The Twisted Sister documentary, We Are Twisted F***ing Sister!, is available now in DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, and digital formats in North America, The UK, and Europe.

Guitarist Jay Jay French was recently interviewed by Ken Sharp of RockCellar about the movie; an excerpt follows:

The film opened my eyes to how long Twisted Sister had been around before getting signed, with the formation of the band taking place in 1972.

Jay Jay French: Yeah, it was an incredible journey and I look back now and I just kind of shake my head. I talk about the struggle and the repetitiveness. There’s a lot of repetitiveness in the actual day-to day-work of a rock and roll band. So it was a singular mindset.

And frankly, there was a problem finding people with that same mindset. Rock and roll is not necessarily about discipline. I don’t know where discipline would really come into the vernacular when you ask rock and roll bands what they would need to succeed. Most people on the outside don’t have any idea; they think it’s just sex, drugs, rock and roll and some fairy dust.  You make some sort of pact with the devil and somehow you make it. They don’t know or realize that it’s really that hard. Is it five guys that are constantly pushing and pushing and pushing? The work ethic is unknown. So what this movie does show is an extraordinary work ethic.

The band epitomizes a “never say die” attitude in the face of adversity. You were the opposite of an overnight sensation as this film ably demonstrates.

Jay Jay French: Yeah. Eleven guys came and went during that ten year period. That’s another thing too. Occasionally with the members that are still alive, they’d say, “Hey man, that could have been me!” I don’t want to get nasty and I don’t say this to them but the answer is no, it couldn’t have been you. You didn’t have what it took. The reason why you weren’t in the band is because you didn’t have it. If you had it you would have been in the band but you didn’t have it for whatever reason; whether it was drug problems or alcohol problems or discipline problem, they didn’t have it. So that’s what I think people don’t really get is how much business goes into it all.

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