After a few years of retirement Twisted Sister will be back on the road in 2026 to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Besides the vocalist Dee Snider, will also be part of the tour the original member Jay Jay French (Guitar) and the classic member Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda. They will be accompanied by Joey Franco (Drums) and Russell Pzütto (bass).
Snider had revealed the classic bassist Mark “The Animal” Mendoza won’t be part of the tour due to “irreconcilable differences”. Jay Jay French talked about the musician’s absence in an interview with The Metal Voice. The band already announced shows at the festivals Tons of Rock in Norway and Barcelona Rock Fest in Spain.
Jay Jay French talks about Mark Mendoza’s absence of Twisted Sister reunion tour
“It happens with bands. Bands are like marriages, and things happen. Listen, I was clear when I said this: me, Dee and Eddie have played through 10 different drummers and bass players. Most people don’t know this. We have never spoken about why someone is in and why someone is out. We never have. And don’t forget, I go back three more years. I go back to 13 ex-members of the band — 13. I had never spoken about them. My attitude is a realignment takes place, however way you have to do it to keep your business moving, and you make your business move. And that’s really all there is to it.”
“I don’t wanna bring in any more than that. People know what they know, and I have no reason to throw dirt on anything whatsoever. You make the move to keep the business moving forward, and it’s exactly what Twisted Sister has always done. Incidentally, if you look at (Judas) Priest and you look at Mötley (Crüe) and you look at Aerosmith and you look at every one of these bands, how many people are left (that were there) originally?” The answer is one, two, three guys. We have four original members. We have 80 percent original. Joe Franco’s back with us. He was one of our drummers. He played on our albums and toured with us.”
“So we have a very high percentage of original bandmembers, and I’m very proud of that because some bands are touring with no original members. Okay? None. We will not mention them. And by the way, I have no problem with that. If you can buy tickets and you’re selling a product, sell the product. But last I looked, KISS had two original guys in it. AC/DC, ask anyone, ‘Who’s in AC/DC?’ What will they say? Angus (Young) and Brian (Johnson).”
“That’s what they’ll say. Ask anybody, ‘Who’s in Guns N’ Roses.’ They’ll go, ‘Axl and Slash.’ ‘Who was in Aerosmith?’ ‘Joe Perry and Steven Tyler. Everyone knows one or two guys and they don’t know the rest. In our case, we’ve got four original members of the band. And I’m really proud of that. And I’m proud of me, Dee and Eddie, let me tell you. We’ve been together shoulder to shoulder on stage for thousands of shows — not hundreds. Thousands of shows. And we’re gonna celebrate that one more time,” Jay Jay French said (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).
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