"I was one of many guitar players who auditioned for Kiss, but they didn't even have a name yet back then!"

Twisted Sister founding member and guitar player John French, better known as Jay Jay French, spoke to all Tangra Mega Rock readers and listeners two weeks before his band's headlining show at the first edition of the Kaliakra Rock Fest in Kavarna, Bulgaria on August 25, 2006. The New Yorker revealed a lot of intriguing facts about the resurrected Twisted Sister, what's it like to play in front of 80,000 people, his legal name, and was he really a member of Kiss in 1972...

Vassil Varbanov: Hello, Mr. French! How are you doing?

Jay Jay French: I'm very well, thanks!

V. V.: What are you up to now?

J. J.: We're finishing up recording our next release, which is gonna be an album of Christmas songs done in heavy metal style (entitled "A Twisted Christmas"). It's gonna be released worldwide on October 17, 2006.

V. V.: Which is your favourite Christmas song?

J. J.: Oh, man, I don't know... We do "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (featuring Lita Ford), "The Christmas Song", "Silver Bells", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"... There's a lot of good songs there.

V. V.: Do you believe in Santa Claus?

J. J.: Well, if she's with a really great body - then yeah, I believe!

V. V.: Let's now talk about your upcoming first ever show in Bulgaria. Do you know anything about our country?

J. J.: No, but the reformation of the band has been an astonishing experience for all of us, because we've headlined countries we've never played in before. One would think we would go back to places we've played in and where we're popular, but we've been to Spain, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Finland and now Bulgaria and Greece. We've never been in these countries and we draw huge crowds there, so we're incredibly honoured and mystified by that. We just go there and play our songs, and we get blown away that the world knows our songs, especially now that we've been away for so many years!

V. V.: Twisted Sister disbanded in 1988 and got together some five years ago, in 2001. What have you personally been up to during this time?

J. J.: I manage artists. I managed and produced a band called Sevendust for a while and... You know, I'm really busy with my two management companies where I work not only with metal, but also with pop artists and DJs. One is called French Management and the other is Rebellion Entertainment.

V. V.: And now you're active with Twisted Sister again. We heard about this great concert of yours on July 8 in Quebec, Canada. What was it like to play in front of 80 thousand maniacs?

J. J.: It was unbelievable! This is another example of things that we just don't understand. We were very popular in Canada back in the day, but we haven't played in Quebec in over 20 years, so when we and Scorpions were booked to play that festival, I think the promoter figured 20,000 people at the show, which was about right. When 80,000 fans showed up, everybody felt like having a heart attack!

V. V.: Do you know which bands you're going to share the bill with on August 25 in Bulgaria?

J. J.: I have no idea.

V. V.: Testament from San Francisco and Helloween from Germany. Do you know them?

J. J.: Yes, sure, I've known them for years.

V. V.: So it will be something like a reunion of friends, right?

J. J.: No, no, let me just clarify this. We have played on many festivals with those bands since our return, but I don't know them personally. As for Lordi, who were also scheduled to play in Bulgaria, but are not on the bill anymore - we played with them two months ago in Finland, and me and Dee Snider (Twisted Sister's singer) are on their latest record, "The Arockalypse" (respectively on the tracks "The Chainsaw Buffet" and "SCG3 Special Report"). They're very nice people.

V. V.: By the way, is your real name John Segall?

J. J.: No...!? Where does that come from?

V. V.: It's in the Wikipedia.

J. J.: My name is John French. That's my legal name - John French.

V. V.: You know what? The rumour goes even deeper in Wikipedia, stating that you've played with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss in a band called Rainbow in the early 70's...

J. J.: That is the most ridiculous misstatement of fact! It's absolutely untrue! I was one of many guitar players who auditioned for Kiss, and I spent a couple of weeks practicing with those guys - they didn't even have a name back then. I was one of many, but somehow this statement I just gave you has been misinterpreted, misstated, misprinted, miswritten... I never said it! All I said was I was one of many guitar players. That was in June of 1972, and in September the same year they picked Ace out of 25 or 30 people. I went down to the rehearsal room and just watched them. That is the fact.

V. V.: Finally, except for concentrating on the recordings and tours with Twisted Sister, did you have the chance to listen to some new records in the world of metal today -В for example, the latest releases by Motorhead, Slayer, Iron Maiden, etc.?

J. J.: No. Especially now, in the summertime, when we travel so much, we've been concentrating on working and then recovering from the road, and then going back to the studio, so I haven't got the chance to play a new CD in about a year. We see Lemmy all the time and we're old friends, the guys from Maiden are friends, too, but I haven't heard anybody's record. We've been too busy.

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