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00:00Well, as I live and breathe right in front of my eyes, one of my childhood idols, J.J. French
00:06is on the show today.
00:08My posters from my albums to seeing you at great venues in Detroit like Harpo's Concert Theater, Pine Knob, the
00:18Royal Oak Music Theater, the fabulous Fox Theater, J.J. French, Twisted Sister.
00:24It is indeed a huge honor to finally, finally meet you after all these years.
00:30Well, thank you. I didn't know whether I could come on as both Sebastian Bach or me because I do
00:34the best Sebastian Bach invitation.
00:36In fact, I did a radio interview yesterday in which they thought it was Sebastian.
00:40Really?
00:41Yeah, yeah. I went, hey, man, what's going on? Hey, yeah, yeah, J.J.'s in the bathroom right now, but
00:44I'm doing the interview right now for him.
00:46So, you know, just tell them what you want to know.
00:49Well, I've always done it, too. Some people think it's really great and stuff.
00:54When you're making a record, you just do a shot of Jack and do a track. It just doesn't work
00:59that way.
01:00How's that?
01:01Oh, God, we have a dueling box right now, don't we?
01:04You know, so you were at Harpo's, right? You were at Harpo's?
01:07Correct.
01:07Oh, my God. You know what I remember? Can I tell you what I remember about that gig?
01:12Sure.
01:12So it was in a really bad area of Detroit.
01:16And, you know, I come from Manhattan, and there's a lot of bad areas in Manhattan.
01:20So when people said to me, don't go outside, it's a bad area, I'm like, you don't know what you're
01:24talking about, man.
01:25I'm from Manhattan. Like, you know, don't talk to me about bad areas.
01:29So I went out to get a slice of pizza, and I went across the street, and for the first
01:34time in my life, I saw a completely bulletproof pizza parlor.
01:39And I mean, the whole pizza parlor was lined with bulletproof glass.
01:44I walked in, and I said, can I get a slice? And the guy had a bulletproof, it was like
01:49going to a bank.
01:50Like, you know where they put the things down, and then they put the thing in, and then they closed
01:54the thing down.
01:55And it was a bulletproof pizza parlor. I went, man, that's a rough neighborhood.
01:59Like the intro to, I would say, the Get Smart. Remember the Get Smart TV show?
02:06Yeah.
02:08Anyway, Harpo was a great gig. I loved that. I did love the vibe. Is it still there?
02:15It's still there. My friend owns it, and maybe you should come back there. That would be a hell of
02:21an anniversary show.
02:22Well, who knows? But you've certainly been to a lot of gigs, though.
02:25Certainly been to a lot of TS gigs.
02:27Big, big.
02:27Very impressive. I've been to all of them.
02:30That's true.
02:31We'll have a 15th anniversary tour underway, Caesars-Windsor.
02:35Get your tickets now for October 10th.
02:41Have you stepped back and said, holy, holy fudge?
02:45It's been 50 years. 50 years, it's just, boom, flown by.
02:50Yeah. Lately, because everybody brings that up, by the way, and being my age, I'm 74, so that's why the
03:05tour is called unofficially Sex Prescription Drugs and Rock and Roll.
03:10And, you know, as long as my attitude is, as long as there's ibuprofen, I can rock.
03:15There you go.
03:15So, you know, only in that there's no way that, in 1973, if you look at the class of 73,
03:24you have ACDC, Kiss, Priest, Motorhead.
03:30Sweet.
03:30Yeah, twisted, obviously.
03:34And now, if you would have asked any of us in 73 how long you think our careers would last,
03:41you would have gotten a laugh, you know, chuckle.
03:45We would have said five years.
03:48The Beatles, I believe, at that point was 10 from 60 to 70, so maybe we would say 10 on
03:53the outside.
03:55Nobody could have predicted that here we would be in 19, you know, in 2026 discussing it.
04:02Also, there was an article in a British rock magazine, the 25 bands touring this year that toured 40 years
04:09ago.
04:11And it was, you know, Iron Maiden and Rush and, you know, on and on and on and on and
04:15on.
04:15So it's an extraordinary achievement.
04:19It really is.
04:20Just over the summer, I got the proud pleasure of seeing Fogat tour.
04:25And it was just like, wow, what's this going to be like?
04:28And it was simply amazing.
04:30Was it, you know, I saw, well, I saw, you know, Savoy Brown actually precedes Foghat actually at the Fillmore.
04:38But, you know, the band, we used to cover Fool for the City.
04:41Oh, really?
04:42Back, yeah.
04:43I mean, among the many things Twisted Sister did as a cover band because we were basically a cover band
04:48for many years.
04:50And we covered, the most covered band was Priest.
04:54We did seven Priest songs.
04:55We did, I think, four ACDC songs.
04:58But we did Fool for the City, as a matter of fact.
05:01So that was, you can't, I can't use profanity on this, on this, right?
05:05You can, if you want.
05:06If it does slip out, we'll just beep it out.
05:10Well, the band had, the band was living in a band house in 1976.
05:13We had a house, and we had a pool.
05:16And so we were singing The Pool's Looking Shitty.
05:18That was the chorus as we were singing that song.
05:24Anyway, yeah, so there's a lot of great bands out there.
05:27Then the question is, how many of these bands are in their original lineup?
05:30And the answer is none.
05:31The answer is none.
05:32I mean, the fact is, age takes its toll.
05:34And if you look at it now, I mean, ZZ Top is down to one Z at this point.
05:41And he's still going.
05:42He's still going.
05:44You know, Foreigner's got nobody.
05:46Skinner's got really nobody.
05:48Priest has got one or two.
05:50ACDC's got really one, if you just think Angus, because Brian replaced, you know, Bond.
05:55So, you know, if you think about the legacies and why it continues, the question is, why does it continue?
06:01And the answer to that question is actually the most interesting, which is, what's more important?
06:08Is it the original lineup or the brand and the music?
06:13Apparently, the brand and the music, because it's outlived Journey and all, you know, and all the bands that are
06:19out there performing, you know, Queen, for example, and now Twisted Sister.
06:23So, if you give your fans a great product, you live up to the brand's ideal and goals, then you
06:34win.
06:34And if you don't, you don't win.
06:36It's really that simple.
06:37The audience tells you whether it works or it doesn't work.
06:42And right now, apparently, the audience is told Queen, yes, it works.
06:46Journey, yes, it works.
06:48Priest, yes, it works.
06:49And so on and so on and so on and so on and so on.
06:52And the day they tell you it doesn't is the day you don't do it anymore.
06:56So now with Sebastian, I've watched the videos and it's just like, it's incredible.
07:03It's a whole new way of listening to Twisted Sister music.
07:06It really brings up some level.
07:09It's amazing when you think about it.
07:11Queen was replaced.
07:13Freddie Mercury was replaced by a guy from American Idol.
07:16And Steve Perry was replaced by a guy from YouTube.
07:20But we get a legitimate superstar.
07:23Yes.
07:23You know, like we didn't go to YouTube.
07:25We didn't go to American Idol.
07:28And I'm sure, by the way, that if we did, we'd find plenty of Dee Snider imitators out.
07:33Right.
07:33I bet you would.
07:34But Sebastian was just the perfect choice.
07:37And he's brought a whole new energy.
07:40And I'm having a blast on stage, man.
07:43I mean, a year ago, Dee called me and Eddie and said, let's do a 50th anniversary.
07:49And I said, no way, man.
07:51I'm happily retired.
07:52You know, I do a lot of other things.
07:55Right.
07:55And this isn't, you know, one of the, what I do, I have a book and I do business conferences.
08:00I do motivational speaking and I write for magazines and I'm a high-end audio kind of guy and whatnot.
08:07And I've written for Goldmine as a Beatle columnist and all this.
08:10And I'm having fun doing it.
08:11But he got me and Eddie to do it.
08:14And then we booked this whole tour, a huge tour headlining the biggest shows in Europe.
08:22And then no sooner does he convince us to do it than he undoes it.
08:29Yeah.
08:31Much to our shock.
08:32I mean, our shock.
08:33I mean, that Zoom call in December.
08:36Yeah.
08:36And Eddie really like, whoa.
08:38So, like, what, first of all, let me just address the health issues.
08:43You got health issues.
08:44Well, nobody wants to put you in jeopardy.
08:46Right.
08:46So, when people say to me, how do you feel about it?
08:48What am I supposed to say?
08:49How do I feel about it?
08:50I can't do it.
08:51If his doctors are telling him, don't do it.
08:54If his family's saying to him, please don't do it.
08:56You're putting yourself at health at risk.
08:58Then, well, then you don't do it.
09:01Right.
09:02It's that simple.
09:03So, I understood.
09:05First, I said, you know, are you going to, are you okay?
09:08I mean, because there was all these talks on how sick is he?
09:11He's not end of life ill.
09:13He's just end of career ill.
09:15You know, like retired ballplayers or football players or whatever.
09:20You know, he just couldn't perform the way he wants to perform,
09:22the way he believes that the fans want him to perform.
09:26So, he respectfully resigned.
09:28And we said, okay.
09:29And that conversation was dormant.
09:32And then Eddie and I had dinner.
09:35And he said, well, if we did, who would we get?
09:37And we kind of like knew the answer to that.
09:39You know, we kind of knew it.
09:41Dude, we knew it.
09:42Like, we just knew it, man.
09:44I mean, there was like no question, really.
09:46It was like no question.
09:48So, I called Sebastian.
09:50And I said, I said, Sebastian, hey, man, what's going on?
09:54You know?
09:54And I went, oh, you know, like, yeah, man.
09:57I heard like D isn't doing so good, man.
09:58It's terrible.
09:59You know?
09:59So, what's up, dude?
10:01And I said, well, what would you kind of say if I suggested maybe you come in
10:07and, you know, possibly replace D?
10:09And he goes, dude, are you saying me?
10:11We play as D Snyder?
10:12Oh, my God.
10:12That's like Christmas freaking morning, man.
10:14I'm messing with number one, two, three, four, five.
10:16We're not going to take it.
10:16I want to rock.
10:17Under the Blade.
10:18Destroy.
10:18He starts naming all these songs.
10:20Wow.
10:20And he's going.
10:21And he goes, dude, this is Christmas morning.
10:22And I said, is that a yes?
10:26So, you know, so basically, you know, that Sebastian has a band and he tours
10:31with his own projects.
10:32And so we kind of had to work around his schedule, you know?
10:39But I said to him, would you come to New York and just play a set with me?
10:42I want to hear what it's like.
10:45This wasn't necessarily for Sebastian's sake as much as it was for me,
10:50because I haven't really played guitar for 10 years.
10:52You know, I'd be pretty much off stage and I didn't know what it was like
10:55to have a guitar on my shoulder, you know, for like an hour and a half.
10:57So he flew in on the coldest, the coldest day of the year.
11:01Now, of course, for Canada, let me, let me just say for Canada,
11:05two degrees is summer.
11:06Okay.
11:07In New York, it's cold.
11:08In Winnipeg, it's basically summer.
11:11Okay.
11:12Because I spent the coldest day of my life in Winnipeg, 40 below zero.
11:17And I have to say something about 40 below zero.
11:19There are no drug dealers on the street at 40 below zero.
11:22Okay.
11:23And if there are, they should be working for somebody because they've got a hell
11:27of an initiative to get out there and do it.
11:29But anyway, he came in in New York.
11:31It was two degrees.
11:32His flight from Vegas was canceled.
11:35He took the middle seat coach on a plane.
11:37He's big, you know, he's 6'4".
11:40That's how bad he wanted to do it.
11:41And he came in and he just nailed it.
11:43And he's been great.
11:44Now, one question, being all the years that you've rocked, before this with
11:50Sebastian Bach, have you ever had run-ins with Sebastian before or met him
11:54in person before?
11:56Well, we played with him a bunch of times.
11:58First of all, if you want to hear Sebastian sing with Twisted Sister,
12:03Twisted Sister backed Sebastian Bach 20 years ago on a tribute record.
12:07Wow.
12:08Which was a Twisted Tribute album in which Sebastian wanted to do Can't Stop Rock
12:13and Roll.
12:13And instead of just taking an old track and wiping Dee's vocal and sending it to
12:17Sebastian, the band went in the studio.
12:20We recorded with Sebastian.
12:22So, yes, we have precedent with Sebastian.
12:23That's number one.
12:24Number two, we've known each other for years and years and years.
12:27We've crossed paths at parties, et cetera, et cetera.
12:29Number three, we appeared at the Jason Flom.
12:34Jason Flom is the A&R guy that was involved with Twisted Sister and involved with
12:37Skid Row and involved with Kid Rock, and he signed Matt and Friends of the Blue Man Group.
12:43He was being honored in New York City in 2000, and there was a surprise gig at a restaurant
12:50in New York City called Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
12:53And we showed up, Twisted showed up unceremoniously, unbeknownst to anybody in the...
12:58And then, remind you, this was a restaurant.
13:01This was truly a restaurant.
13:03And Twisted Sister had not been together since 1986 with AJ.
13:07And here we were to do a special one-off for Jason, having not played together since 1986.
13:13And we were a couch huddled behind a kitchen stove in the restaurant, having a conversation
13:19as to what songs we're going to play.
13:21And we run out on stage, and we played.
13:23And then, of course, at the end of that three songs, we did I Want to Rock, and out came
13:28Sebastian and Kid Rock and the Blue Man Group and all the other artists, Matchbox 20,
13:34Sugar Ray.
13:34Everybody was there.
13:35So we...
13:36Then...
13:36And then, of course, being the 25th anniversary of 9-11 this year, Eddie Trunk sponsored a
13:47benefit concert for the New York City Police and Fire Department at the Hammerstein Ballroom
13:55in response to the fact that the big concert, The Garden, they wanted no metal bands because
14:01they thought we were too aggressive.
14:02And yet, no one was more metal than Twisted Sister.
14:04And nobody was more New York than Twisted Sister.
14:07Because I was born in Manhattan.
14:09Eddie was born in the Bronx.
14:10AJ was born in Staten Island.
14:12And D.N. Mark were born in Queens.
14:13Nothing says more than New York City than we do.
14:16And they didn't want us.
14:18They didn't want us.
14:19So Eddie Trunk said, what if you guys headline, and I get Sebastian Bach and Ace Frehley and
14:26Overkill and Anthrax.
14:27And we all played.
14:29And we raised $100,000 to the New York City Police, Fire Department, and Emergency Services
14:33workers.
14:33So, yes, we have a long, long history with Sebastian.
14:37Well, here's one for you.
14:39But back to your outfits that you had back in the day, of course, there was you, Dee,
14:45Eddie, Mark, and AJ.
14:47Who had the best costume?
14:48Who do you think had the best costume?
14:50Because I've got something to tell you.
14:52Well, I mean, obviously, you know, Dee has an amazing sense of humor, really an extraordinary
14:59sense of humor.
14:59And he says that, and I used to announce him on stage, saying, ladies and gentlemen, please
15:03welcome our lead singer, Dee Snider, who looks like Sarah Jessica Parker, Dick and
15:08Bassett.
15:08Okay.
15:11Oh, that's classic.
15:12You know, and when I said that, Sebastian said to me, dude, and you traded that in for
15:16a guy who looks like Angelina Jolie.
15:18So what do you think about that?
15:20And so Dee's, you know, obviously, his costume was the most imitated, for sure.
15:26Yeah.
15:27So Halloween comes, you dress your kid as Dee Snider, and go out and scare the neighborhood.
15:31It scared the bejesus out of me.
15:33So I went as you for Halloween one year.
15:35I, of course, you know, it was hard to find the complete outfit.
15:39So I was a complete mess, because here in Michigan, it would usually always snow or rain
15:45on Halloween.
15:46But I tried.
15:47So I wish I would have brought the picture.
15:49Yeah, you would have.
15:50Can I ask you a question?
15:50Did you have yellow boots as well?
15:53I spray painted them.
15:55Oh, did you really?
15:56Yes.
15:56Oh, you're my man.
15:57All right.
15:58Okay.
15:58I love that.
15:59Well, the MTV era, of course, was huge for you and the band.
16:04Do you remember some of the outrageous contests that MTV did, like the Twisted Invasion contest?
16:11Yeah.
16:11You know, there's been a lot of weird contests with Twisted Sister having to do with many
16:15things, not just including that.
16:17I mean, we once had a contest back in 1973, in which a groupie could win the band member
16:23of her choice and take her to a hotel.
16:25This is true.
16:26Really?
16:27This is absolutely true.
16:28And amongst the more humiliating things that's ever happened to the band is we played on a
16:32double bill with a chimpanzee named Mr. Jiggs.
16:35And Mr. Jiggs was a chimpanzee whose whole gimmick was he could light cigarettes and mix
16:42drinks for women.
16:43And we played in a bar called Dodds and I always thought that was the most humiliating
16:48gig we ever played with being on a co-bill with this chimp.
16:52But frankly, many years later, I ran into John Sherr, the famous promoter and Grateful Dead
16:58manager, and he promoted the Capitol Theater in Passaic.
17:01And I said to him, you know, that was really embarrassing having Mr. Jiggs playing with Mr.
17:05Jiggs.
17:05He goes, I used to book Mr. Jiggs at the Capitol Theater.
17:07In fact, I had him on a gig with, he said, I had him on a gig with Fleetwood Mac.
17:11And I said, you had Mr. Jiggs on a gig with Fleetwood Mac?
17:14He goes, yeah.
17:14I said, well, who headlined?
17:15He said, well, Fleetwood Mac did, of course.
17:17And I said, yeah, well, Jiggs headlined over us the day that we played with him.
17:21Anyway.
17:22It's like Spinal Tap.
17:23It's like the band in Puppet Show.
17:25We are Spinal Tap.
17:26Look, we've had nine drummers.
17:28Seven of them are dead.
17:29They all spontaneously combusted.
17:31It's a dangerous gig to be a drummer in Twisted Sister.
17:33I always caution any drummer that comes in.
17:35It's a very dangerous job.
17:38Anyway, yes, the MTV promotion was huge.
17:42It was huge.
17:42They flew 100 fans over to the UK.
17:44And, you know, I mean, that era, the video era was crazy.
17:49Yeah.
17:50And I mean, there was like, there's three, up until now, there were three distinct eras of
17:54the band.
17:54There was the bar era, the clubs for 10 years.
17:57There was the video era, you know, the album video era.
18:00And then there was the festival era that occurred from 2003 to 2016, which we headlined 125 of
18:07the world's largest festivals, including festivals in Canada.
18:10Yeah.
18:11And what people need to understand about Canada is that per capita, it's the number one record
18:15selling country for Twisted Sister.
18:18Wow.
18:18And we have to thank Much Music for that.
18:23Because Much Music and Canadian law prevents many artists from getting played in the country.
18:31Like, they keep it for Canadian artists, which is admirable.
18:34That's fine.
18:35If you get into that world, then they promote the hell out of you.
18:38If you don't get into it, you lose.
18:40They loved us.
18:41They loved our videos.
18:42And so they promoted us like crazy.
18:44And we were all over Canada.
18:45So the Detroit, the Canadian border and that whole area there, you know, if you look at
18:51the whole Canadian, the population of Canada, which is within 100 miles of the U.S. border,
18:57there's a lot of crossover there.
18:59And we got a ton of promotion, obviously, in the U.S. and a ton of promotion in Canada,
19:03which is why we're excited to play in Windsor.
19:05We don't play Canada enough.
19:07You know, we did a huge tour with Iron Maiden in 1984.
19:09And our records, to give you a perspective of how many records we've sold in Canada,
19:13when you sell an album in the United States, the key is that you sell 10% of what you
19:18sell
19:18in the U.S. in Canada.
19:19So if you sell a million records in the U.S., you sell 100,000 in Canada.
19:23That's how the statistics work.
19:24Well, when Stay Hungry hit 2 million in the U.S., we were 600,000 in Canada.
19:29Okay.
19:30That explains the extraordinary acceptance and why everybody and their mother knows Twisted Sister.
19:35And if they don't know it, they know we're not going to take it.
19:37They know I want to rock.
19:37So Canada has been extremely important to the band.
19:41And we don't play it enough.
19:42You know, we've been back to Metal Montreal, which was fun.
19:45We played with Scorpions.
19:46That was gigantic in Quebec.
19:48In fact, they headlined over us, and yet we got the cover of the newspaper.
19:53The next day, it was a kid dressed as D.
19:56It was a scary cover.
19:58And it said, Twisted Sister with Scorpions,
20:03and little letters underneath it, which must have upset Scorpions,
20:06since they headlined.
20:08But it's been, they've been extraordinary for us.
20:11So we look forward to coming back up there and play.
20:13I mean, look, we're playing Niagara Falls.
20:15We're excited about doing the casino in Niagara Falls.
20:17And we're excited and playing up in Windsor.
20:21On the tour.
20:22Canada was very important for all of us here in Detroit,
20:25because us kids, the drinking law was lower.
20:28It was 19 for us to go to Canada, to go to the bars and hang out,
20:34and then come back over.
20:35And, you know, that was back when drinking and driving was a challenge.
20:39Now it's against the law, unfortunately.
20:41Yeah, well, you know, if I had a dollar for every kid who comes up to me and goes,
20:44man, I don't know how I made it home last night.
20:46And I'm thinking, oh, God, I'm glad I didn't run into you on the highway.
20:49But don't forget, the drinking age was 18 in New York and 21 in Jersey.
20:55And can you imagine the bars that were on the border of Jersey and New York?
21:01What time did the bars close there?
21:02Well, back in those days, the bars closed at 4 a.m.
21:05And some of the Jersey bars never closed.
21:08I mean, we played a bar called Dunes Till Dawn in Atlantic City,
21:11and we got off stage at 5.40 in the morning.
21:15That was 5.40.
21:16And the club, the doors opened.
21:18It was in the summertime.
21:19So when the doors opened, the dregs of humanity that remained at the club at 5.40
21:25were picked up and thrown onto a lawn outside the club,
21:30at which point the guys stumbled, got up, and walked to another bar.
21:33That was open until 10 a.m.
21:35So drinking age was crazy.
21:38Of course, now everything is 21, and hopefully people are saner.
21:42And thank God for Uber, frankly.
21:44And don't drink and drive.
21:45Let me be the big warning here.
21:47Do not do that.
21:48Do not put anybody at risk of that.
21:50You want to party, have somebody who's your designated driver.
21:52But in the bars that we played in, well, not only, by the way, did they drink crazy,
21:57they smoked cigarettes like crazy.
21:59I don't know how many.
22:00I don't smoke, but can you just imagine how much tobacco we inhaled in the bars?
22:04Former smoker.
22:07A couple questions from some listeners that wanted to chime in.
22:11One from Joe from St. Clair.
22:13He's a cancer survivor, and I know you are also.
22:17He asks, how many guitars do you now have in your collection?
22:22I'm down to about 25.
22:25You downsized?
22:26You downsized?
22:26Really?
22:26Yeah.
22:27Yeah, I'm selling a lot of them.
22:28Right.
22:29Yeah, I'm selling a lot.
22:30I mean, I had a huge vintage collection.
22:32I was a big vintage collector, and I sold a bunch.
22:35But the ones I have, I like.
22:36They're emotionally connected to me, and I'll probably maintain them.
22:40But look, I've owned hundreds.
22:43I've owned hundreds over the years.
22:45You know, when you couldn't afford it, you couldn't afford it.
22:47Now, of course, you can afford it, and the people give them to you.
22:49And I need a guitar like a nun needs birth control at this point.
22:52So they offer me this guitar.
22:54Hey, man, why don't you play my guitar?
22:56But I play Epiphones proudly, even though I'm an Epiphone endorseee.
23:01And, of course, I own a million Gibson Les Pauls.
23:03But I love the Epiphones.
23:04They're great instruments.
23:06They play really well.
23:06They play phenomenally well.
23:09And a listener named Chuck wanted to bring up your audition for a little band out of New York called
23:16Wicked Lester.
23:17Does that sound familiar?
23:19Yeah, that was a couple of days of my life in June of 72.
23:23And I auditioned for them like a lot of artists auditioned.
23:26I'm assuming a lot did.
23:28They got my phone number from a lawyer in my apartment building who was the lawyer for their producer, Ron
23:34Johnson,
23:35who said, are you interested in joining a band with a record deal?
23:37And I said, sure.
23:38And he gave me Gene's number or Gene called me or whatever.
23:42And they came down and saw me play in a church in New York City in June.
23:49I was playing with a band on a church Sunday.
23:51It wasn't that we were in church playing religious music.
23:53It was just hosting a band I was playing with.
23:56And so they came down, they talked to me, and they said that they were in a band called Wicked
24:01Lester,
24:01but they're going to change their whole image.
24:03And they asked me, what was I into?
24:04And I said, well, I was into Zeppelin and Hendrix and all that.
24:07And they asked me if I was into Slade.
24:08And I wasn't really familiar with Slade at that moment.
24:10Right.
24:11Which, of course, was a precursor to what they were going for.
24:14They really were going for the American Slade kind of thing.
24:17So I've rehearsed with them a couple of times, like I'm assuming many guitar players did.
24:23I went away for the summer, joined an Allman Brothers cover band.
24:26I come back in September.
24:26They were still advertising for a guitar player in the local paper.
24:30I answered the ad, didn't know it was them.
24:32They said, oh, we just hired a guy named Paul Fraley.
24:35And they said, if you'd like to come down, and one day when we're ready to go,
24:39you're welcome to come down.
24:40And about a month later, they called me and said, come down to the loft and listen to it.
24:43And I came down to the loft.
24:44And basically, they had a bed sheet behind them with the word KISS written on it.
24:49Really?
24:49Yeah, it was a bed sheet.
24:52And rudimentarily written.
24:54And they had Marshall amps.
24:55In those days, American bands did not use Marshalls except for Jimi Hendrix.
24:58Everybody played Fenders.
24:59But you could tell that they were going for that English thing.
25:03That was the whole point.
25:04They really were focusing on English, which is why Gene changed his name to a more Anglican name.
25:09Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley with Stanley Eisen, changed it to Paul Stanley.
25:14Consequently, I changed my name to J.J. French.
25:16I mean, that was basically it.
25:17I took that idea and I said, oh, yeah, I get that stage name.
25:21Any true to the rumor that Gene said, yo, I like you.
25:25Could you change your name?
25:28No, what he said to me was, what's your name?
25:31I said, John Segal.
25:32He goes, that's too Jewish.
25:33That was his quote.
25:34And no one had ever said anything to me about being Jewish.
25:36I am Jewish.
25:37Right.
25:37Especially no Jew has ever said anything about being a Jew, which I thought was rather odd.
25:42Yeah.
25:42I really thought it was odd.
25:43And I went, I'm too Jewish?
25:44What do you mean by that?
25:45I don't even understand what that means.
25:47And he says, well, my name is Gene Klein, but I'm changing my name to Gene Simmons.
25:51And I was, uh-huh.
25:53I just said, Gene Simmons, like the actor?
25:55And he goes, no, like Kim Simmons from Savoy Brown or from whatever, Wishbone or whatever it was.
26:03And I just said, really?
26:04Like, that was weird.
26:04I wasn't expecting that answer.
26:06And he goes, and this is Stanley Eisen.
26:08And he, you know, he's Jewish, but he's changing his name to Paul Stanley.
26:11And then he said, take your glasses off.
26:12And I said, why?
26:13He says, you look too Jewish.
26:15And he kept saying this.
26:17And no one's ever said that to me.
26:18I always thought that was amongst the weirdest things ever said to me by anybody.
26:22I didn't understand.
26:23Was he a self-hating Jew?
26:24I didn't really understand why he would say that.
26:27Like, what was the motivation behind it?
26:29You know, it was weird.
26:30It was very strange to me.
26:31But when I joined Twisted Sister, everyone had a stage name.
26:35Right.
26:35So the original singer was Michael O'Neill.
26:37He changed it to Michael Valentine.
26:39The guitar player was Billy Steiger.
26:41He changed it to Billy Diamond.
26:42The drummer was Armelle Anderson.
26:44He changed it to Mel Starr.
26:45You kind of get the shtick there, you know.
26:49So they said, what about you?
26:50What are you going to be?
26:50And I created JJ French at that point.
26:53Because my middle name was French.
26:56I took JJ because it was easy when you're on Quaaludes to have it roll off.
27:00Hey, JJ, man.
27:02What's wrong?
27:03You know, so.
27:04Well, the 50th anniversary, again, Caesars, Windsor, October the 10th.
27:08Hell of a set list for any Twisted Sister fan.
27:11And they're going to get their money's worth.
27:13And it is just amazing.
27:16I'm at the price.
27:16I want to rock.
27:17I'm at all your favorites.
27:18But even under the blade.
27:20And Sebastian at the helm does sing.
27:22And by the way, a couple of Skid Row songs while we're at it.
27:24Yeah.
27:25And I want to clearly point out, this is not a reunion.
27:28It's a resurrection.
27:29It is a resurrection.
27:31Twisted Sister Reborn.
27:32For those of you who really don't have any historical context with Twisted Sister, let me just tell you this.
27:37I've been through 18 versions of the band.
27:40There have been 20 people in and out.
27:42And over the course of the 50 years, every time we change personnel, people say, it's never going to happen
27:47without me.
27:47And this happened.
27:48I was told that in 74, 76, 78, 81, 83, 84.
27:54Never going to happen.
27:55We had a drummer that was so popular that when we fired him, fans showed up with banners at arenas
28:01and said, you're never going to make it without Tony.
28:03Wow.
28:04That's how popular Tony was, I guess, with certain people.
28:08So, you know, I'm beyond what people want.
28:11Everyone's entitled to their opinion.
28:13Come, leave your preconceived notions at the door, and have a great time with a great band playing great music.
28:20How does it feel just to look over and be playing with Eddie again?
28:24Well, you know, Eddie and I go back to high school together.
28:27That's right.
28:28Eddie and I, you know, I reminded Eddie.
28:30Eddie joined the band in 75.
28:31And Eddie and I have stood on stage.
28:33Well, me, Eddie, and Dee, shoulder to shoulder, have done 6,000 performances together.
28:38Now, not 6,000 nights.
28:39Let me be clear.
28:40Right.
28:40We did multiple shows a night.
28:42Three shows a night, sometimes four.
28:43In actual nights, about 3,000 nights together.
28:46But we have stood shoulder to shoulder at over 6,000 performances.
28:51So I think it's a testament, a testament to our longevity and our ability to continue on.
28:56And it's wonderful.
28:57Well, not to put the cart before the horse, okay?
29:01You're having so much fun doing this.
29:04Any inclinations on 2027?
29:07No.
29:08Not right now.
29:09No.
29:10This wasn't supposed to happen?
29:12Right.
29:12I have no idea what's going to happen.
29:13How about you, yourself?
29:15What plans for 2027?
29:18Not really.
29:19No, I haven't made no plans right now.
29:22Actually, we did book one date with Sebastian in Las Vegas on March 12th.
29:28The Sphere?
29:292027.
29:30That would be cool.
29:31That would be cool, you guys playing in the Sphere.
29:34Oh, God, yeah.
29:35Not quite.
29:35No.
29:37No.
29:40But who knows?
29:42I don't know.
29:42It was a mystery that it happened, but I'm grateful that it did.
29:45I'm grateful to the fans.
29:46Yeah.
29:47I'm grateful for all the support from all the radio stations.
29:49I'm just trying to get some sort of exclusive bite gem, you know, for clicks.
29:57Unfortunately, Blabbermouth isn't going to be running off with anything other than,
30:00and he said this about Gene, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
30:02No, that's been quoted a million times.
30:04There's no big deal.
30:05Wow.
30:05No, I just, I don't know.
30:07But right now, we're taking it day by day and show by show.
30:10And we're, you know, we have the rest of the year done.
30:12We end in St. Petersburg, Florida on the 11th of December.
30:16We have a date in West Virginia, a date in Virginia.
30:19Springfield, Massachusetts is coming up this Saturday.
30:21Right this Friday, actually.
30:22It's going to be the last 80-degree day for the year.
30:25I believe it's going to be 82, which is wonderful.
30:27And then we go to Canada on the 10th and 12th.
30:29Man, I'm really looking forward to playing the Niagara Falls date at the Falls Casino,
30:33and I'm really looking forward to playing up in Windsor.
30:36I think that's great.
30:37Well, we can't wait.
30:38October 10th, Caesar Coliseum.
30:42Again, from all your fans, thank you so much for doing this.
30:46This is great.
30:47As you said, it probably wouldn't have happened, but it is.
30:51And we're happy.
30:52We're going to show up in full force.
30:53We'll be there.
30:54I want you to wear the stage clothes, dude.
30:57Just find them.
30:59My yellow boots are probably a size 7.
31:02I wear a 15.
31:02It's okay.
31:03I can't fit into my boots.
31:04I can't fit into my boots.
31:07Extreme, extreme pleasure talking to you.
31:09And again, Twisted Sister, the 50th anniversary tour, Caesar's Windsor, October 10th.
31:14Keep rocking.
31:15Best to you, my brother.
31:17Thank you, man.
31:17Thank you for your support.
31:18Thank you, man.
31:18Thank you, man.
31:18Thank you, man.
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