TWISTED SISTER guitarist Jay Jay French has revealed plans to release a book called “Twisted Business” in 2021. He will also launch his very own podcast, “The French Connection”.
French has four decades of experience as the manager, guitarist and director of licensing, publishing and touring for TWISTED SISTER. He is also a keynote and motivational speaker, reinvention expert and entrepreneur, as well as the founder of The Pink Burst Project, a nonprofit. More recently, French wrote a bi-weekly column for Inc. magazine’s web site for nearly six years.
In 2016, TWISTED SISTER embarked on one final trek, titled “Forty And Fuck It”, in celebration of its 40th anniversary. These shows featured the band’s “core lineup” of French, singer Dee Snider, guitarist Eddie Ojeda and bassist Mark Mendoza, along with drummer Mike Portnoy. The band’s last-ever concert took place in November of that year — 20 months after the passing of TWISTED‘s longtime drummer A.J. Pero.
TWISTED SISTER‘s original run ended in the late ’80s. After more than a decade, the band publicly reunited in November 2001 to top the bill of New York Steel, a hard-rock benefit concert to raise money for the New York Police And Fire Widows’ And Children’s Benefit Fund.
A year ago, French said that he was that “blissfully retired” from playing music. “I walked off stage at the last show in Mexico, and I gave all my guitars away to my crew,” he told the “Neil Jones Rock Show”. “I said, ‘Guys, thank you. It’s been great. See you later.’ I never looked back. We didn’t even meet in the lobby and have a drink. I was off stage in a golf cart with my wife on the way to the hotel. I was on a plane and out of here.”
French said that he played nine thousand shows with TWISTED SISTER and he “loved every bit of it.” But he understood when people told him that they don’t believe the band is completely retired.
“I never said we weren’t coming back,” he explained. “We retired for a while. And I said, ‘No, I’m not gonna say never.’ We could. Maybe there’s a charity [event that we could play at]. Maybe there’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I doubt it, but maybe. Whatever. It could happen. But at this point in my life, I don’t think about it.”
