Jay Jay French: Twisted Sister Rock Star On Building A Million-Dollar Guitar Collection And Why Watches Are Next

 

After 1000’s of gigs, a dozen albums, platinum gross sales, MTV-featured movies and a bestselling e book, John French, a.okay.a. Jay Jay French, founder and lead guitarist of heavy steel legends Twisted Sister, it was future: he’s been a collector for many years.

 

Not simply any collector: along with a world-class assemblage of guitars, French hoards rock memorabilia — together with a staggering run of Fillmore East live performance packages due to attending practically each gig — and by extension vinyl records and the unique hi-fi gear on which to play them. More lately, although, French has been enamored of wristwatches.

 

For French, it started with vinyl, then guitars, which is unsurprising as music has been his life. He sympathizes with collectors. He understands the mindset as a result of he shares it. “My niece collects Coca-Cola bottles. Apparently, she’s obtained the biggest assortment of personally owned Coca-Cola bottles on this planet — no kidding. She’s been featured in newspapers. She has 10,000 bottles of Coca-Cola from each nook of planet Earth. You know, that is simply who we’re.”

 

In addition to being Twisted Sister’s founder, he was additionally the band’s enterprise brains, resulting in off-stage profession adjustments: motivational speaker, podcaster and now the writer of Twisted Business: Lessons from My Life in Rock ’n’ Roll. Part band historical past and half “” information, the e book explains French’s strategies for growing Twisted Sister into a world model with a number of income streams. He additionally contributes to record-collecting bible Goldmine, high-end audio magazines, and Inc. com, and devotes time to his music podcast, The Jay Jay French Connection: Beyond the Music.

 

French rattles off the numbers: “The band has been collectively since 1972. In our 53-year historical past, we’ve bought 35 million albums worldwide. We’ve performed over 9,000 reveals. We’ve headlined in 40 nations, and now we have about, I don’t know, 30 gold and platinum albums around the globe.” The band formally retired in 2016, however occasional reunions happen, whereas the earnings continues with reissued albums and the royalties from their two most-licensed onerous rock anthems, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.”

 

Retired or not, the band continues to courtroom controversy, although of a distinct type from its early “shock rock” days, when their look was someplace in-between the New York Dolls and Alice Cooper, scary the dad and mom of America’s youth. Of late, controversy affecting Twisted Sister has been political.

 

All it took was lead singer Dee Snider kicking off over Donald Trump’s MAGA followers in 2022, which returned the band to the information pages. Snider expressed how he felt about Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and different Trump-supporting Republicans utilizing “We’re Not Gonna Take It” at their marketing campaign rallies. Dee tweeted, “Attention QANON MAGAT FASCISTS, each time you sing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ bear in mind it was written by a cross-dressing, libtard, tree hugging half-Jew who HATES the whole lot you stand for. It was you and folks such as you that impressed each offended phrase of that tune.”

 

French says, “Dee could be very a lot aligned on the left politically. Don’t overlook: Twisted Sister was accused of destroying the morality of American youth again within the Nineteen Eighties, however the irony of Twisted Sister being accused of destroying the material of America was that Twisted Sister was additionally the straightest rock band within the historical past of heavy steel.”

 

As for Snider’s outrage, a part of it’s the helplessness recording artists expertise about who makes use of their songs, and the way they use them. Says French, “When Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, all of those different guys bitch a couple of politician, how they don’t like them utilizing their songs, it’s mainly simply posturing, as a result of they will’t actually take out an injunction.”

 

Does this rocker truly use his $20,000 guitars on tour?

With grueling schedules, studio classes and interminable air journey now not taking on all of his time, and becoming in between talking gigs and recording podcasts, French has the liberty to take pleasure in his amassing mania. “I knew, again once I was 10, 11, 12 that records would in all probability matter. So I began amassing them and cataloging them as a result of I’m simply that sort of an individual. I’m sort of an archivist. I feel that’s a elementary a part of the collector mentality.

 

“Let’s transfer ahead a few years, when the Fillmore East opened and I began to go to all these live shows. I believed to myself, wow, my technology is de facto wonderful. Maybe it’s going to matter to speak about this in 30, 40, 50 years. So let me begin amassing and saving all my packages, all my ticket stubs. Let me begin cataloging each present I am going to. And I did.

 

“I’ve a listing of all of the reveals. How many hours the [Grateful] Dead performed. I imply, that is loopy stuff that speaks to my collector mentality. So, if you come to my home, I pull out a grasp e book and present you all my packages. You’ll say to me, ‘How the hell did you do this? Were you tripping more often than not?’ The reply is, yeah. I used to be on acid the entire f**king time. But I used to be sensible sufficient to assume that this mattered, so I stored them.”

 

For any rock music fan, French’s archive is breathtaking. He pulls out his authentic Murray the Okay Show 1967 RKO Theater program, by which The Who and Cream opened for Wilson Pickett. “I’ve obtained this system from [the 1967 show] and I’ve the ‘Happy Jack’ EP that The Who signed. They had been strolling round Central Park and my pal Michael and I went as much as them as they had been strolling across the meadow.

 

“Remember, that is 1967 so I’m probably not clear what occurred, however we handed the band the British EP and so they all signed it — Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle. But right here’s the most effective half. Entwistle turns the sleeve round, and he sees ‘Whiskey Man,’ which is a tune he wrote. And beneath the composer, it stated ‘Daltrey.’ He crossed out Daltrey’s identify and wrote ‘Entwistle’ over it. If you’re a fan, that issues.”

 

Simon and Garfunkel. Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. The Young Rascals. Rock legend after rock legend, French noticed gig-upon-gig and has the packages to remind him. “But then I began studying Zap Comix, and I grew to become obsessive about them, so I collected all of the originals and all the unique Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics, and I’ve a complete stack of authentic artwork from them. Why? I don’t f**king know.”

 

Next got here the guitars. “I purchased my first guitar in 1967, a Fender Telecaster, and I purchased it for $135 or $140, brand-new on forty eighth Street. I bought the guitar about six months later. That similar guitar at this time would promote for about $20,000. Of course, I now have a 1966 mint Telecaster that I purchased 10 years in the past after they had been going for $10,000. It serves as a commemoration for the stupidity I had promoting my authentic one.”

 

French nonetheless rues the day he bought his first guitar. “Why did I promote it? I wished a Gibson Les Paul as a result of Eric Clapton performed one. I purchased a Les Paul Jr. from a junkie in Central Park on May 1, 1970. The purpose I do know the date is as a result of I used to be so paranoid that I used to be shopping for from a junkie that I made him signal a receipt.”

 

After Twisted Sister grew profitable, French was capable of take pleasure in guitars, not simply due to monetary freedom but additionally by means of journey, fame and his connections within the rock world. “So, the guitar factor goes on. My instincts had been right. I collected a large variety of classic guitars, and I used to be just about proper all the way in which down the road. That is an inherent expertise, making an attempt to determine what you want that the general public discerns as useful.”

 

At the extent of guitar amassing the place French exists, the costs are staggering as are the dangers, so values change into a significant consideration. French explains it’s “as a result of behind your thoughts you’re saying to your self, nicely, perhaps in the future I’ll promote this. But extra importantly, I need to have one thing that has a price now.”

 

With French’s assortment of Gibson Les Pauls so useful, does he play them? “I exploit one. The remainder of them, I simply preserve in storage, like most guitar gamers do. I imply, look, what number of pairs of footwear are you able to put on? I purchase mint variations as a result of I do know they’re going to be value extra.”

 

 

When French performs stay with Twisted Sister, he makes use of guitars made by Gibson-owned Epiphone. “Epiphone Les Pauls retail for $400 and so they’re completely advantageous, completely nice instruments. If I am going on tour with them and so they’re stolen, destroyed, no matter, I may care much less. I don’t even insure them. I give them away on the finish of my tour to my street crew or donate them to a charity.”

 

He’s been following the guitar market ever since guitars began to change into collectible, with commensurate values. “If you’re taking a timeline of collectibility within the guitar market from 1972 to at this time, aside from one interval, which was the crash of 2008, it’s a trajectory that has overwhelmed the inventory market. 2008 was the primary time that the market dipped within the 50 years that I’ve been amassing. And it dipped for a brief time period, nevertheless it recovered, and now it’s hotter than it has ever been. It’s f**king loopy. It is unnecessary to me. “I all the time say to myself, it’s obtained to finish, as a result of all these guys are dying with these unbelievable collections. If they stick their collections on the market, it’s going to convey the market down. Logic tells you the market goes to be watered down by, for instance, [Cheap Trick’s] Rick Nielsen when he dies or whoever,” says French, making reference to Nielsen’s gathering of greater than 500 guitars. “I can’t inform you why they preserve getting extra useful.”

 

The story behind his spontaneous $5,000 chronograph buy — and the way it opened the floodgates

As risky as guitars is watch amassing, which French has now added to his repertoire. “Fifteen years in the past, I used to be in a John Varvatos clothes retailer. I used to be again from tour with quite a lot of money in my pocket and I wished some ‘rock-and-roll’ garments. I’m strolling by means of the shop, and so they had a show of watches in a glass case, and I had no concept what I used to be taking a look at. Zero. I had no data of something apart from realizing the identify Rolex. I had a Seiko that my dad gave me in 1974. Other than that, nothing.

 

“I see an Ernst Benz watch, and it’s the Mario Batali [named for the famous chef]. And I believed, ‘I like the colour. It appears sort of cool.’ I had no concept what 42mm or 37mm meant. I had no concept what something meant. And I am going, ‘how a lot is it?’ They go, ‘5 grand.’ I used to be within the temper to purchase, so I purchased it. It’s a chronograph, and I didn’t even know what that meant or what to do with it. That just about was it till about 4 years in the past once I met a man who’s an obsessive watch collector. He grew to become a private pal of mine and I believed, I may get into watches as a result of I like turntables, I like issues that flip round. I like mechanical issues which are anachronistic.”

 

Inevitably, French’s new pal took him to a watch present. “All of a sudden, I’m in a world that I don’t know and I’m seeing names like Greubel Forsey, Vacheron Constantin, Moritz Grossmann, A. Lange & Söhne, and you’ll stroll as much as these individuals and have a dialog. I’m like, ‘How a lot is that watch?’ And I’m listening to ‘Oh, that’s $40,000’ or ‘that’s $100,000’ or ‘that’s $250,000’ and, ‘Well, you realize, we promote watches as much as 2 million bucks.’

 

“Now you must perceive, I wasn’t shocked by this. I used to be simply blown away that I used to be unaware of the place this market was. It didn’t shock me, as a result of if you get into the weeds of all this sort of luxurious shit, you be taught rapidly. If you’re a automotive collector, it’s possible you’ll by no means afford a Bugatti, however you must know a Bugatti exists. And you must know that they’re $3 million, $4 million, $5 million.

 

“This is strictly what occurred. Immediately my mind goes proper to cataloging and understanding why something is value what it’s value. So, I purchased a watch from that present — an Alpina that was $1,000.”

 

As is French’s wont, he immersed himself in watch lore, beginning with the fundamentals. “I grew to become actually obsessive about the dials, then the actions and why producers make the design decisions that they make. And all of it goes all the way down to the ‘meat and potatoes.’ What’s meat and potatoes within the amassing world? It is Rolex. You begin with Rolex to grasp what it’s about. Like, why is Rolex positioned the place it’s positioned?

 

“Now that is me. I didn’t know what a dive watch was. I didn’t know that there was a differentiation between costume watches, dive watches, this watch, that watch. Once I began to grasp the positioning of Rolex, the Daytona, the Submariner, then all the derivations … Then the world opens up. And then you definitely marvel why Patek is what it’s. And then I began to examine what number of watches these corporations make and what number of they promote in a 12 months. It simply triggered in me the identical collector want to be taught why issues are, in the identical manner I’ve achieved with my guitars, the identical manner I’ve achieved with audio.

 

“I’ve been into guitars and audio for 60 years. Watches, I felt I needed to do some actually quick studying, as a result of I needed to convey myself in control, as a result of I didn’t have 60 years’ value of watch amassing in my blood. But I’ll inform you this — my want to grasp and recognize the know-how of why these high-end watches are constructed was no completely different. I’m in severe awe of the entire concept of them.”

 

In his quick time as a watch fanatic, French has acquired “in all probability 20. I’ve a Rolex Submariner. I’ve three Tudors as a result of I rapidly discovered that Tudors had been just like the Epiphone model of Rolexes.”

 

Despite his standing in rock, and 40 years of dressing in a mode that blended glam tropes with heavy steel, French states that he’s “not an ostentatious man.” In the identical manner that he’s glad to make use of Epiphone guitars on the street as a substitute of his irreplaceable Gibsons or Fenders, he wears Tudors proudly “as a result of Tudors are nice rattling watches. I’ve a Black Bay, a Royal and my newest one is a Pelagos and I like them. They’re magnificent items made by the identical primary firm, individuals and machines, and so they say ‘Tudor,’ they don’t say ‘Rolex,’ so I don’t have to fret about getting killed over carrying it.

 

“I spend quite a lot of time in Mexico. Do you realize what I put on in Mexico? I put on my Casio G-Shock as a result of nobody offers a shit. I’ve a 10-year-old G-Shock that’s beat to crap. Works completely and it in all probability retains higher time than every other watch I’ve as a result of it’s hooked up to my telephone which is hooked up to the atomic clock. So, I don’t fear about accuracy, I’ll put on the G-Shock all day lengthy.”

 

At the urging of his spouse, French handled himself to the Rolex Submariner, however he was not excited about struggling the ready lists. French’s spouse went to varsity with a lady who’s married to the proprietor of one of many oldest Rolex sellers within the United States, “and we’re having dinner one night time. And I checked out him and I stated, ‘Is it actually true that someone has to attend two years?’ He stated to me, ‘John, I’ve 4,000 orders for Rolexes, and I solely get 1,000 watches a 12 months’ and this is only one retailer. His spouse checked out him and stated, ‘So in different phrases, if John wished a Sub, he’d have to attend two years?’ He checked out her and stated, ‘No, he wouldn’t.’ So she stated to me, ‘Do you need a Submariner?’

 

“A pair months later, I get a telephone name, ‘Your Sub has arrived.’ Black, no date, quite simple, an incredible watch, however do I get pleasure from carrying it? The drawback is, it’s an announcement greater than the rest, and I’m too self-conscious about it, which is bizarre, proper? Because it’s only a watch, nevertheless it makes me really feel bizarre to put on one thing that’s an announcement. So, what did I do? I purchased a bunch of cheap Bulovas and different dive watches that value like, $1,000, look nice and preserve good time and I put on them fairly ceaselessly, as a result of nobody pays any consideration.

 

“The drug addicts and the sellers, all of them know what a Rolex appears like. If you’re carrying a Timex or a Citizen, they don’t trouble you. They don’t take a look at you. So, I’ve a Rolex. I put on it occasionally. It’s a rattling nice watch. I find it irresistible. But am I obsessive about proudly owning a Daytona? Am I obsessive about proudly owning every other mannequin of Rolex? You know, watches are watches, they’re instruments and as I’m comfy sufficient to play a $400 Epiphone Les Paul in entrance of 100,000 individuals, I’m comfy sufficient to put on a Tudor or a Seiko over a Rolex.

 

“However, I instantly entered the Omega world of Co-Axial actions. And I rapidly joined the Grand Seiko world, as a result of if you happen to’re going to match high quality for high quality, greenback for greenback, Grand Seiko makes a advantageous watch.”

 

When requested if there are every other watches he may think about shopping for, French says with out hesitation, “completely Grand Seiko, unquestionably, I feel their mechanics are great. Then, in fact, there’s Credor, which takes Grand Seiko to the following stage. So, from a collector’s standpoint, I might take a look at a Credor, or top-end Grand Seiko. I may inform you this for absolute certain: I might with out hesitation purchase an A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia, which I got here shut to purchasing at that watch present.”

 

French is now previous the purpose of no return. “It’s in my coronary heart. I perceive it, I recognize it, the know-how, the gears, the issues. They’re simply mind-blowing to me. I simply love them.”