Twisted Sister to Reunite for One-Off Awards Show
Twisted Sister announced plans to reunite for a one-off show later this month.
The surviving members – singer Dee Snider, guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda, and bassist Mark Mendoza – will perform at their Metal Hall of Fame induction in Los Angeles on Jan. 26. The group will be presented by Steve Vai and Mike Portnoy.
The Long Island veterans bowed out after a farewell tour in 2016, which followed the death of drummer A.J. Pero the previous year. At their last show in November 2016, Snider said he was “glad to cross the finish line, sad to see it end,” and later revealed the band had rejected “lucrative offers” to reform since then.
But when Ojeda tweeted, “Looking forward to our induction into the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame on Jan. 26, 2023, in L.A.," Snider followed with, "Looking forward to playing together for the first time since 2016 ... especially the rehearsal!”
While there’s been no comment on who’ll be behind the drum kit for the show at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, Portnoy could be a strong possibility. A longtime friend of Twisted Sister, he was a member of Adrenaline Mob before bowing out in 2013 to be replaced by Pero, who remained part of the lineup until he died in 2015.
Announcing the induction last year, the Metal Hall of Fame said in a statement, “Both ‘We’re Not Gonna take It’ [and] Twisted Sister’s other classic anthem, ‘I Wanna Rock,’ are not only considered to be two of the most influential videos in the history of heavy metal [and] MTV, but these two anthems are also the most licensed anthems in the history of heavy metal!”
The band said it was “honored to be recognized … and have our names alongside many of our peers.”