I've copied and pasted an interesting response from Twisted Sister guitarist JJ French, which he provided when asked whether a new record would ever be released by the band. Some of the points raised are worthy of discussion on here, especially those about album sales and song selection on the live shows:
JJF: Well there is no point recording I think that is an old school idea. Why? No one buys it. I mean no one is yet to make a case for any reason to record, I do not see any reason in the world to record. The fans who come see you do not care, they claim they care but they do not really care because if you think about it, if you take an average set list 15 to 20 songs, those songs are off the albums everybody bought. Now if you could actually tell the fans we are going to play a new song today but we are going to take this other one out to play it, what do you think they are going to vote for? If I said “Here is a new song but we are not going to play Burn In Hell”, “Here is a new song but we are not going to play Under The Blade”, “Here is a new song but we are not going to play We’re Not Gonna Take It” that would not go over too well. So the point is we do not tour, you have nothing to promote and nobody buys it and nobody listens to it, so it is contrary to any logic whatsoever that it matters. Now it only matters if you care that it matters, so if you want to write the stuff because you feel you have a need to express it then you write it and record it. Dee has not written a song in 20 years he has no need to express it and so therefore we do not do it and we do not play enough for it to matter, since we only play one show in one country every couple of years. It is not like people say “Wow man! When is the new tour coming? I saw you on the last tour”. We do not get a chance to play that often, so I just think for bands like Kiss and Judas Priest and all these bands who make all these new records that nobody buys, when I say “nobody buys” I mean in their heyday bands are selling 2 or 3 million copies now they are selling 100,000 records, alright? If you are touring it may make some sense, I just do not see the logic behind it. We are happy playing these 17 songs and we are a great live act and we do them really well. Does anybody care if AC/DC makes a new record? I mean they have made the same record for the last 30 years. AC/DC is one of my all time favourite bands, all time, they are one of the only bands I will stand up for two hours to watch, but if I see them do you think I want to hear a new record? Of course not.
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