Bar-band grinders with nearly 3,000 gigs in their back pockets, when Twisted Sister began recording its major-label debut 40 years ago, they were already on shaky ground.
Signed by Atlantic Records A&R guy Jason Flom, TS faced pushback from label president Doug Morris, who wasn’t shy about his distaste for the group and its “car wash in a whorehouse” costumes and makeup (per fashion critic Richard Blackwell in one of his “Worst Dressed” lists). Nonetheless, with producer Tom Werman, in early January of 1984 they entered the Record Plant in New York City with 10 songs written by frontman Dee Snider. A few didn’t make the grade with Werman, so he had them consider a handful of Saxon demos. Tensions rose. Further complicating things, Werman wasn’t feeling the vibe at Record Plant, and after a couple of weeks moved the band to Los Angeles so they could work at his home turf, Cherokee Studios. There, engineer Jeff Workman tracked most of the vocals with Snider.
Guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda hauled their favorite axes to L.A. – Ojeda an early Charvel superstrat made by Grover Jackson, French an Ibanez Destroyer and ’78 Les Paul Standard, both of which had been customized by Steve Carr (d. 2006), who apprenticed with Jimmy D’Aquisto before building Gene Simmons’ first axe-shaped bass as well as Les Paul copies with smoke bombs and rocket launchers for Ace Frehley.
French’s Destroyer matched one bought by Ojeda the same day in 1976, when Ibanez was doing its best to re-create korina-bodied Gibsons. But, as Twisted Sister’s sound came together and their stage personas became increasingly brash, the Destroyers’ tone and plain-jane looks weren’t working. Ojeda eventually set his aside, while French took another route…
“We were playing through 100-watt Marshalls at that point, going for a crunchy metal sound, and the original pickups sounded way too thin, so I put a set of DiMarzio Super Distortions in mine. Then, a year or so after we bought them, I decided it needed to be more ostentatious – something that would fit onstage with a bunch of cross-dressers,” he laughed. “So, I went to Steve’s house and asked, ‘What could we do with this?’ And he goes, ‘Well…. what if we put a pearl dragon on the fin and inlay “Twisted Sister” on the headstock?’ I went, ‘That sounds cool.’ He goes, ‘How about binding on the body?’ I think he charged me $250.
“After seeing the Destroyer, Dee suggested I have Steve paint my Les Paul pink to match his mic stand and our stage backup with the band’s logo. I liked the idea, even though my stage colors were black and yellow (laughs). So, I took it Steve, and while we were at it had him put my name on the headstock and install a set of DiMarzio X2Ns.
Carr came up with the “pinkburst” and… “It looked amazing,” French said.
Both necks also fit his taste, the Destroyer’s being thin (like a late-’50s Gibson), the pinkburst’s being “pretty slim for a Paul.”
Ojeda first caught wind of the Charvel brand in early 1983, during a stop at Gracin’s Music, on Long Island. Following a prompt from a salesman, he placed an order.
“I asked for something with pink and black circles,” he said in a 2014 interview with VG. “I wasn’t expecting a bullseye – and I wasn’t sure how much I liked the way it looked – but I loved the way it played and sounded, and it became part of who I am.”
He used the guitar on the road for a decade before wear and tear forced its retirement, after which he sold it. In 1993, Wayne Charvel made a replica he has used since.
Anyway… Back at Cherokee, Werman rented Marshall heads from Andy Brauer at Studio Rentals, Inc. (SRI), but, “We had a hard time with them,” French told VG in ’14. “So, Tom asked Andy to help us get a better guitar tone, and he brought in these Dumble amps – Andy raved about how good they were. Well… not for a metal band, sorry! So, we insisted that our 50-watt Marshalls be flown to L.A.”
As had been custom, solos on Stay Hungry were split depending on the song.
“I’m not territorial about guitar parts,” said French. “If you feel something and can write it so it makes sense, by all means, play it. Eddie has a style and I have a style, and we knew who played what more naturally. He is a much more schooled player, more precise, and can replicate his parts perfectly every day. I’m more of a jazz guy, sort of reinterpreting depending on my mood. We’d talk about who felt what for each solo.”
Most of the rhythm tracks were doubled, with French often switching between the Les Paul and Destroyer. They each played a solo on “Burn In Hell” and “Horror-Teria.” That’s French on the title track, while Ojeda played the lead on French’s favorite track, “Don’t Let Me Down.” “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is Ojeda with an overdubbed harmony on the second half. “I Wanna Rock” is also Ojeda.
Sessions wrapped in late March and post-production moved quickly; the album and its first single, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (its melody borrowed from “O Come All Ye Faithful” and drum intro not far removed from Quiet Riot’s 1983 hit “Cum on Feel the Noize”) were released May 10; MTV played the accompanying video nearly every hour throughout that summer; by the time it was filmed, French had become a Guild endorser and was using a custom-finished Skyhawk X-79.
Stay Hungry climbed to #15 on Billboard’s Top 200 (prompting Doug Morris to change his attitude toward the band and its music) and has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. All told, Twisted Sister has sold 25 million albums while “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock,” French says, have been used in more soundtracks, TV shows, movies, video games, and commercials than any other metal songs from the ’80s.
VG’s 2014 interview with French and Ojeda can be read at www.vintageguitar.com/20735/jay-jay-french-and-eddie-ojeda. French’s Pinkburst Project, which has helped raise awareness of the inflammatory eye disease uveitis, was profiled in the April ’11 issue. Learn more at www.pinkburstproject.org.
This article originally appeared in VG’s June 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
