What was originally meant to be a spectacular live concert DVD featuring one of the best in-concert hard rock acts on the planet has become so much more. It was released on July 22, as part of the Metal Meltdown series and was recorded live at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, and features the redoubtable Twisted Sister. It would have been a memorable event to both witness live and to own on home video, but the significance of the show was amplified as it was the first show the band New York rockers performed after the untimely, sudden and tragic death of their long-time drummer A.J. Pero.
Pero suffered a heart attack in the early morning hours of March 20, 2015 after a show by the other band he plays in, the incomparably gifted musical conglomeration known as Adrenaline Mob. The Hard Rock show was taped May 30 that same year and featured Twisted Sister pal Mike Portnoy (Dream Theatre, Metal Allegiance, Winery Dogs) behind the kit.
Music Life Magazine recently spoke with Mark ‘The Animal’ Mendoza, Twisted Sister’s bass player since 1978, as he acknowledged the incredible emotional intensity of that show, and subsequent shows, since Pero’s passing.
“The show was planned ahead of time and it actually turned into a pretty amazing A.J. Pero tribute. It was all about A.J. And you know, we all face losses in our lives, whether it’s a family member or a close friend or someone you look up to – we have all been through that. But when you lose someone who is a friend and a bandmate and a brother, someone who has been behind you for 35 years: I can say this; you can replace the drummer, although that is a tough call with A.J. because he is a monster on drums. You can do that, but you can’t replace the person. His wit and humour and friendship and camaraderie and everything that goes along with those words and much, much more, can’t be replaced. That being said, Mike Portnoy is a great guy and he fits right in, but we still miss A.J. terribly. No one can replace what he meant to us as friends and as a bandmate,” he said, adding that there was already an agreement in place for each member of the band to nominate a replacement, should any one of them be incapacitated or otherwise unable to perform with Twisted Sister again.
“We agreed a few years ago that if something happened to one of us we would all have a replacement, to try and have the band continue on and everybody would make a living and we would support the name and do things. It’s ironic that we had actually just spoken to A.J. about that and he picked Mike Portnoy as his replacement. When we first got into rehearsals with Mike we didn’t really know him very much, but we spoke to him a few times beforehand and sent him everything we had video and audio wise, even though he was already familiar with our songs. And he came into that first rehearsal at 98 per cent. He did his homework. He understood the job that needed to get done and he did it. He made the transition a lot smoother for us.”
The 90-minute set captured on DVD features a Twisted Sister fan’s dream set list, with a focus on their two most successful albums 1983s You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll and the monster follow up, Stay Hungry, as well as early classics like Shoot ‘Em Down and Under the Blade.
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At one point towards the end of the show, in the slot appointed for the drum solo, the band exits the stage and instead of Portnoy playing, a video of a typically awesome A.J. Pero live drum solo is played on the big screen.
“That part in Burn in Hell where the drum solo comes in; that broke everybody up. [Frontman] Dee [Snider] and I are on the side crying, because we stand on the same side when we clear the stage for the solo. I couldn’t hold it together and I am glad the lights were off. That was a tough one to watch him up there on that screen instead of seeing him on the stage. And we did that all summer. Everywhere that we went where we had video capability we were doing that, especially at the big festivals,” Mendoza said.
“And the other tough part of the night was when Dee dedicated the song The Price to A.J.’s memory and I know he was choked up about getting that done every night too. Those were tough moments, they really were, man. And personally, I can tell you that for many of those shows, but especially the first one in Vegas, there were a couple of times when I turned around and noticed it was Mike there and not A.J. and how odd that felt.”
The other members of Twisted Sister were informed of Pero’s death not long after he was rushed to hospital with guitarist Jay Jay French getting the news first, before he called the other band members, including Mendoza, and lead guitarist Eddie Ojeda a few minutes later.
“Michael Orlando the guitar player from Adrenaline Mob called Jay Jay and said that A.J. was going to the hospital after a heart attack. It was something like 8 a.m. and three minutes later Jay Jay called me. And my heart went right into my stomach and I felt like someone sucked the life out of me. And we weren’t absolutely 100 per cent sure that he had died. We were pretty sure, just knowing what circumstances we did know, and it was only a few minutes later when we got another call saying that, yes, he had passed away,” said Mendoza, adding the remaining three band members actually started discussing their future the day before Pero was laid to rest.
“There was an afternoon and an evening wake and the next day was the funeral. Between the two wakes we had a meeting and we started talking about what we were going to do and we knew that we were going to go on because that was the plan that the band already had if something happened to one of us. If it were two of us, it would be pretty iffy that we would go on though. We had obligations to fill and we knew that there wasn’t going to be much discussion on who the drummer was going to be. There was a little bit, but ultimately it was A.J.’s pick and Mike is certainly qualified to do the job, if not overqualified.”
Mendoza said that when Pero joined Twisted Sister in April of 1982, that he “completed the band,” adding the crucial musicianship, sense of professionalism and over-the-top personality that suited one of the wildest onstage rock and roll experiences to ever hit a concert stage.
“It was his personality and who he was that completed the band. Listen, I have been in and out of bands my whole life and I have been around bands my whole life, and I am going to say this straight and I am going to hit it hard. Besides probably being one of the best, if not THE best rock bands ever in the world, we are entertainers. I am in a band, including A.J., with four of the funniest mother****ers I have ever met in my life. And the scenarios and the comedy that went one, no one could write those scripts for any sitcom. It was downright gut busting, and everyone had tears running down their cheeks with laughter. We would beat each other up and there would be yelling and screaming backstage and we got the crew involved – but it was all in fun. We were legendary,” he said.
“It really was crazy like that and A.J. was right there in the middle of it all. He really was. There was nobody in Twisted Sister that was weak, whether it be mentally or physically. It was insane and it’s still crazy. And Mike is funny and he fits in very, very well. He is a great friend now and he is a great drummer. But you can’t replace that personality that A.J. had which fit in so perfectly with us. Being in this band over the years was like being in a marriage. You’re together with people for a long time, through thick and thin, and we watch each other’s backs on and off stage. As a band we were something special, especially on stage.
“If you want to put it this way, on stage were like the best football team in the world. And on that best football team Dee Snider is the best quarterback there ever was and ever will be. And he had the best linemen on the world. We were there in every Superbowl and we never lost a single game. And that’s the attitude we have always had and that’s how come, through all the stuff, if you read our reviews of what goes on at our shows, we decimate the place. There’s nothing left standing when we’re done.”
The band’s wrapping up its summer performing schedule with a couple of dates in the fall and then that’s basically it. As a live touring act, Twisted Sister is finished. They deliberately called their 2016 shows the 40 and F*** It Tour, to commemorate the anniversary of the first year of the band’s existence as a New York club act back in 1976.
“You look back on all the years and think what a colourful career I’ve had. I do what almost nobody else in the world gets to do. This is what I do and this is what I will continue to do because I love it. So I guess with A.J. passing and this being the last shows I have been reflecting on stuff. And it wasn’t even until recently that I started thinking about the end of the band – well not the end of the band. It’s the retirement of the live portion of Twisted Sister because we’re not really breaking up, we’re just not playing live any more unless it’s for a really special thing like a charity or something,” Mendoza said, as he talked about how the band truly was a group effort, especially after returning from a 14-year hiatus in 2003.
“Dee wrote most of our songs, if not all of them. Jay Jay manages the band, and co-managed it for many years back in the day. And me, I do everything you see production wise and logistics wise. And I also produced the last few albums. So the three of us have a major hand in everything that goes on in Twisted Sister. Everything that goes on both on and off the stage is pretty much run by a member of the band.”
As a recording act Twisted Sister’s heyday could be said to have been over their first three albums, Under The Blade, You Can’t Stop Rock n Roll and Stay Hungry, the latter of which produced the monster hits I Wanna Rock and We’re Not Gonna Take It, propelling the band to superstar status, selling nearly four million copies in the process. The 1985 follow up Come Out and Play was not as well received by fans and critics and Twisted Sister was beginning a precipitous and unforeseen downward slide that ended when the band essentially broke up in 1989. The 1987 album Love is For Suckers was supposed to be a Dee Snider solo project, but the record label insisted it come out as a Twisted Sister album. With the other band members’ hearts not into it, the album was an unsatisfying conclusion to what had been a terrific run.
But the band’s hellacious comeback, which was precipitated initially in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, lead to a permanent reunion in 2003. A year later, the band re-recorded the Stay Hungry album in its entirety, along with some bonus tracks, and released it under the name Still Hungry. A Twisted Christmas CD followed in 2006.
Mendoza said that although it was a legitimate, full-fledged reunion, Twisted Sister is really only a part time band – one that is hugely in demand and seemingly growing in popularity, especially in Europe and with an increasing number of younger fans.
“Since 2003 we never went on what you would call a tour. We would fly to Europe and do one or two shows and then come home. Two weeks later we would go back and do a couple more shows. We don’t get in a tour bus and drive from date to date for weeks or months at a time. The longest that we were ever away over the last 13 years was 2 ½ weeks. I like to say that Twisted Sister is the biggest part time band in the world. I think the most shows we have done in one year since 2003 was 22. And there was one year when we did two shows. We have really digressed into being part time, but we’re the biggest band doing it, and people keep come out to the shows, so we must be doing something right,” Mendoza said.
“If you really look at it, we’re a classic rock band. We’re playing the songs that everybody grew up with in the 1980s. We don’t really have any new music. We have a couple of new things that we have done since the 1980s, but nothing major. We don’t push any of that. We play the hits that the older fans grew up with, which the younger crowd, who listens to downloads, also know. I really think the key to our success and the number of people who want to see Twisted Sister is our approach to what we do.
“I don’t care if you are a comedian or a football player or baseball player. I don’t care if you’re even a writer, someone like you, I don’t care if you’re a member of a band or a solo artist like Carrie Underwood, or Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden or Ron White the comedian, it doesn’t matter. The one thing we all have in common is we’re entertainers. A football player is still an entertainer. Someone is being entertained by what they are doing on the field. If someone reads this article and they may agree or not agree with what you say or what I say, they’re being entertained. Whether it’s Twisted Sister or Billy Joel, or NASCAR or the NBA or hockey, you’re being entertained. If you weren’t being entertained you would turn it off and go do something else. And that’s so important to us. If we do our job, people will leave our show fulfilled. When they go to see Twisted Sister then never say, ‘well that was an okay show.’ It’s more like, ‘Twisted Sister rocked the shit out of us.’ We turn an audience from just an audience into fanatics. That’s how it goes.”
And folks watching the Twisted Sister Metal Meltdown will experience that on their TV screens in bold living colour. It’s advisable to crank up the volume too. The DVD package also includes a bonus documentary called Rockshow which highlights the band’s remarkable 40 year career.
For more information on the DVD, the band and its few remaining shows, visit http://www.twistedsister.com.
* Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com
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