In 2016, the band Twisted Sister announced on the 40th anniversary that they were hanging up the hair and retiring from active duty. Which they did, for a while. There were a couple of one-offs, like the 2023 Heavy Metal Awards performance, which you can see the video of below. Now that’s changed.
Last year, singer Dee Snider said, “As a result of all the bands retiring and dying, the offers get bigger and bigger for the holdouts to come back… Is it there yet? No. Is it getting close? Yeah. Is there talk amongst us, like, ‘Well, in the event that the numbers do get there, and they sure as hell seem to be going in that direction, how are we gonna do this?’ So, there’s a little bit of that conversation…”
Well, they’ve been showed the money as they just announced that they will hit the road next year in support of their 50th anniversary.
Founding guitarist and their manager Jay Jay French says, “Beginning on February 2nd, 1976, in a little bar called The Turtleneck Inn in Hunter, New York, Dee Snider, Eddie Ojeda , and I have called ourselves Twisted Sister and stood shoulder to shoulder for nearly five decades, through multiple personnel changes and thousands of performances. We are proud to celebrate a milestone that once felt unthinkable: a 50-year anniversary!! We have created a music and performance legacy that has and will continue to inspire millions of fans around the world. Twisted Forever, Forever Twisted!”
And Snider adds, “If you’re lucky enough to be in a band that people still want to see after fifty years(!), how can you not answer the call? In 2026, Twisted Sister will hit stages around the world because WE STILL WANNA ROCK!!”
So now about those previous statements saying Twisted Sister was done?
He said, “First of all, I own [my previous] statements. I said that and more. I singled out bands. I named names. I ranted and raved about this, and I expected to get excrements for this, but I’m getting hit hard.
“I’m not gonna lie, and I can only tell you so much, but this is the total truth. I turned 70 this year (March 15th) and I had a health scare. And I’m okay… And it shook me up… I won’t say [exactly what it was], and I’m okay. But it really made me re-evaluate a lot of things. [When I was] 40, 50, 60, I thought I was superhuman. Twisted Sister retired 10 years ago when I was ripped to shreds. And then [at] 70, something happened and it was a re-evaluation, quite honestly. And part of that re-evaluation was looking and saying… Am I ready to go? Well, you never know when you’re gonna go quietly to the night. You never know when your time is up. And do I really wanna do that without rocking one more time? And I stopped doing solo stuff a few years back as well. I mean, I go out and I join Bret Michaels or Lita Ford on stage for a couple songs, but I don’t go out and perform. And upon talking to my wife and re-evaluating, it was I, me, who called the [other] guys [in Twisted Sister]. I called them. They never called. I mean, we talk, but they never brought it up because I was, like, ‘This is not happening, guys. It is done. It is over, just like I told everybody.’ But, like I said, I had a life-changing experience and re-evaluation of a lot of things, and I reached out. I said, ‘Guys, what do you think about doing it one more time?'”
Twisted Sister guitarist and manager Jay Jay French says the tour will start in May in the U.S.
