Interviews

Interview with Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister

Published

6 years ago

October 26, 2018

Ron

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.

About Author

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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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

1 week ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.