Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French recently opened up about the band’s rocky early relationship with Atlantic Records. He shared the story in a discussion posted on Instagram.
French recalled how the label nearly shelved the band’s record over a budget dispute. He also described how the group toured for a year with little to no support before an unexpected turning point came in a face-to-face meeting with an Atlantic executive who had wanted nothing to do with them.
“They weren’t going to release the record because we went over budget by $4,500,” French said. “Now let me just put this in perspective. Michael Jackson can go over budget by $750,000. Def Leppard or Fleetwood Mac can go over budget by $2 million. We went over budget by $4,500, and they said, ‘Either pay us back or we’re not releasing your record.'”
“That’s how much they hated us,” he continued. “They hated the fact that we signed, but they couldn’t stop it because Saul Carson was Atlantic’s president in the UK. And then we went on tour with basically no tour support. We had money saved, and we did it in rental cars and trucks, and that went on for a year. I was doing some press up at Atlantic, and someone said, ‘You should meet Doug Morris.’ And I said, ‘Why? He hates my band, and we hate him.'”
French then described the meeting itself, where the executive’s tone shifted after hearing about the band’s sales and reputation on the road.
“So they take me in the office, and he looks at me, and he basically said, ‘Listen, you guys have killed yourself in the last year. Do you know how many records you sold in America?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’ He said, ‘Well, you sold 100,000 albums with us not putting a penny into it.’ And he said, ‘Furthermore, I received telegrams from local Atlantic reps from around the country: Twisted played here, blew the place apart. How come no support? How come no support? How come no support? How come?’ You know, like generally, like, Wow, this is an amazing band. How come you’re not supporting? And he went through a whole list of these names of these executives, who we knew.”
“And when the chairman of Warner Music in Canada said Twisted played here, blew the place apart. How come? What’s wrong with you? And he looked at me and he went, ‘I was wrong. I apologize.’ And he said, ‘If you give me the right record next year, I’ll make you the biggest band in the world.’ Now let me just say this: I was respectful when he said it, but I didn’t believe a word of it. But he did say these words, and think about how innocent this was.”
“He said, ‘Well, you know this new thing called MTV, right?’ We go, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘Well, you know who owns MTV, right?’ ‘No.’ He says, ‘Well, it’s owned by two corporations: American Express owned 50% of it, and Warner Music owned the other 50% of it.’ So he said, ‘Give me the right deal on the right song, and I’ll make you the biggest band in the world.'”
French closed the story by recalling his own skepticism at the time. He also described how the promise eventually led to one of the band’s biggest hits.
“And I walked out of the meeting, and I had dinner with my brother that night, and I told him the story, and he said, John, that’s the greatest thing in the world. I said, No, it’s not. He’s full of shit. He’s lying, like they’ve always lied to us. But you know what? He did hire Tom Werman. We created We’re Not Gonna Take It, and that’s why I’m basically on this show.”
French’s account lines up closely with the well-documented history of how Twisted Sister came to sign with Atlantic in the first place. It also helps explain why the relationship was so tense from the very start.
Atlantic had actually rejected Twisted Sister once before, during the band’s grueling club years. The label only came around after the band’s explosive appearance on the British music program “The Tube.” That earlier snub set the tone for years of friction, even after the label finally put pen to paper.
Doug Morris himself was no fan of the band before that pivotal office meeting. Atlantic executive Phil Carson championed Twisted Sister overseas and helped push the UK deal through. Carson brought the band to Morris, who responded dismissively, telling Carson to handle them himself rather than get personally involved.
That skepticism makes Morris’s eventual reversal all the more striking. After keeping his word, Morris personally recruited producer Tom Werman to work on the band’s next album, a decision that directly led to 1984’s “Stay Hungry” and its breakout single, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” The record became Twisted Sister’s biggest commercial success, propelled in large part by heavy MTV rotation.
The MTV connection Morris described in that office meeting was not an exaggeration. The network was indeed jointly owned by Warner Communications and American Express during that era. This gave Warner-affiliated labels like Atlantic real influence over which videos got airtime, a fact that makes Morris’s promise to French carry far more weight in hindsight.
