“The only creativity Ron has displayed throughout his life is finding new and inventive ways to con people,” says 45-year professional musician.

Peter Schless is an award-winning songwriter and has been a professional musician for over 45 years. And of those 45 years, over 20 were spent with Ron Miscavige day in, day out.

Peter says knowing Ron as he does, he knows that everything he does and says is running a con job on whoever he is speaking with. Ron actually tipped Peter off to his method as a con man “getting by in life”-mentality when Peter first met Ron in the mid ’80s.

Ron told Peter that when he joined the Marines as a young man, after basic training he figured a way to get out of work by rubbing shoulders with officers (top brass on the base) offering to play at their weddings, outings, picnics, etc. for free. He said he was essentially buying “leverage” to use at a later time—“perks for perks” as he called it. And he used it. He was given a cushy job, had full run of the canteen and never had to do kitchen duty. In other words, he never had to work to serve his country while in the military. To him, it was a con game he built around leverage and perks and Ron bragged about it to Peter on many occasions. While this is, in itself, not considered a crime, it does show how Ron used people to his own advantage instead of having to work for a living.

Ron used people to his own advantage instead of having to work for a living.

Peter said that Ron carried on the same method of life in the religious order, trying to get by with everything but what his job was supposed to entail: being a musician and writing usable music. And Peter said the pathetic part of this is that Ron Miscavige was the weakest musician he ever worked with because Ron never worked to be a professional. Peter said that Ron wouldn’t work at it, study, listen or learn—Ron Miscavige was simply too lazy to practice, a complete dilettante, definitely way out of his league at Golden Era. All the while he strutted around and bragged about the failed two-bit recording contract he was supposedly offered 40 years prior, under his “stage name” Ron Savage.

Peter said that Ron was lucky to be part of the Golden Era music team in what is arguably the finest music production facility in the world and in a completely distraction-free environment. Peter takes huge offense to Ron’s statements about working at Golden Era Productions. According to Peter, Ron’s words are unbelievable. Ron had a great setup. Being such a poor musician, Ron’s actual modus operandi was to be entirely parasitic on others since he could musically produce virtually nothing of worth on his own.

Ron Miscavige was simply too lazy to practice, a complete dilettante, definitely way out of his league at Golden Era.

Peter said that to get by in life, Ron used the fact that he was Mr. Miscavige’s “Dad” to attempt to get favorable attention and treatment from other staff members (while if his son knew about his father’s behavior, he would have been appalled to hear of any kind of nepotism whatsoever) and to get away with whatever he could.

Ron also latched on to Peter as he did to the officers in the Marine Corps—his free ticket to live a life of laziness over the 20 years he resided in Peter’s work area. Peter and the others in the music department did the work while Ron had it worked out not to have to raise a finger to produce anything. And by actual statistic, he didn’t.

Unfortunately for Ron, there was no position in the Church of “First Dad” and when asked to produce a piece of music or write a song (his job), it became the “emperor had no clothes” scenario. His con man game fell to pieces, because you can’t con a good piece of music into existence. So Ron would regularly turn out trash and hide behind others who were producing.

Ron would regularly turn out trash and hide behind others who were producing.

It’s clear to Peter that the only creativity Ron has displayed throughout his life is finding new and inventive ways to con people or get others to do things for him and then say he did it. To prove the point, Peter said that in 1998 their department produced an album of songs called State of Mind. Ron, the “composer,” wrote exactly nothing on that album. Not one song, not one note. Then two years later, another album. Again, Ron did nothing but make distracting phone calls next to the other musicians while they produced a really stellar album for Scientology public. And for a third album, in 2001, he managed to write two songs, both of them so cornball and pedestrian, so laughable, they had to be rewritten by others.

Peter said he was convinced that Ron’s inability to get anything done was due to his laziness and refusal to ever do any homework on the subject he was supposed to be composing for, another facet of his unprofessionalism. And this was in the face of having a music library at his disposal comprised of literally thousands of CDs that he was too lazy to walk the 10 feet to use, and a music librarian always ready to fetch whatever he needed.

So what was Ron doing? Peter says Ron spent most of his time hanging out, fuddling around, bothering other staff members, complaining about this and that and taking trips to the kitchen to cook polish sausage or pizzelles for his son—the one he is so viciously attacking presently.

Ron spent most of his time hanging out, fuddling around, bothering other staff members, complaining about this and that and taking trips to the kitchen to cook polish sausage or pizzelles for his son—the one he is so viciously attacking presently.

And sure, Ron would talk to his son occasionally. Obviously, Mr. Miscavige cared a great deal for Ron, never forgetting his birthday, talking to him about how Ron’s ex-wife Loretta was doing, and that sort of thing. “Family matters” was what Ron told Peter his conversations with his son were about, and Eagles games (being from Philadelphia) and so forth. And Ron would then promote his own pumped-up importance about being “Dad” without having any idea or concept of what kind of work his son was handling as the leader of the religion.

So where did he get all of his supposed knowledge of the workings of the Church of Scientology? Did it float down the hill and come to him by holy osmosis? It certainly wasn’t by actually talking to anyone. Peter Schless called him a third-rate trumpet player who wrote bad songs nobody wanted to listen to. The truth of the matter is, Ron Miscavige Sr. spent his time doing nothing of consequence except the occasional exuding of flatulence (which was, in Peter’s view, the only contribution he could manage during his tenure in the music department)—that was before he drove off without having the courtesy to let anyone know he was leaving.

Peter describes Ron Miscavige as a lazy musical dilettante and a bullshit artist on top of it.

In summary, Peter Schless describes Ron Miscavige as a lazy musical dilettante and a bullshit artist on top of it. Really bad combination. Schless said, “At least Liberace could play the piano, and I’m sure he never tried to sell out his own family.”