Kylie Olsson caught up with Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French, who discussed how the band made it, his life growing up, drugs, and why he stuck with music after all the rejections.
French on becoming a professional musician:
"The truth is... you know when they tell little girls at Disneyland that when you get married to your prince, it's happily ever after? You know, that bullshit they just give you when you're young. It's the same bullshit in the music business. It's like, it ain't happily ever after, motherfucker. The price I paid for that shit, I don't even know if it's worth it. The music business is a fucking horrible business, and you have to have a certain ability to withstand the bullshit of this business in order to succeed in it. It's not just that you want to be a 'rock star'. Fuck that, you know? If that's all that it was supposed to be... it was never that.
"So if one day I said, 'Oh, I want to become famous and a rock star!' And then someone said, 'No man, to go there, you're going to be exposed to more crap than you could possibly imagine; meet more fucked up people than you can possibly imagine; hear more lies than you could possibly imagine; deal with more rip-offs than you could possibly imagine; deal with mob guys, be threatened... all the stuff that has nothing to do with playing guitar in a band.' If it was just playing guitar in a band, that would be one thing, but man, all of this is because of way bigger things, and the price one pays is huge."
On January 26th, Twisted Sister were inducted into the 2023 Metal Hall Of Fame at the 6th Annual Metal Hall Of Fame Charity Gala, at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA.
The surviving members of Twisted Sister - Dee Snider (vocals), Jay Jay French (guitar), Eddie Ojeda (guitar) and Mark Mendoza (bass) - performed together for the first time since 2016 at the event. The band performed "You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll", "Under The Blade" and "We're Not Gonna Take It". On drums was Mike Portnoy.
Video footage of Twisted Sister's performance (courtesy of Michael Brandvold, and YouTube channel Fortheloveofrock) can be viewed below:
Below are the acceptance speeches from Dee Snider, Mark “The Animal” Mendoza, Jay Jay French, and the daughters of AJ Pero and Eddie Ojeda.
Dee Snider
Mark “The Animal” Mendoza
Jay Jay French
Daughters of AJ Pero and Eddie Ojeda
