TWISTED SISTER's JAY JAY FRENCH Defends Band's Decision To Play Select Shows And Not Make New Music

TWISTED SISTER guitarist Jay Jay French has defended his band's choice to remain active mostly by performing live and not making a new full-length studio album, calling it "our version of survival."

After French told Full Throttle Rock in a recent interview that "no one is yet to make a case for any reason" for TWISTED SISTER to record a new studio album and claiming that "the fans who come see" the band perform live "do not care" about hearing new material from the group, a number of TWISTED SISTER fans responded unfavorably to the guitarist's comments, with some pointing out that such veteran hard rock acts as KISS, VAN HALEN and JUDAS PRIEST have all released new music in recent years with moderate success.

In a posting to the comments section of the most recent BLABBERMOUTH.NET story on this topic, French wrote: "I really enjoy seeing people discuss this issue of new recordings. The much larger picture that no one is seeing is this: Up until the band reformed to play the Eddie Trunk benefit after the 9/11 disaster in November 2001, I never thought that we would ever have played another show. Since then, the band has become one of the biggest concert attractions on the worldwide festival circuit. We have released 6 DVDs and the biggest-selling metal Christmas album of all time. We released a full bonus CD of new material with the re-record of 'Stay Hungry'. 'We're Not Gonna Take It' is the most licensed song in the world for TV commercials, movie soundtracks and TV shows. None of this was supposed to happen. I look at this as the glass half full, not half empty. We accomplished way more than I ever thought we would and our tour schedule works for us. We do enough to play to an average audience of 60,000 per show in 33 countries. The worldwide popularity has only grown and we are offered way more shows then we choose to play. This is our choice, our decision. This is how we choose to survive. It could have been nothing. Instead, it is our version of survival. The fact that KISS, [JUDAS] PRIEST, VAN HALEN, etc. choose to release new material is important to the business model that they need to survive. To each his own."

In a 2012 interview with RockMusicStar, TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider stated about the possibility of the band making a new studio album: "People have been talking about doing a new TWISTED record, which I feel is like going 'back to the future.' You'd be making an old record in contemporary times. And I really have no passion in doing that. And there really isn't a marketplace for it. Those records really don't sell, and people have shown that they're not really interested in old bands making new music. If it sounds like new music, they think you gave up and sold out. And if it sounds like your old stuff, they're like, 'Yeah yeah, we've heard that already, we just want to hear the original stuff (we know).'"