Eddie ‘Fingers’ Ojeda – Twisted Sister – Interview Exclusive

Written by Dom Daley
Wednesday, 15 June 2011 05:00

Famed for his custom black and red bullseye guitar, Eddie ‘Fingers’ Ojeda, guitarist with the legendary Twisted Sister, is primed for a trans-atlantic telephone dart aimed at his head from URHQ. I have been entrusted with quizzing the six stringer from one of the World’s greatest hard rock bands and I have a lot to ask. Would the telephone connection last long enough for me to dig enough dirt out of Eddie’s memory banks? Would a technical error stop rock ‘n’ roll? Would an interrupted conversation hit me like a knife in the back? Well……

 

 

Hi Eddie, it’s a pleasure to speak to you. If we kick off with the here and now; you’re about to get on a plane and come over to Europe to get stuck into the festival circuit, from Russia to the UK and everywhere in between. What do you think it is about Twisted Sister that keeps the band relevant in 2011 and keeps getting you good slots on such big festivals?

 

It’s just one of those things and we’re glad it’s still happening. It’s kinda hard to explain because you never really know why and all of a sudden people just seemed to get it more than they ever did or they’re just getting it. Whatever the reason were definitely grateful to get that recognition for what it is we do but I also think that what we do is all so unique and different than what every other band does. It kinda creates that interest and people want to hear us because we are different and we’re not really similar to other bands and what they do. We have something that’s unique and it’s still something people want to see and there are a load of people who never got the chance to see us back in the day.

 

Do you think it’s more to do with the music now? Back in the Eighties the image of Twisted Sister tended to take over from the music and, especially speaking from a UK perspective, it was always about Dee’s rants or the way you guys dressed more than the music you played.

 

Exactly yeah, I think it’s more to do with the music now. People have started to realise that we’re a much heavier band than they thought we were. Maybe due to the make up and stuff we were thrown into a category and people didn’t realise we could play and we were hard as nails. I don’t think it was quite as obvious. Maybe the internet has something to do with it because of YouTube and the videos and stuff and people have started to go, Wow you know this is something and I’d love to see this heavy band live, and you know we pretty much haven’t changed as far as our live shows go, we still have the same energy and attitude we always played with. It’s pretty cool we still go out and do things pretty much the same as we always did and it’s cool we still have the chance to do it to so many people. Though we don’t have the make up as much, maybe it’s more about the music for us now than it ever was and it’s good that we finally get that recognition.

 

I first saw the band live when you did Hammersmith Odeon in the 80s and the last time I saw you was when you toured with Alice Cooper around the arenas a few years ago now and the show was still exciting and entertaining and Dee has lost none of his onstage energy and banter. I did notice at the Alice Cooper show that there were a lot of youngsters who knew all the words to the songs and were right into the whole Twisted Sister show – that must be a great feeling after so many years.

 

Yeah, absolutely. It’s the same thing with Alice, he’s unique and there is nobody like him just like there isn’t anybody quite like Twisted Sister either. Having that uniqueness has always made a band or singer something thankfully people will always want to see. Luckily we have always been able to deliver too.

 

Was that the motivation a decade ago when the band reconvened? Sort of like unfinished business?

 

Probably that and the fact we were broke! That’s always a motivator. Unfortunately the 9/11 thing is what brought us back together and started the whole reunion thing. We did a benefit for the New York firemen and that started the whole vibe. After that the offers started to flood in and we thought, hey guys this could work. We felt we kicked ass and little by little we got back into it but that show was amazing and we haven’t really looked back since, which has brought us to where we are now doing all these festivals. It’s still a great opportunity and it’s great for us to do what we have to do and we’re grateful for that second opportunity.

 

Does it get easier?

 

Um….you know what, the hardest part is the travelling. It’s never getting up for the shows but the travelling. When you’re on a regular tour your body gets used to the whole routine and you get into travelling and you’re not doing these long runs but the way we do it now is like a lot of flying into places on weekends to do a show and then we fly back to the States then back somewhere else the next week so that’s probably what’s more tiring than a regular tour. So that’s the only problem really. It’s funny, people say like I don’t know how you guys do it, you play til 2 in the morning then back on another flight at 7am, but hey welcome to our world that’s what you have to do, you know. You get these schedules and people often think it’s so wonderful and glamorous and a lot of fun.

 

[It was about now that the line between the UK and East Coast went down for the second time and I had to put some more coins in the metre and re-dial Eddie and hope that my time slot wasn’t getting burned by the dead air. I don’t know, modern technology eh?]

I was going to ask you about re-recording ‘Stay Hungry’ – Why did the band decide to go back and revisit such a career defining album as opposed to writing and recording some new material?

Well a lot of bands were doing that at the time, going back and redoing their biggest album, either re-recording or remastering with new packaging or whatever. ‘Stay Hungry’ was our biggest album and we were completely happy with how the original turned out but with modern technology being what it is now, back then it wasn’t as sophisticated, we decided to re-record it and call it ‘Still Hungry’, which wasn’t far from the truth. We just wanted to try and recreate that album possibly more to how we see it now – it’s pretty close to the original but I think it’s much heavier than the original and besides I think it’s pretty cool to have two different versions of the same album. It’s not just a different production job that most people couldn’t tell the difference.

 

Are the band much better players now than when you recorded it originally? Was it a temptation to change some of the songs lyrically, tempo or the way the songs were arranged?

 

For me it was there were certain things I changed. Back then I probably didn’t have the time to experiment or try different things.  What jumps to mind was the solo on ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ – originally I did a very short singles version of the solo which was a melody guitar part harmony that was supposed to be an intro and then the intro turned into the solo and it wasn’t supposed to be the main solo. The original version on the single was guitar solo harmony and when we did ‘Still Hungry’ it was a long full version of the solo which is also what we do in the live show, so it was a chance to put those things right. So there were certain things like that we couldn’t do at the time because of time or money and because a single had to be around the standard three minutes for a single track, you know. It was always like that if you chose a song to go out as a single you have to cut certain things out to make it fit for radio so edits were needed mainly for time wise so that was good to revisit and another reason we re-recorded it.

 

Has it ever been discussed between the band to write new material or ever get around to releasing an album of new Twisted Sister tracks?

 

We have discussed it as a band but right now it’s not the focus of the band and definitely not something we plan on doing, but we never say never because you never know what’s gonna happen in the future. We may do a single here and there possibly, I don’t really know. The way we see it is new material will take so long to write and record. When other bands do new material it doesn’t seem to get noticed and people still want to hear the old stuff. When I see bands play like Maiden or Priest all these great band put out new stuff and it’s all good but when they play it live the audience goes quiet on those songs, yet when they go back into ‘British Steel’ or ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ the audience comes back to life and you know we can see that and it’s noted. It’s one of those things and it gets like what’s the point in doing those things if it takes so long to do the thing then for people to catch on. Especially for bands like Twisted, it’s been so long between albums. It’s one thing when you’re current and people are following each album but for some of the 80s bands there are a lot of years between albums and coming up with a new one can be tough. I’m working on a new album myself at the moment and I’ll be putting out some new stuff. We’ll se what happens in the future but at the moment it looks like a no for new Twisted Sister stuff.

I was going to get around to your new album. Have you written and recorded new stuff and do you have any players in mind?

 

Well right now I’ve got a guy called BJ on drums from House Of Lords and Dokken and Chris on bass and it’s the three of us, but I’ll get some guests in like the last album when I had people like Ronnie James Dio and Dee singing a couple of tracks and Joe Lynn Turner, and Rudy Sarzo played bass so I like having different people coming in and play but most of it will be the three of us. I’ll have some guest singers come in, some of my favourites hopefully will come in but until I can get people in you know I don’t want to say who just in case it doesn’t come off and then this one come’s back to me and says this or that and I don’t want to get myself into any trouble over things like that, so as much as I’d love to tell you I’m keeping tight lipped over names! Ha ha, I have a few people in mind and I’m looking to get it done by the end of this year if I can fit it all in but the schedule is hard…..but it will get done.

 

Did you enjoy singing on the solo album?

 

Yeah, I enjoy singing. A lot of people say about hearing themselves on record that they don’t like to hear themselves back or actors tell me they never watch themselves in movies they make, a lot of people say that. I have a little bit of that you know, but I do enjoy it sometimes. I’d rather get in a singer singer, you know? Somebody who is known for being the front man and a damn good singer. Gary Moore springs to mind for doing that,he used to sing a lot but they’d get singers in and when he’d do it live he’d hire a singer in to do the parts he did on the album, I suppose to concentrate on playing guitar, he’d do that.

It was at this point that the line went dead again and my luck was up, my time with Eddie ‘Fingers’ Ojeda of Twisted fucking Sister was over and I couldn’t reconnect so my questions about the time his band took on the PMRC and any good road stories will have to wait until next time. But he was a cool dude who plays with one of the most iconic and noticeable hard rock bands the world has ever seen and if you happen to be at one of the shows coming up remember to get your horns up and sing along when Dee tells you to along with the other SMFs, otherwise Mr Snider will pick you out and let you have it. Still Hungry and destroying audiences from Moscow to the Midlands. Twisted fucking Sister, nuff said. Respect \m/