Twisted Sister guitarist Eddie Ojeda recently opened up about the band’s upcoming 2026 fall shows, explaining why former frontman Dee Snider had to step down and why Sebastian Bach was selected to take his place. According to the guitarist, the dynamic singer is uniquely qualified for the heavy metal role.
During a recent appearance on the “Headbangers Rock Show,” Eddie Ojeda clarified the timeline of the reunion. He revealed that Dee Snider was actually the one who originally proposed getting the legendary group back together to celebrate their 50th anniversary, but unexpected health challenges forced him to bow out.
“Well, originally Dee wanted to do this. I guess we were getting offers [for shows], and he was hearing stuff. And he was the first person to suggest it, because myself and Jay Jay [French], we weren’t even thinking about it. And he kind of motivated us to do it. And [it was] the 50th anniversary of the whole thing, and we said, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’ And then things can change in six months. Even myself, I had to have a foot surgery, but I could have held off and done the tour and done [the surgery] afterwards. But because we canceled, I was able to do it now and get it out of the way. But, like I said, things changed,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Ojeda continued: “Apparently, when we first started talking about it — it came up in August of last year — [Dee] sort of talked us into it, ‘Hey, let’s do this. It’ll be great, the three of us out there.’ ‘Cause we’ve been together the longest — me, [Dee and Jay Jay]… We’ve had different drummers and bass players, but the three of us have been doing it this whole time. So things kept going, and we booked all these shows to do in Europe, all these big festivals, headlining, and it looked really good. And then I guess Dee ended up having some issues with his heart, with hypertension and things like that, which I’ve had for 10 years, which you get medication for it and you don’t freak out over it. And I think just because he performs at the level that he does, it’s more intense for him. And I understand it. He set the bar very high for himself, being the kind of performer he is. And rather than do it — which, I think, people would’ve been cool with him toning it down a little bit, but I guess he just really freaked out over it and talked with his family and just decided to cancel all the shows. Which we were very surprised, but it sort of put us into a situation where [we thought], ‘Well, let’s do some shows. Let’s do something.’ We weren’t gonna do anything. We were gonna cancel everything.”
With their massive European festival run officially canceled, the band decided to salvage a handful of American dates. When searching for a replacement, Sebastian Bach quickly emerged as the top candidate.
“Some promoters talked about Sebastian [filling in], and we did think about Sebastian, being friends with him for a long time. I’ve done several shows with Sebastian, doing different things and different projects, and even recorded a couple of things with him. And the way he performs — he’s a huge Twisted fan, I mean, huge, and he’s taken a lot [of influence] from Dee. He has his own thing, but he is very much the same type of performer. And his name sort of came up first, but then we just said, ‘He might be too busy or not into it.’ We called him up and he was really excited about it and flew in to rehearse and it went really well, a lot better than anybody thought. And one of the promoters was there and a few people, and they were blown away by the way it sounded. And, like I said, he’s probably the only person that could replace someone like Dee, because of the similarities between the two of them and the way they sing, the way they perform. So we decided to give it a try and see how it went, and it went very well. So we decided, ‘The summer shows are done. We can’t do the festivals. But let’s do the American shows.’ So I think we’re gonna do six shows and see how it goes.”
Addressing the public response to the shocking lineup change, the guitarist noted that the feedback has been overwhelmingly supportive, driven largely by fans eager for 1980s nostalgia.
“It seems very positive. We’ve gotten 80%, I would say, positive — really curious to hear it and see it and get a chance to see us perform the songs again. So that’s been very positive. Of course, there’s always gonna be some haters that say whatever, no matter what. But, actually, I was quite surprised at all the attention it got. You would think it was one of The Beatles or something. I saw the Internet just blew up with it. I couldn’t get away from it… I was really surprised, ’cause we haven’t done anything in 10 years. And I think maybe that’s another thing that’s adding to it, because at this point the nostalgia behind Twisted, the videos we did, the energy level, everything that goes with that, you don’t really see that anymore, so people are really excited to see that kind of thing, like an ’80s kind of vibe, nostalgia that people are crazy about.”
For the upcoming 2026 performances, Twisted Sister will feature Sebastian Bach on vocals alongside guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda. The rhythm section will consist of bassist Russell Pzütto (replacing Mark “The Animal” Mendoza) and drummer Joey Cassata (known for his work on Ace Frehley‘s album 10,000 Volts). Joey Cassata is stepping in for Joe Franco, who was initially slated to fill in for the late A.J. Pero but is currently unavailable.
While the full itinerary of the six planned American shows has yet to be revealed, the band is currently scheduled to play the Alaska State Fair on September 4.
