In a new interview with Sean P McKenna, host of “Rimshots With Sean” on Barstools And Bandtalk, TWISTED SISTER guitarist Jay Jay French spoke about how the perception that rock is dead often stems from a lack of visibility in mainstream charts. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  ”People say to me, ‘What makes you say rock is dead?’ Well, here’s my take on that. When I was 17 years old back in 1969, all my heroes — BEATLES, [THE ROLLING] STONES, [THE] WHO, [LED] ZEP [PELIN], FLOYD, [Jimi] Hendrix, [Bob] Dylan, GRATEFUL DEAD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE; you name it, you name ’em all — none of them were older than 27. Now think about this for a second. The greatest rock artists in the history of the world, when I was 17, were no older than 10 years more than me. Most of them were 25 to 27. Well, I say, name me a 27-year-old rock star right now. And nobody can name one.”So when you tell me, ‘Rock isn’t dead, man. It’s all over the place,’ I go, well, okay, fine. I’m not saying that there are no rock bands. I’m just saying that the collective psyche that dictates current music trends and sociological impact of music, it’s not showing up in the rock world in terms of mass acceptance,” he explained. “What is showing up in the music world? Hip-hop, huge. Country, huge. Female pop artists, huge. You can rattle off 20 rappers under the age of 25, you can rattle off 20 female pop singers under 25, you can rattle off country artists by the ton. You’re not rattling off rock musicians. It doesn’t mean, clearly, that no one’s creating it. It just means that the body of what we constitute as the standard rock act — two guitars, bass drums, lead singer, blah, blah, blah, blah — is, for the most part, by and large, over. And if it is over, and people say to me, ‘Well, how do you feel about that, man?’ I don’t look at it and go, ‘Oh, why can’t it come back?’ I go, you had a 55-year run. I mean, hell, what doesn’t have a 55…? Big band had a 20-year run and jazz had a 20-year run. They had 20-year runs. Disco had a seven-year run. Then it all kind of comes as a niche product. Does it mean disco’s not around? No, disco’s around for certain people who like to listen to disco music. You can find the channel and listen to it all day long, but it’s not impacting the world. Same thing with jazz and classical music. It’s always gonna sell, there’s always gonna be a body of people out there buying it — wonderful — but the youth of America is not absorbing it and saying, ‘This is reflective of who we are.'”French previously discussed rock music’s diminished appeal in a 2016 interview with Kaaos TV. Asked if he thinks any of the newer hard rock artists have a shot at becoming arena-sized acts once the current crop of dinosaur bands are no longer around, Jay Jay said at the time: “When I was 17 years old, when Jay Jay French was 17, THE BEATLES, THE [ROLLING] STONES, THE WHO, [LED ZEPPELIN], [PINK] FLOYD, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, THE DOORS… none of them were older than 26 when I was 17. Now we, as 17-year-olds, never went to see bands that were 60; we saw bands that were all 25: THE BEATLES, THE STONES, THE WHO, ZEP, FLOYD, CREAM, Hendrix… They were all 25, 26 years old. If I told my mother I was gonna go see a band with 60-year-old guys, she’d look at me like I was crazy or I was going to some jazz band or some classical group. So now we play festivals where all the bands are 60 years old: us, WHITESNAKE, KISS, [BLACK] SABBATH, AC/DC… they’re all 60. Maybe 50, with METALLICA.”So I ask everybody out there: where’s the 25-year-old rock stars? Where are they? You can’t name them. Someone goes, ‘MUSE.’ They’re not 25 years old; they’re way older than that. AVENGED SEVENFOLD: they’re not 25 years old; they’re way older than that. SLIPKNOT: they’re not 25 years old; they’re way older than that. So the next generation doesn’t seem to be there, and I don’t know the reason why. I wish I knew the reason why. Because pop music is huge; female pop stars are huge, right? And hip-hop is huge, and rap is huge, and country music is huge. So where’s rock? Rock is kind of not there.”French went on to say that the sales figures support his belief that the market for new rock music has weakened.”Again, it’s not Jay Jay saying rock is dead,” he explained. “Look at the charts. Tell me where it is. It’s not there. Radio doesn’t play it, and it doesn’t seem the kids are buying it. So if radio is not playing it, and the kids are not buying it, who’s creating it?”He continued: “Look, I am grateful; TWISTED SISTER is grateful that we have an audience, that we matter, that people love the band and they wanna see the band. IRON MAIDEN is grateful, and AC/DC is grateful, and JUDAS PRIEST is grateful. But we’re all getting older. In five years, there’ll be no more KISS and MAIDEN, and they’ll all be retired. So who comes up? I don’t know.”French added: “In South America, we have fans that are 17 to 22 years old; they fill soccer stadiums. And I say to them: who’s your new band? ‘Oh, we don’t like our new bands.’ Well, then… I don’t know what to say then. Like, really? There’s gotta be hundreds of them. You can’t find one? Two? They’ll put a couple on the shows with us, because they have to fill the gap a little bit. We just played Mexico, and there’s a couple of bands there on the bill that are young and up-and-coming, but the enthusiasm isn’t there for it. So I don’t know. It’s a strange time.”In 2016, TWISTED SISTER embarked on one final trek, titled “Forty And Fuck It”, in celebration of its 40th anniversary. These shows featured the band’s “core lineup” of French, singer Dee Snider, guitarist Eddie Ojeda and bassist Mark “The Animal” Mendoza, along with drummer Mike Portnoy. The band’s last-ever concert took place in November of that year — 20 months after the passing of drummer A.J. Pero.TWISTED SISTER’s original run ended in the late ’80s. After more than a decade, the band publicly reunited in November 2001 to top the bill of New York Steel, a hard-rock benefit concert to raise money for the New York Police And Fire Widows’ And Children’s Benefit Fund.[embedded content]