Empire Extreme is going to be on hand for the first annual HeadBangers Con in Portland on November 10th and 11th.

Before the event, we got to talk to Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister about being a part of this con, and how Twisted Sister still and will always be in everybody’s  heart.

Empire: You all excited about the HeadBangers Con?

EO: Yeah it sounds good, it’s the first one. It sounds like they really have their shit together as far as doing it the right away. The communications and everyone has been cool so far. You have other cons that have included some musicians but this is one is mostly for them so it’s a great idea.

EE: Did you guys have any idea they Stay Hungry was going to be the album to get Twisted Sister to the spotlight?

EO: it’s funny you never know what album is going to do it, I felt good about the album when we were writing the songs and rehearsing, I felt that it was a very solid album. There was a vibe in the air, and it was our time. Motley Crue broke around the same time. We had an album that was #10 on the charts at the same time you had Thriller and Purple Rain. Considering  we were a rock/metal band that was amazing. We opened up for Judas Priest at that time.

EE: Yeah that was the album that got me into Twisted Sister. I listened to that album so much and still rock out to it.

EO: it’s one of those albums that is in so many homes. I heard that a lot that many people say that’s their main album.

EE: What you think about the We are Twisted Fucking Sister documentary?

EO: I’m really happy about it. It took him almost 10 years to make it and I was surprised about some of the footage he got for it. It showed how hard we had to work to get where we ended up. It was hard work but was the best way to do it.

EE: Do you have any plans on doing a signature guitar?

EO: Yes and no it’s come across a couple of times. I’m going to be doing one soon with Michael Kelly Guitars, they are exclusive with Sam Ash, make a really nice guitar and my friend Steve Pisani is taking over the company and we are going to make a signature one.

EE: How was the last show that you guys did together?

EO: It was in Mexico, the weather was horrendous it was raining so bad. It was ok to play but the rains never stopped.

EE: Maybe that was somebody telling you something

EO: Yeah the universe was sad that day. We are still a band we never broke up. We still put out stuff we never released and different packages.

EE: How was it like filming the scene in the PeeWee’s Big Adventure?

EO: That was a fun day. It’s funny you bring that up, I got in trouble that day. I was one of the first people there and was hanging out with Tim and Paul, and I meet him and Paul is smoking a cigarette and talking to me in a normal voice, which was weird cause I’ve only ever hear him before as peewee. But when we was there they had the peewee bikes like 10 of them lined up at the huge studio. I guess if one would break or whatever they had a few of them ready. I love to ride bikes and I didn’t think that it would be a problem so I jump on one and ride around the lot having a good ole time, and the security come running after me saying “you can’t ride those bikes, those cost 10,000 a piece” that’s a lot of money for a bike. I didn’t realize at the time that they would be a prop, I just wanted to ride it. And I got to ride the PeeWee Herman bike.

EE: Yeah how many people can say that.

EO: Yeah exactly, I wish they had cell phones back then would have been great to do a selfie while I was riding it (laughs)

EE: How did you guys get hooked up with Mark Metcalf to do the Video for you guys?

EO: Marty Callner after he did our video he became a big time director of videos. He had been working with HBO and started to wanting to do music videos and I don’t remember how we got hooked up with Mark but we loved his Neidermeyer character from Animal House and thought he would be great as a pain in the ass father. It turned out to be great, we couldn’t use the same name because of the copyrights of the film, and we were in the other room signing promotional stuff and could hear him in the other room yelling at that kid like he did in the video.

EE: I loved it, is that a twisted sister pin on your uniform instead of the pledge pin.

EO: He was great to work with and we still keep in touch with him. He’s such a great actor. He’s was great he wanted us to really slam the door in his face and called us a bunch of wimps because we didn’t want to slam it on him but he was like no go for it, so we really hit him with the door as hard as we could. He wanted for it to seem more real.

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Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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