Twisted Sisters‘ guitarist Jay Jay French talked to Metal & Booze about how staright his band was and that they had higher moral standards than the PMRC which questioned them. Take a look:
“The band was the straightest rock band in the world. We didn’t allow drugs and alcohol in the band; we fired anybody who did it. That’s not the story of Mötley Crue or anybody else; it’s our story, though, so that’s our thing.”
“We were so straight and we were so hard-working – we were being accused of stuff when we were probably straighter than half those congressmen who were questioning us [during the 1985 PMRC congressional hearings] who probably had alcohol and drug problems, and we didn’t.”
“So it was kind of ironic that we were probably more morally upstanding. We didn’t gamble. We were married. We had families. We didn’t do drugs. We didn’t drink. We were just in that crazy heavy metal band portraying this crazy lifestyle.”
“I don’t mean to say it was an act, meaning we were trying to fool people but, in fact, we portrayed a crazy band. We were going out there and having fun and just looking as crazy as we could and acting as crazy as we could, but when we went home, we went home to our families and our kids.”
“And we didn’t gamble and we didn’t drink. And not for reasons other than the fact that we thought drinking was dumb and gambling was stupid. If you do those things and you get in the way of us being successful, because you’re too stoned to show up on time and you’re too drunk to be in rehearsal, it affects my livelihood.”
“So that’s why we became so anti-drug and alcohol. It makes sense, but there are not that many bands who adhere to that. So it worked for us. The point is that Dee [Snider, vocals] shared that philosophy with me when he joined [in 1976, four years after the band was founded].”
“I said, ‘You don’t drink or do drugs?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Great. It’s so hard to find people who don’t do those things.’ People join bands to do those things. So when you say to someone, ‘It’s a requirement.’ And he went, ‘No, man. I don’t. I never did.’ And I went, ‘You’re the guy.’ Then, of course, he became a great songwriter and frontman.”
