Twisted Sister founder and guitarist Jay Jay French has offered a founder’s perspective on the band’s improbable 50th-anniversary reunion, revealing new details about the tour, including the crucial news that the celebration will begin on U.S. soil. In a new video message, he confirmed that the celebratory world tour will kick off with an American show in May of 2026 before the band heads to Europe to headline major festivals.
The announcement, made on Friday, September 12, gives fans the first concrete piece of scheduling for the highly anticipated reunion.
“Well, the secret’s out. Everybody knows Twisted Sister is gonna come back in 2026 to celebrate our 50th anniversary,” French began. “We are getting together and we’re gonna kick off with an American show sometime in May, I believe. We’re still confirming the dates. All the rest of ’em are gonna be headlining the bigger shows in Europe. And we’re just looking forward to it.”
In his message, French took a moment to reflect on the band’s long and often tumultuous history, clarifying that the anniversary specifically celebrates the formation of the band’s classic creative nucleus. “The core of the band, which is Dee, me and Eddie — the three of us form the core of Twisted Sister — have been together since February 16th, 1976. So we are celebrating, essentially, our 50th anniversary as the core,” he explained. He then humorously acknowledged the band’s notoriously revolving door of members: “I believe there’s 14 ex-members at this point, which is kind of incredible, if you think about it.”
For French, reaching this milestone places Twisted Sister in a rarified category of rock and roll endurance. “Back in the day, I think when we started, if someone said to me, ‘How many years you gonna last?’ I’d say, ‘Uh, five, 10, maybe,’ ’cause The Beatles lasted 10,” he said. “So for all the bands that lasted 50… it’s an honor to be in that very elite company of bands who’ve been together this many years and having fans that followed [us] and stayed loyal to the band for this many years.”
The reunion itself was initiated by the band’s most vocal opponent of getting back together: frontman Dee Snider. In a recent interview, Snider explained that after years of vowing he would “Never. Ever.” perform as Twisted Sister again, hitting the personal milestone of his 70th birthday caused him to reflect.
“I realized, wow, next year is 50 years since I joined Twisted Sister… and that’s significant,” Snider said. “And I called the guys up and said, ‘What do you think?’ I mean, almost as a challenge to each of us to say, ‘One more time. Can we do it one more time?'”
