playing your part.” Many times in the middle of songs (on show performances) Ron stopped playing even though there were trumpet parts he was supposed to be playing. When I asked Ron why he stopped playing, he said the parts were too difficult and he couldn’t play them. One time I said that’s why he needed to practice and asked him if he just came along on the trip for a free ride. At this point, Ron blew up at me, jumped off the stage and complained about me to the Music Manager, like a little kid. I never got in trouble because everyone knew the situation.

Every time we played shows around the globe, the band normally got the next day off. The perks were fantastic. I recall a time when we had a large catamaran rented for the band. We snorkeled and had cookouts prepared for us at a private beach. We went to the movies, had nights off in London at great restaurants… you name it.

And yet he is stating the opposite? I have pictures to prove it.

There are ways to evaluate people and know what their character is like and whether they are upstanding, honest individuals or a person like Ron. Ron had all the characteristics of someone utterly degraded. For instance, most of the time after a meal, Ron had food on his clothes and on his face. He smelled. He asked me to help him move to a new apartment once. I was shocked that his belongings were absolutely filthy and unkempt. There was not a piece of space anywhere free of junk. There was no space on top of a dresser, things hanging around the room, towels hanging over other towels, dust everywhere including the tub. I pulled the sheets off his bed and could see the dust fly.

Ron was here and worked with us since 1985. He could have left at any time in the 27 years he was here. Yet he didn’t. Instead he is a con man and a coward. He left without saying goodbye or anything.

Ron was here and worked with us since 1985.  He could have left at any time in the 27 years he was here. Yet he didn’t. Instead he is a con man and a coward. He left without saying goodbye or anything. Not a word from him, no communication at all, though he pretended that he was working with a Scientology organization for all that time. And now he says he “escaped.” He could have walked any time and not wasted all of our time trying to help him and having to listen to all his stupid stories over and over and over again. We traveled all over the world. We spent a lot of time together. I laugh out loud at the thought that he is saying he was trapped. Give me a break.

Carl Leach
Lead Trumpet