Kaaos TV conducted an interview with TWISTED SISTER guitarist Jay Jay French prior to the band’s August 4 performance in Finland.
Asked if he thinks any of the newer hard rock artists have a shot at becoming arena-sized acts once the current crop of dinosaur bands are no longer around, Jay Jay said: “When I was 17 years old, when Jay Jay French was 17, THE BEATLES, THE [ROLLING] STONES, THE WHO, [LED ZEPPELIN], [PINK] FLOYD, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, THE DOORS… none of them were older than 26 when I was 17. Now we, as 17-year-olds, never went to see bands that were 60; we saw bands that were all 25: THE BEATLES, THE STONES, THE WHO, ZEP, FLOYD, CREAM, Hendrix… They were all 25, 26 years old. If I told my mother I was gonna go see a band with 60-year-old guys, she’d look at me like I was crazy or I was going to some jazz band or some classical group. So now we play festivals where all the bands are 60 years old: us, WHITESNAKE, KISS, [BLACK] SABBATH, AC/DC… they’re all 60. Maybe 50, with METALLICA.
“So I ask everybody out there: where’s the 25-year-old rock stars? Where are they? You can’t name them. Someone goes, ‘MUSE.’ They’re not 25 years old; they’re way older than that. AVENGED SEVENFOLD: they’re not 25 years old; they’re way older than that. SLIPKNOT: they’re not 25 years old; they’re way older than that. So the next generation doesn’t seem to be there, and I don’t know the reason why. I wish I knew the reason why. Because pop music is huge; female pop stars are huge, right? And hip-hop is huge, and rap is huge, and country music is huge. So where’s rock? Rock is kind of not there.“
