Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French on the ‘huge price’ of being a rockstar: “I don’t even know if it’s worth it”
The guitarist argues that fairy tale endings are hard to come by in the industry.
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Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French admits he doesn’t know if the ‘huge price’ he paid to become a rock star was worth it after all.
The guitarist was speaking to Kylie Olsso, when he called the music industry a “fucking horrible business” where fairy tale endings are hard to come by.
“The truth is — you know when they tell little girls at Disneyland that when you get married to your prince, it’s happily ever after? You know, that bullshit they just give you when you’re young. It’s the same bullshit in the music business. It’s like, it ain’t happily ever after, motherfucker.”
“The price I paid for that shit — I don’t even know if it’s worth it.”
“The music business is a fucking horrible business,” French continued. “And you have to have a certain ability to withstand the bullshit of this business in order to succeed in it. It’s not just that you want to be a ‘rock star’. Fuck that, you know?”
“So if… one day I said, ‘Oh, I want to become famous and a rock star!’ And then someone said, ‘No man, to go there, you’re going to be exposed to more crap than you could possibly imagine; meet more fucked up people than you can possibly imagine; hear more lies than you could possibly imagine; deal with more rip-offs than you could possibly imagine; deal with mob guys, be threatened… all the stuff that has nothing to do with playing guitar in a band.”
“If it was just playing guitar in a band, that would be one thing. But man, all of this is because of way bigger things. And the price one pays is huge.”
French then cited George Harrison as an example, saying the late Beatle “was the most unhappy guy in the world” despite being in the “biggest band in the world.”
“He hated it, the whole thing. He’s why we’re here — and he fucking hates it. And he hated stardom. And he hated the interpersonal bullshit, and he hated the business and… So, it is what it is.”
He continued: “David Bowie has a quote about fame that I happen to agree with. What Bowie said was, ‘The only tangible value that fame has is that you could get a reservation in a restaurant when you need it; and if you need a good doctor you can pretty much get one right away.”
“That is about the sum of the fucking value of rock ’n’ roll celebrity.”