Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French is the Latest Old Dude to Incorrectly Claim Rock is Dead
Who wants to hear Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French’s opinion on the dumbest debate in rock music? Nobody? Well, I have to fill up an article, so I’m going to tell you. Apparently, French is joining the list of out-of-touch older rock artists echoing the dumb refrain of “rock is dead.” It’s not.
In a recent interview with Barstools and Bandtalk (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth), French was asked why he thinks rock is dead, and he started talking out his ass about there being no young rock stars:
“People say to me, ‘What makes you say rock is dead?’ Well, here’s my take on that. When I was 17 years old back in 1969, all my heroes — BEATLES, [THE ROLLING] STONES, [THE] WHO, [LED] ZEP [PELIN], FLOYD, [Jimi] Hendrix, [Bob] Dylan, GRATEFUL DEAD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE; you name it, you name ’em all — none of them were older than 27. Now think about this for a second. The greatest rock artists in the history of the world, when I was 17, were no older than 10 years more than me. Most of them were 25 to 27. Well, I say, name me a 27-year-old rock star right now. And nobody can name one.”
That would be a terrible argument even if it wasn’t wrong. Kat Moss of Scowl is currently 27 and Scowl’s EP Psychic Dance Routine first cracked the Billboard charts in 2023. Poppy was nominated for her first Grammy in 2021 when she was 26. The Linda Lindas first went viral in 2021 and they’re still all 20 or younger. But sure, there’s no young rock stars anymore. And even if that were the case, which it isn’t, why do all the rock artists have to be under 27 for rock to not be dead?
But French continued, on, saying:
“So when you tell me, ‘Rock isn’t dead, man. It’s all over the place,’ I go, well, okay, fine. I’m not saying that there are no rock bands. I’m just saying that the collective psyche that dictates current music trends and sociological impact of music, it’s not showing up in the rock world in terms of mass acceptance. What is showing up in the music world? Hip-hop, huge. Country, huge. Female pop artists, huge. You can rattle off 20 rappers under the age of 25, you can rattle off 20 female pop singers under 25, you can rattle off country artists by the ton. You’re not rattling off rock musicians. It doesn’t mean, clearly, that no one’s creating it. It just means that the body of what we constitute as the standard rock act — two guitars, bass drums, lead singer, blah, blah, blah, blah — is, for the most part, by and large, over. And if it is over, and people say to me, ‘Well, how do you feel about that, man?’ I don’t look at it and go, ‘Oh, why can’t it come back?’ I go, you had a 55-year run. I mean, hell, what doesn’t have a 55…? Big band had a 20-year run and jazz had a 20-year run. They had 20-year runs. Disco had a seven-year run. Then it all kind of comes as a niche product. Does it mean disco’s not around? No, disco’s around for certain people who like to listen to disco music. You can find the channel and listen to it all day long, but it’s not impacting the world. Same thing with jazz and classical music. It’s always gonna sell, there’s always gonna be a body of people out there buying it — wonderful — but the youth of America is not absorbing it and saying, ‘This is reflective of who we are.’”
I really have to wonder if any of these rock stars claiming rock to be dead are maybe just not listening to the young artists. Maybe, just maybe, 72-year-old Jay Jay French isn’t really keeping up with what the youth of America is doing. But, of course, that doesn’t stop them from pretending that they know what they’re talking about.
