TWISTED SISTER - "Why We Wouldn’t Let ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ Be Trump’s Anthem"
In a new column for Forward.com, Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French reveals how and why the band did not allow president-elect Donal Trump use their classic song "We're Not Gonna Take It" during his run for office. Following is an excerpt:
Media controversy makes for big headlines. The follow-up — not so much.
In the build-up to the inauguration with the difficulties of booking acts to play for Trump, NPR host Kurt Andersen was discussing the president-elect’s musical taste. On the show, political analyst John Heilemann sang the chorus of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” before commenting, “That song could have been the theme song of the entire campaign. I’m surprised it wasn’t.”
Here’s why it wasn’t.
Several months ago my band, Twisted Sister, was thrust into the national debate because Donald Trump was using our anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” at his campaign rallies.
This caused an uproar that gathered volume when Dee Snider, our singer, defended Trump’s use of the song. Dee noted that Trump, whatever you think of him, is an outlier who bucks the system. So, in his own particular way he represents rebellion — the hallmark of the message that Twisted Sister always tried to foster.
What Dee was doing was attempting to express his own opinion and walk a fine line between endorsing and repudiating Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. But because it makes for big headlines, our stance was reported in the press as “Twisted Sister Supports Trump for President!”
Our fans, on email, Facebook and Twitter (both for and against Trump), went at it.
Many of my friends who absolutely hated Trump wanted to know how I, as manager and owner of the Twisted Sister trademark, could let this happen.
I was accused, by those who hated Trump but didn’t know me personally, of being a media whore who obviously must have gotten paid “tons of money” to let this happen.
And then Trump stopped using the song.
Over the past 20 years, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has become one of the most licensed songs in the world for TV shows, commercials and movies. But because the band’s personal political leanings have always been all over the map, we have never allowed the song to be “officially” used by any political group, left or right.
So though it has been sung at mass events in over 30 countries, the band could not allow the song to be associated with Trump’s campaign. Therefore, with the band’s full support, Dee asked, in a private conversation, that the song be withdrawn from the Trump playlist.
It didn’t need the press. It didn’t need public shaming. But our song stopped getting played and didn’t become the anthem of the Trump campaign. For one of the louder, brasher bands of the past few decades, we chose not the loudest way, not the sexiest way, not the PR dream way, to avoid that particular legacy.
Andrew Horn, the director of the Twisted Sister documentary, We Are Twisted F***ing Sister!, has uploaded the first ever promo clip he created for the film.
Says Horn: “This is the first promo I ever made for the Twisted Sister movie, using outtakes from the interview I did with Jay Jay for the Klaus Nomi movie and some DVDs that I made from material that Jay Jay had kicking around. How far we've come!”
The setting is mid-1970s New York City: five rockers decked in platform boots and dramatic make-up embarked on a heavy metal journey. Little did they know the impact they would make, and that, forty years later, they would still be renowned for their songs, one-of-a-kind live shows, and take-no-prisoners attitude.
We Are Twisted F***ing Sister! is the 134-minute documentary film by Andrew Horn capturing that expedition from bar band to international stardom.
Charging out of the gate with a lethal combination of grit and glitter, Twisted Sister (Jay Jay French, Dee Snider, Eddie Ojeda, Mark “The Animal” Mendoza, and the late A.J. Pero) established themselves as one of the staple acts of Glam Rock and Heavy Metal with anthems “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.” However, “the band that killed disco” was no overnight success.
Andrew Horn, who is known for his films East Side Story (named one of the 10 best films of the year by Time Magazine), The Nomi Song, Doomed Love, and The Big Blue, said of the film: “I realized as I was working on the film, that it was really very much a story of how a band becomes a band. They are truly unique in that their overnight success actually took 10 years, so you really get to experience everything Twisted Sister went through to do it. I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced any group of musicians as ferocious...or as funny.”
We Are Twisted F***ing Sister! puts the fan in the trenches with the band from their early, hungry days in New York City onward through their legendary career. Recounted directly from the band themselves, their managers, and biggest fans, We Are Twisted F***ing Sister! is the mesmerizing, never-before-told story of the ten grueling years leading up to the band’s break out success.
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