Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French recently addressed his band’s long-standing absence from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, sharing his thoughts in a conversation on The Mistress Carrie Podcast.
French pointed out that the Hall Of Fame tends to prioritize musical influence and career impact over pure record sales, and he argued that Twisted Sister’s commercial success and touring record should count for more than they have.
“The thing that’s ironic about that statement is that our record sales are up there,” French said. “So if you’re using record sales internationally, we’re at the 30-million mark, and I’ve got, like, 37 gold and platinum albums from around the world, and we’ve played in 40 countries as a headliner around the world.”
French then drew a comparison to The Velvet Underground, a band whose modest sales are often cited as proof that commercial numbers don’t always reflect lasting influence.
“But you take a band like The Velvet Underground — there’s a perfect example of what you say,” he continued. “There’s a cliché about The Velvet Underground: ‘The Velvet Underground only sold 3,000 albums, but everybody who bought one started a band.’ And I love that. I love that cliché, ’cause we’re also big Velvet Underground fans. And so that’s exactly to your point. That’s exactly to your point. Now, The Velvet Underground is in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I believe. So is Lou Reed. And they are justifiably in it. There are some artists, I don’t believe, are justifiably in it, but that’s a political game, ’cause I think you know as well as I do there’s politics involved in every Hall Of Fame.”
He went on to suggest that the induction process is shaped as much by business and regional bias as by artistic merit, tying it back to his band’s Long Island roots.
“It’s music ‘business’, and I know the politics of the business,” French said. “And so it almost doesn’t surprise me that we don’t get the respect we should get, ’cause we’re from Long Island, and Long Island doesn’t get a lot of respect. It really doesn’t. I mean, yes, Billy Joel’s from Long Island — I get that — but Long Island in general doesn’t get that much respect in the industry, even though we’re only a stone’s throw from Manhattan. We just don’t.”
French also recalled how Twisted Sister’s ticket-selling power outpaced better-known CBGB-era acts during the same period.
“And that’s the irony, is that Twisted Sister was selling out these gigantic rooms in the New York area at the time the CBGBs was exploding,” he said. “But those bands at CBGBs, which was Blondie, Television, the Ramones, those guys couldn’t work in any of the places we were playing ’cause they couldn’t sell tickets. We, however, were selling out 5,000-seaters all around New York and never playing New York City.”
He closed by describing how the band proved its drawing power in Manhattan itself, even without a record deal at the time.
“So when our manager suggested we should play New York, we said, ‘There’s no place big enough to hold us,'” French said. “Remember, this is 1979 — no record deal. And he said, ‘Why don’t we play the Palladium Theater, which holds 3,500 people?’ And I said, ‘No band without a deal has ever sold out the Palladium.’ And we did — twice. And that was a point we made to the music business, which is, ‘You guys don’t respect us, you don’t understand us, but our following is massive.’ And we had a massive following.”
French’s frustration is not new. The numbers behind his argument back up the case he has been making for years.
Twisted Sister’s commercial track record remains substantial by any measure. The band has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide and has earned 31 silver, gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications across eight countries. That commercial footprint extends well beyond the U.S., with the band headlining in more than 40 countries throughout its career.
The band’s breakout 1984 album, “Stay Hungry,” stands as the clearest example of that commercial strength. The record went three-times platinum in the United States and five-times platinum in Canada. Those numbers place it among the best-selling metal albums of its era, far outpacing the sales figures of many acts already enshrined in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Twisted Sister has not been shut out of every hall of fame conversation, however. The band was inducted into the Metal Hall Of Fame, an honor French has said he values even as he remains critical of how the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame treats the genre.
French has been vocal about that disconnect in other interviews as well. He has argued that the Rock Hall’s voting body lacks a real understanding of metal as a genre and its impact on rock history. His comments on the podcast echo that long-running critique, framing Twisted Sister’s exclusion as part of a broader pattern rather than an isolated snub.
