Twisted Sister has confirmed a reunion celebrating its 50th anniversary, marking its return to the stage after a hiatus since 2016. With shows scheduled at major festivals around the world, the band has chosen Brazil as its starting point and will perform its historic comeback show at Bangers Open Air , headlining on Saturday, April 25th. Secure your tickets at Clube do Ingresso .
Dubbed " Twisted Forever, Forever Twisted ," the tour marks 50 years of the band's career, a group that helped shape 1980s heavy metal. Despite featuring the core lineup with guitarist and founding manager Jay Jay French , vocalist Dee Snider , and guitarist Eddie Ojeda , the band will have some changes, including the absence of Mark "The Animal" Mendoza on bass and the return of Joe "Seven" Franco on drums in place of AJ Pero , who died in 2015 at age 55 .
In an interview on the Talking The Talk With Don , Jay Jay French commented on what fans can expect, as the idea is a tour with an average of 15 shows [transcription via Blabbermouth ]. “It’s probably going to be something pretty controlled, because it was never our intention to do this again. Never. I had to be convinced. And do you really want to do this? In a way, it’s a celebratory tour. It’s called Twisted Forever, Forever Twisted. It’s 50 years of me, Eddie, and Dee, who I’ve been side-by-side with since February 1976.”
“Most people who don’t know the band’s history don’t realize it — we’ve played with 10 different bassists and drummers. They don’t even understand that. They don’t grasp the essence. We know that… So, it’s called Twisted Forever, Forever Twisted, or I call it Sex, Prescription Drugs And Rock And Roll . That’s my alternative name for the tour,” joked the guitarist.
Surprises in Twisted Sister's setlist
Jay Jay French stated that the highly anticipated reunion tour of the group will likely not feature any major surprises in the setlist, opting instead to cater to what the audience most wants to hear live. Commenting on the anticipation surrounding the setlist, French explained that bands with decades of experience face a classic dilemma: including "obscure" tracks or sticking to their established hits.
“The problem is that when you’re doing a 60 or 75-minute show, because that’s what you’re hired for, you find yourself in the same dilemma as any other band that’s been together for 50 years and released millions of albums. And that dilemma is this: do you play the 17 songs that everyone wants to hear, or do you replace some of them with more obscure ones? That’s always the big question. And my answer to that question is: if you’re playing for the fans, you give them exactly what they want. That’s my theory. If you’re playing for yourself, it’s different. But if you’re
really playing for the fans and you understand that most of them want to hear those 17 [songs],” he explained.
The guitarist assured fans that they will see all the band's classics. “But we're going to take out two of them to put in two new ones. Which one should we take out? Nobody wants any song removed. That's the problem. That's the problem. “Are we going to take out 'Destroyer' or take out 'You Can't Stop Up Rock 'N' Roll'? Are we going to take out 'Tear It Loose' or are we going to take out 'The Kids Are Back'? No. So, the problem is that we're going to get together, rehearse, and play several songs. And we have in mind some songs that we don't play much, and we're going to try to see how they sound.”
Bangers Open Air Festival
The Bangers Open Air event will take place at the Memorial da América Latina in São Paulo on April 25th and 26th.
The organization announced the full lineup with Angra , Twisted Sister , Smith/Kotzen, Fear Factory, Jinjer, Killswitch Engage , In Flames, and others. In addition to the previously announced acts, Within Temptation , Feuerschwanz , Eluveite , Primal Fear, Tankard, Black Label Society , Nevermore, Onslaught , and Crazy Lixx .
The 2025 edition stirred up the headbanger community in São Paulo between May 2nd and 4th, delivering a memorable festival with acts like Doro , Sabaton , Avantasia Wikimetal 's exclusive coverage : Saturday, May 3rd and Sunday, May 4th.
READ ALSO: Dee Snider explains why he accepted a Twisted Sister reunion
