I am aware of fraudulent claims made by Ron Miscavige Sr. regarding his tenure as a Scientology staff member. You should know that placing your faith in this individual is a great risk. He says what he says to manipulate people for his own ends, nothing more. I say this from long personal experience. He now writes a “book” for those same purposes, and from what I have seen of it, this has plummeted him to rock bottom and the most appalling of lies and filth, not even fit for a tabloid. The matter of its authenticity is easily settled: If his “book” contained a trace of truth, it could only be a compendium of “band stories” covering his life as a Church musician. Since it is not band stories and details of all the other musicians—people like me—it is nothing but the fictional machinations of a demented old man.
Myself and other musicians were his friends for decades and we earnestly tried to help him despite his coarse nature. We tried to get him to practice, to learn music, to become a credit to himself and the band. He never did. The end result? He turned on us without warning and ran for the hills (as if he had to run—what a joke) and now he writes nasty lies about our Church (and about his own son). The only card he had left to play was a scandalous betrayal against everything he had supposedly valued (all, of course, for a profit).
Unfortunately for all of us, Ron Miscavige is an excellent con man, the very best. He can appear oh so convincing, quite likable. Any publisher or professional will eventually recognize the slothful cover-up artist he actually is.
That he had been planning this for years behind our backs says it all. Decent people just do not do things like that. So if you think that after flying the coop, Ron Miscavige has perhaps now “escaped” all his “tormenters” or has “come to his senses” and is suddenly “letting the truth be known,” think again. It is all the same ongoing agenda.
Unfortunately for all of us, Ron Miscavige is an excellent con man, the very best. He can appear oh so convincing, quite likable. Any publisher or professional will eventually recognize the slothful cover-up artist he actually is. But it may not be soon enough, so for your benefit I offer the following.
Beginning in the mid 1980s, I worked with Ron Miscavige daily. I was head of the Church band at that time and he was in it. Being in a band with someone, you get to know them well, and Ron was the most crass, offensive individual I have known. Part of his personal philosophy is that “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” He always said that if you complain often enough and loud enough, you’ll get your way. This piece of wisdom hallmarked his self-serving career, and because he was conveniently unimpeded by scruples, he actually did in most cases get what he wanted. Normal people do sometimes holler or complain if they hear a harmful lie or see a friend shortchanged at the market, but Ron Miscavige hollered and complained simply because, no matter how nice his living arrangements, he just always had a problem with something. A perfect example is when we were in Paris for a concert. After our first night, Ron made a horrible row about how bad our hotel was and so got the whole band moved to another hotel called the Continental. After staying there for a night, we awoke to Ron screaming at the hotel staff for stealing one of his shoes. We were detained from leaving for rehearsal as he just knew they had stabbed him in the back and he wasn’t going to sit still for it. After finally calming him down, we found his shoe where he had put it, under his bed, and finally left for rehearsals.
As a note, please don’t mistake this letter for mere mudslinging or a grudge. My statements have been carefully documented. Ron’s shirking, his lies, his racial slurs and indecency, his pursuit of special favors, special foods, personal stewards, personal drivers, special exceptions from work, unearned bonuses and awards, special trips abroad and VIP treatment wherever he went—all of this is documented with exact time and place, and numerous witnesses who will gladly corroborate it. As just one further example of this, Ron claims that everything went to hell after the flood at our property in 1990. The facts are that after heavy rains at our Southern California studios, the property was in severe disarray with clogged storm drains, flooded buildings and blocked roadways. It was obvious that further natural disasters could ruin the place and completely interrupt Church operations unless decisive actions were taken to prepare both the property and the staff for emergencies.
At this critical juncture, Mr. David Miscavige intervened to restore the entire property, so that it would never happen again. This included a full-scale drainage system, silt basins and reinforcement of the nearby river levee, as well as complete planning of all production facilities and full training of the staff as experts at flood, earthquake and fire prevention. At the completion of the training program, he awarded the staff with a huge party. And subsequently, based on his planning, the property was built into one of the most valuable, functional and beautiful studio facilities in the world, safe from any natural disaster. Yes, the place truly was “never the same” after the flood. That is, it was never in danger, run-down, or flooded again, and went straight uphill in physical beauty, value and productivity ever afterward.
It was an unfortunate fact for staff like me that Ron Miscavige was the father of Mr. David Miscavige. In this regard, his son, David, is immensely respected, not just by us in the Church but by millions of people all over the world. We care about him a very great deal and we naturally think of his concerns first. So when Ron Miscavige came on staff, it wasn’t long before we recognized we had a problem: If Ron did not get his way as a staff member, he would probably embarrass his son through his bellyaching and “me-me-me” complaints. Worse still, we were afraid he would be able to severely distract his son from his work. Well, ultimately, unfortunately and somewhat unavoidably, we did give Ron special consideration and privileges. If Mr. David Miscavige had known this he would have put a stop to it at once. But he always imagined Ron was being treated like any other staff member. Staff life is quite good and he didn’t know Ron was getting special allowances. But meanwhile, myself and others worked to keep Ron in check, and we did this in large measure by giving in to his demands. It wasn’t because he was worth anything to us, it was because, with his lack of principles, he would happily pester his son with his selfish little problems and demands, or at least threaten to do so in order to get his way. So he had us over a barrel and he knew it, and he leveraged that position for all those years and decades. His seniors gave him days off, special reduced work hours (long before he was a senior citizen), top priority medical attention like you wouldn’t believe, special food, people waiting on him like a VIP wherever he went, and on and on. None of this would have been feasible for a decent, normal human being because they just would have felt too guilty to do it. But it didn’t trouble Ron.
Ron was a trumpet player. And by the way, trumpet was my first instrument so I know a bit about it. And I can say with certainty that Ron is at best a 3rd chair player. Yet unbelievably, in the 30 years he was here, he never improved one iota. I don’t know if he was satisfied with mediocrity or not, but I do know he was shiftless and would never practice, despite urgings, pleadings and good example. He just would not work at it, so he never got good. Notwithstanding his musical incompetence, he used his “father” status to work his way into being the “band spokesman” for live performances, the “front man.” He further tried to act like the “band leader” during performances by starting songs and “conducting” the endings. This was mostly ignored by the performers, most of whom were towering musical giants compared to Ron, but because he was the father of our leader, they tolerated him. To add to this, Ron was a crude person and had a base sense of humor so his stage patter led to some embarrassing situations. He humiliated performers and audiences into blushes and cringes more than once, and he offended major celebrities, people who were indeed musical legends. Ron was a thorn to the Golden Era Musicians and eventually had to be sworn to pre-scripted statements to reduce the damage.
As a composer, Ron probably could have learned to write music, but again, he just would not work at it. Although his job was composition and arranging (for decades), and although he loudly claimed to be hot stuff, the number of useful melodies or arrangements he actually produced in that time can be counted on one hand. His main modus operandi was to “work with” someone who was actually producing music. When an executive came around to check on music production he would jump up and report the status of the music as though he was “all over it.” In this way he received recognition and awards for work he did not do. This failed to bother him morally; in fact he felt he deserved it. In later years, he became an increasingly surly old curmudgeon, constantly finger-pointing about being wronged and shortchanged and frequently indulging in unrestrained hissy-fits, even at 70+ years of age. He bitterly accused other staff of “mistreating” him because of his father status, whereas for decades he had in actual fact been treated like a VIP for that very reason and no other.
A further lie claimed by Ron Miscavige is that he had some sort of special “inside knowledge” regarding the work of his son and his son’s strategic guidance of the Church. Really, this is a garden snail claiming to know the secrets of the cosmos. It is absolutely preposterous. Ron didn’t even know what his own unit was doing from day to day. He couldn’t even keep his own shirt clean. He couldn’t keep his shoes tied. You’ve just never met anyone as clueless as this blustery old man. Of course he thought he knew everything, but so does every janitor or street sweeper in the world. They all know exactly what’s wrong with the presidency and the whole damned country. But Ron Miscavige, no, he never attended a strategic meeting in his life. And his son never discussed business with him whatsoever, only family matters. I know, I was there several times in such settings, and it was all about family and personal matters. Mr. David Miscavige is a precise, honest and insightful leader. He does not blur the boundaries of work and family. So Ron Miscavige was never a part of his son’s high-level work. That is as certain as death and taxes.
Sadly, Ron Miscavige never recognized that Church staffs love their jobs, that they live for the humanitarian mission the Church pursues, that they love Mr. David Miscavige and want to help him achieve the Church’s aims.
In point of fact, this past decade has seen the establishment of Ideal Churches of Scientology throughout the world, a crusade envisioned by Mr. Miscavige and carried forward by the entire international Church congregation. This ongoing accomplishment, already bringing rise to some 50 magnificent new Churches, distinguishes the Scientology faith as one of the great movements in the history of religion and the fastest growing religious movement on the Earth today, possibly ever. This exalts our membership and brings glory to all in the Church, it extends our influence far beyond our doors and greatly opens our horizons. Even Ron Miscavige, while still here, could regularly be heard praising the magnificence of this endeavor and the brilliance of his son in bringing it into existence.
Well, the fact is that the greatest glory Ron Miscavige can envision is getting something for nothing. Sad but true. He’s doing the same thing all over again with this book. He conned people for everything he could get and he claimed he was being “oppressed” the whole time, getting louder and louder until he finally “fled” his “tormenters.” And he apparently thought that everyone else had a sick grudge like his. Fortunately, that is not true. In fact it is the most blatant fraud. Personally, I am deeply proud of and committed to the Scientology movement and nothing could deter me from that course. That is true of all the staff I work with, and they would all find Ron’s lies abhorrent and detestable. I do not believe any person of goodwill would support one of these supposed “apostates” whose sordid game is to rip off the Church from within, and when they can’t get any more from it, then they leave and claim how “horrible” it is so they can con an easy buck from a publisher or network.
Well, the fact is that the greatest glory Ron Miscavige can envision is getting something for nothing. Sad but true.
The benefits of Scientology, internationally, in every major cultural and societal concern of this world, are overwhelming and irrefutable. The beneficence of Mr. David Miscavige is unimpeachable. It is easily measured in the betterment of conditions, the factual salvage of tens of thousands of lives across this world from disasters, the successful reform of thousands of criminals, the rehabilitation of untold thousands of drug addicts and the explosive growth and nurturing of a Church that daily does this and much more, and all this does not even mention Mr. Miscavige making the technology of L. Ron Hubbard available in a pure and unaltered form, which in the final analysis makes all this help possible far into the future.
In just the last several months, I have had the opportunity to see video footage of Scientology activities in all our U.S., Canadian, South and Central American Churches, our European and Eastern European Churches, our Australian and South African Churches, our Middle Eastern and Asian Churches, Scientology activities in the depths of the Amazon basin, in Fiji, Tonga, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Palestine, the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, the Gambia, Ghana, and practically every other corner of human existence on this planet. The immeasurable thousands in these videos tell a story of global, unqualified help and spectacular growth. It is a story of turning the tides on this planet toward a better future. This is in truth one of the great hopes of this world, yet to Ron Miscavige, it is just a sham, a cheap trick. Perhaps a blackened heart like his can only find solace in the destruction of Man’s fondest dreams.
So when considering Ron Miscavige, particularly when considering him as an associate, please be sure to ask these questions: What kind of person would hate and revile at such a humanitarian movement and its leader? What kind of person would disown his own flesh and blood, or for that matter, what kind of parent would sell his own son or daughter for a few lousy bucks?
All that said, there is still one more point. Although Ron Miscavige whined and conned his way to a free ride, don’t think he complained about his son or Mr. Hubbard or Scientology while he was here. Oh no. Not even close. In these things he was an ardent proponent and promoter. He was always bragging (quite rightfully) about how great his son is, about how great are his son’s accomplishments and about how proud he is to be his father. And I certainly concur. I would be proud as hell. Ron would also frequently talk about how amazing were his wins from Scientology counseling. He would talk about the profound discoveries of Mr. Hubbard and express his continual amazement at how perfect and unerring are Mr. Hubbard’s technologies. So if he is demeaning or denouncing these things now, he is a liar of the lowest order. He hasn’t “seen the light,” he has simply seen another handout.
I can say with sincerity that, personally, it is a relief to be freed from this loud, greedy man. But it would be tragic if he were allowed to continue his damaging rip-offs any further. So please do not support this harmful individual in any way.
Best regards,
Rick Cruzen
Composer, Musician, Engineer
