Recently, Jay Jay French participated in The Wikimetal Happy Hour to promote his autobiography Twisted Business: Lessons From My Life in Rock n' Roll .
Wikimetal co-founder Nando Machado , the musician recalled the fall of glam rock with the arrival of grunge and revealed what Twisted Sister's "fatal mistake" was. "It probably would have been smarter to release ' Come Out And Play' and completely shift to a heavier musical direction," he says. "And not release 'Leader Of The Pack' as a single. If the band had gone in a heavier direction and released 'The Fire Still Burns,' for example, it probably would have made more sense."
According to Jay Jay French, the commercial pressure to do something “more insane” than Stay Hungry led the band in a direction that ultimately led to the end of Twisted Sister. “We faced the challenge many times and then made a fatal mistake which was 'Leader Of The Pack'. It was opting for the West Coast version of metal because we are not a West Coast band. KISS and Twisted Sister are from the East Coast, we are very different,” he reflects.
In the musician's own words, the end of Twisted Sister in 1987 spared them the "humiliation" of seeing their career "disappear in a single day" with the arrival of bands like Nirvana and Metallica on the radio. "Ask Kip Winger , Jani Lane , Vito Bratta . They heard 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and thought, 'It's over for us. We're dead,'" concludes Jay Jay French.
The musician also recalled the period after the band broke up when he had to work with swimming pools while Dee Snider worked answering phones because they were both broke. The two artists went a decade without speaking until they decided to make peace.
“We met at my house for a reconciliation, and this reunion happened 20 years after the day I hired Dee to be in Twisted Sister,” says Jay Jay French. “We met not to get the band back together, but to fix our relationship. We had a great conversation, and I said, ‘Okay, we don’t have a band, but we’re good, right?’ And then because of 9/11, we got the band back together and did a benefit concert.”
READ ALSO: Jay Jay French would have quit Twisted Sister if he knew success would take so long.
