A bit about Jay Jay French.

Guitarist, producer, manager, New York historian and world traveler. That is all.

No, not really. This is Jay Jay French we’re talking about here. Larger than life. Able to leap buildings in a single bound. OK, maybe not leap them, but guaranteed he could probably tell you a story about almost every historical building in the New York City skyline, and then some.

This high school dropout initially disappointed his liberal Jewish mother (who was one of New York state’s campaign managers for John F. Kennedy’s presidential run) but went on to form one of metal’s most successful bands, Twisted Sister in 1973.

When Twisted Sister released STAY HUNGRY on Atlantic Records on May 10, 1984, the metal world was never the same. Containing the iconic hits, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” (along with “The Price”), Twisted turned the music world on its ears and revolutionized MTV with a pair of accompanying videos that became two of the network’s most popular to this day.

Stay Hungry gained multi-Platinum status with sales of more than 7,000,000 copies world wide, going multi-platinum in 8 countries.

A few impressive stats compliments of Jay Jay and Twisted:

• Played 2,800 club dates from 1973-1982 (all prior to signing with Atlantic Records in January 1983
• Over 9,000 performances as of the summer 2010
• Sold 20 million records worldwide
• 37 Gold and Platinum Awards from eight countries
• The Metal anthems “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” now rank among the most licensed songs for movies, TV shows, commercials, video games in the history of 80’s metal
• Headlined 40 countries
• In 2006 Jay Jay French/ Twisted Sister were first year inductees (along with Billy Joel) into the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame and, in 2023, inducted into the International Heavy Metal Hall of Fame.
• Celebrating 43 years as the founding and only remaining, original member of Twisted sister (since 1973)
• Manager of Twisted Sister 1975-1980, 1988 to present
• Ran and completed 2 NYC marathons 1981 time 3 hr. 50 min.

The Pinkburst Project

For the first and probably only time ever, Gibson, Epiphone, Marshall, Fender, Vox, MESA-Boogie, Gretsch, Hartke, Diamond, Ruokangas and Orange teamed up in 2010 to create the only unified collection of one-of-a-kind matched instruments in history to raise money and awareness on behalf of Uveitis.

On April 24, 2011, the Skinner Auction House in Boston, Masachusetts hosted The Pinkburst Project auction and raised over $150,000 to benefit ongoing work at the Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts on behalf of The Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation. (http://www.mersi.us) A total of a dozen custom guitars and custom amps were put up for auction.  In addition, Twisted Sister performed a sold out concert at Manhattan’s Nokia Theater, with proceeds going directly to the Uveitis Foundation.

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Jay Jay has been in the rock’n’roll circus for over four decades, and knows both sides of the stage and the microphone. Yet he keeps away from the gossip headlines and glamour nonsense that the industry is so infected with. He’s a New Yorker, but more so an international player that impresses on all levels. He’s tough when he’s on a mission, but his dedication, knowledge and trust is unheard of.

Jay Jay is the real deal – as a musician, producer, song writer and manager and he’s one of the most genuine persons I have had the pleasure of working with in the music industry. I’m proud to call him a good friend.

Håkon Grav/Photograve Management