ADRENALINE MOB PAYS TRIBUTE TO A.J.PERO, VIDEO POSTED ONLINE, TWISTED SISTER GUITARIST JAY JAY FRENCH DISCUSSES FUTURE OF THE BAND
On March 21st, Adrenaline Mob played a tribute to Twisted Sister and Adrenaline Mob drummer, A.J.Pero at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey.
Jay Jay from Twisted Sister finished night with his favorite joke that A.J. told him and then performed the Sister classic, You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll.
Watch a video below from the show. AJ will be missed but not forgotten.
In related news, Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French called into Eddie’s Sirius/XM, Eddie Trunk Live, show yesterday (March 23rd) discussing Pero’s health and the future of Twisted Sister.
He said of Pero’s health, “You know, he would be in the dressing room… Drummers are like… They’re the most… ‘Oh, my arm. My shoulder.’ That kind of a thing,” French said. “Put the Bengay on and take the aspirin. But that’s stuff that you just figured were like battle scars — that kind of a thing. I didn’t know the extent… that he had heart problems; he never confided in me. In fact, here’s the ironic thing… On Thursday [March 19], I had to call him, because I had to bring him up to date on what was going with the band, ’cause so much stuff is happening. We’ve got a documentary coming out this year on the beginning of the band [and our] history; we’ve got, like, three CDs coming out with live stuff from back in the day. A.J.’s on one of them. The Donington concert’s coming out for the first time on CD. And I said to A.J., ‘You know, we’ve got to really sit down and plan what we’re gonna do, because we’ve got this DVD in Vegas that’s supposed to be filmed at the end of May. And the band’s thinking about, you know, maybe we should put a plan together to figure out… you know, maybe it’s time to bow out. There’s so many things in the works, there’s so many plans and things to discuss. And he said, ‘Listen, there’s one thing you have to know.’ He goes, ‘My shoulder’s been bothering me, and I’m leaving the ADRENALINE MOB tour, so when you hear through social media that I’m not on the tour, there’s no problem. It’s just my shoulder. I’ll get into rehab for the summer.’ This is what he says to me. Just like this. He goes, ‘Don’t worry about anything. All the dates are good. I’m good. Everything’s good,’ I said, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘When are you home?’ He said, ‘I’m playing The Chance [in Poughkeepsie], and then I’m home Sunday.’ And I said, ‘Let’s get together Monday.’ He says, ‘You’ve got it, brother.’ That was it….Here’s what I think. That shoulder pain wasn’t the muscle strain. It was indicative of something far worse. But, you know, the problem in metal and rock and roll in general is that we always tend to think it’s the alcoholics who are gonna go. Those are the obvious ones. The stories you hear about John Bonham, Keith Moon… They tear up hotels, they’re drunk, they make real spectacles of themselves, [and then] they die. Those are the guys [where] you just go, ‘Okay, well, they lived that kind of life.’ Like the fact that Keith Richards is alive, I think, is kind of mind-boggling to me. But having said that, A.J. wasn’t one of those guys.”
On the future of Twisted Sister, French stated, “Dee [Snider, vocals] is flying in tomorrow, and we’re having a meeting on Wednesday. And we’re gonna discuss several things. We’re gonna discuss the near term, which is the concert in Vegas, which is May 30th. And we’re gonna discuss the middle term, which is getting through the shows in Europe this year. And then we’re gonna [talk about] the long term, which is: Is 2016 gonna be a statement year for us? Is it gonna be…? Are we gonna say…? ‘Cause 2016 is the 40th anniversary of me, Dee and Eddie [Ojeda, guitar] together. And it may be time. It may be.”
