Twisted Sister is reuniting for a 50th anniversary tour, ten years after retiring from the road.
“If you’re lucky enough to be in a band that people still want to see after fifty years(!), how can you not answer the call?,” singer Dee Snider declared in a press release announcing the band’s return. “In 2026, Twisted Fucking Sister will hit stages around the world because WE STILL WANNA ROCK!!”
Snider will be joined by longtime guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda. Mark Mendoza is not mentioned in the press release, which instead states that Russell Pzutto from Snider’s solo projects will play bass. Joe Franco, who played on Twisted Sister’s 1987 album Love is for Suckers, will play drums.
Dates and venues will be announced at a later date.
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Twisted Sister played the last show of their 40 and Fuck It farewell tour on Nov. 12, 2016. Drummer A.J. Pero died the previous March, with his spot filled by Mike Portnoy for the band’s final shows.
“[I am] 100% committed to not reuniting,” Snider told Metal From the Inside in 2021. “I’m sure we get offers. It doesn’t matter what they’re offering; we’re not doing it.”
Snider, Mendoza and French reunited for a 2023 performance in which the band was inducted into the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame. Ojeda was forced to miss the show due to COVID.
In 2024, Snider began to change his stance on a reunion. “As a result of all the bands retiring and dying, the offers get bigger and bigger for the holdouts to come back. So we’re on eight years now of not playing, with no intention of coming back,” he told The Hook Rocks. “But at some point, you’ve gotta say, ‘Well, how can I say no to that?’ Is it there yet? No. Is it getting close? Yeah. Is there talk amongst us, like, ‘Well, in the event that the numbers do get there, and they sure as hell seem to be going in that direction, how are we gonna do this?’ So there’s a little bit of that conversation.”
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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening, except as noted below.
