In a new interview with Dean Dalrey, Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French talked about how artists handle performing new material live.
The rocker named Bob Dylan as one of the examples. He mentioned that fans expect to hear the classic songs the way they are on the album, and shared his honest opinion about the singer:
“Look, you go see Dylan. Dylan is indecipherably bad. You don’t even understand it. But if you’re a deep Dylan guy, and Dylan’s like so esoteric, you go, ‘He’s an interpretive artist! He does it the way he wants to!’”
He added:
“But you know what? The average person doesn’t give a sh*t. They want to hear ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ like ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’ They want to hear ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ [sound like] ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’”
French Thinks Dylan’s Performances Aren’t Worth Seeing
The guitarist’s comments come after his experience of seeing Bob Dylan live.
In another interview, he recalled buying tickets to one of Dylan’s shows and immediately regretting it after. He explained what happened during the show:
“I actually bought a ticket to that show with my wife and was sitting with one of his producers. He never turned around to the audience, he played with his back to the audience, never talked to the audience, and was indecipherable in his songs. It was almost comical, almost like he was saying, ‘F*ck you, you’re idiots, you’re just paying to see a god, and I don’t care.’ And half the audience bought into it because he’s Bob Dylan.”
French then joked about Dylan’s ‘artistic statement’:
“‘Hey, man, it’s an artistic statement, he doesn’t turn around, he doesn’t talk to you and you can’t understand what you’re singing, that’s great.’ And half the people went, ‘Are you f*cking kidding me?! I can’t understand what he’s singing and he sucks.’ But Dylan doesn’t care because he’s 83 years old, and millions of people want to see him.”
You can listen to the interview down below.