You Still Can't Stop Rock & Roll
March 20, 2015 5:07 PM   Subscribe

A.J. Pero drummer for Twisted Sister during their early eighties peak, the drummer behind "You Can't Stop Rock & Roll", "I Wanna Rock" and of course "We're Not Gonna Take It" (which features some nice drum work) has passed on. Staten Island born Pero, who broke in to rock with the hard rock band Cities was touring with his new band Adrenaline Mob when he was found unresponsive on a tour bus in Poughkeepsie, New York. he was rushed to the local hospital and pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack. RIP, SMF.
posted by jonmc (38 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Mob just last month released Dearly Departed, which seems an appropriate comment at this point.
posted by LeLiLo at 5:20 PM on March 20, 2015


♪
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:22 PM on March 20, 2015


Damn. Twisted Sister was far better than anyone gave them credit for, and I really liked their album Under the Blade as a teenager. It still holds up OK well, but it is very 80s.

I first learned of Idiot Al Gore because his Idiotic PMRC called Dee Snyder to testify in front of Congress because Idiot Al Gore hates rock and roll like an idiotic idiot.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:24 PM on March 20, 2015 [8 favorites]


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posted by Annabelle74 at 5:25 PM on March 20, 2015


If you're about my age (44) and grew up on the Eastern Seaboard, the Sister were the bar band trhat was perpetually advertised on the local station, and who you had to hunt down records of to hear if you were to young to see them in bars. They were my first experience of a 'secret' band although I always loved sharing them with anyone else.
posted by jonmc at 5:28 PM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


Damn.
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posted by the_royal_we at 5:30 PM on March 20, 2015


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posted by jonp72 at 5:32 PM on March 20, 2015


Look like women.
Talk like men.
Play like motherfuckers.

Mission accomplished.

TS meant the world to me as a metalhead going to school in Bay Ridge, the heart of 80s Disco Brooklyn.

\m/
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 5:58 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


I first learned of Idiot Al Gore because his Idiotic PMRC...

I think you mean Tipper Gore, Al's wife.
posted by dashDashDot at 6:03 PM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


item- I saw them open for Iron Maiden on the Powerslave tour when i was 14. Dee Snider could have anyone eating out of his hands after 2 or 3 songs. And AJ could pound those skins.
posted by jonmc at 6:06 PM on March 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


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posted by biggreenplant at 6:31 PM on March 20, 2015


Yeah, pmrc was tipper's baby. I have vague memories of Congress critters shitting themselves because Dee wasn't an idiot.

We're Not Gonna Take It is still a fun song and those drums are solid.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 7:01 PM on March 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think the hardest thing to explain to kids today about Twisted Sister is that they were once considered a threat to the moral well-being of the nation.

Things certainly do change.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:19 PM on March 20, 2015 [10 favorites]


My husband is their webmaster/design guy, and friend. It's been a rough day around here.

.
posted by kellyblah at 7:21 PM on March 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


I mean, if you showed the video for "We're Not Gonna Take It" to a millennial and told them "the Vice President's wife led a semi-successful campaign to ban this cornball band because she thought they were demonic and scary", they're gonna be like "holy shit, were people in the 80s the most gigantic tools ever or what"
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:21 PM on March 20, 2015 [21 favorites]


I was into TS way before any of my friends, who all thought they were "gay." (It was 80s, we talked that way.) I got the last laugh when Stay Hungry blew up big. I still think You Can't Stop Rock n Roll is one hell of a heavy metal album.
posted by COD at 7:25 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


The first time I saw Twisted Sister was at the very first Rocky Horror Show "convention". It was held in a theater. I don't remember where. Or very much else, due to the ingestion of lovely chemicals.

What I do remember is that Twisted Sister was a really rocking show. And the drummer was fucking awesome.

And dot.
posted by Splunge at 7:28 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think you mean Tipper Gore, Al's wife.

I admit to not being that well versed in parliamentary procedure, but I don't think that Senator's wives can call hearings. Idiot Gore the Idiot had to help out in his Idiot way.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:54 PM on March 20, 2015


.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 8:04 PM on March 20, 2015


Wake up, America.
posted by 445supermag at 8:13 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yeah Wake up, America here's some tiny type about something that would be funny but DON'T STEAL IT. Also, don't read it. But most of DO NOT STEAL IT.
posted by stevil at 8:19 PM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


Saw TS once. Loved every fucking minute of it.

\m/
posted by spilon at 8:31 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


The PMRC campaign against music cost Al Gore my vote.
posted by Renoroc at 8:59 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


I Wanna Rock never fails to get me up and dancing. Damn.

.
posted by MissySedai at 10:40 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


The now grown Roquette kids and I used to love watching Twisted Sister videos. They not only were funny, they are still good music. 🎼•
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:14 AM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


My 80s memory... listening to Stay Hungry (and Quiet Riot's Metal Health) on continuous rotation on a portable Sony cassette player while reading Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books in my parent's den (do houses still have dens? what made it not a living room?)
posted by kokaku at 1:48 AM on March 21, 2015 [4 favorites]


That video for You Can't Stop Rock and Roll is incredible. All of the UK really did look like that at the time. It's like Benny Hill after the apocalypse.

.
posted by colie at 2:36 AM on March 21, 2015 [2 favorites]


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posted by drezdn at 4:50 AM on March 21, 2015


.

and you can count this British 80's metalhead as another who heard of Tipper Gore long before he'd ever heard of Al.
posted by vbfg at 4:53 AM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


Long Islander Deadhead who had a secret (unspoken) admiration for Twisted Sister. Sort of the opposite of Tipper Gore, a Deadhead who did not quite grok the first amendment.
posted by 724A at 7:15 AM on March 21, 2015


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posted by spinifex23 at 7:42 AM on March 21, 2015


.

and if you haven't checked it out, their Twisted Christmas album from 2010 is a holiday staple amongst my family and friends.
posted by cloax at 8:05 AM on March 21, 2015 [4 favorites]


Was a big fan of ts back in the day. We used to think it hilarious to put on the b side to their single that was on the jukebox of our lunch time pub when at college coz it was a live track with swearing at the beginning.

Play it loud mf
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:26 AM on March 21, 2015


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posted by Vindaloo at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2015


Watching the video of "We're Not Gonna Take It" reminds me that I've gotta revisit my collection of 80's music. There was a lot more going on in those songs than my 15 year-old brain could wrap itself around. I wasn't that crazy about TS when I was 15; now, their cornball schtick is appealing.

You know you're getting older when all the icons from your youth start dying. RIP, Mr. Pero.
posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 9:54 AM on March 21, 2015


Speaking of the Christmas album - you'll never listen to "We're Not Gonna Take It" quite the same way again once you realize it's basically the same song as "Oh Come All Ye Faithful."
posted by COD at 6:25 AM on March 22, 2015


COD: "Speaking of the Christmas album - you'll never listen to "We're Not Gonna Take It" quite the same way again once you realize it's basically the same song as "Oh Come All Ye Faithful.""

You're right, I won't. Ugh.
posted by 724A at 8:02 PM on March 22, 2015


The PMRC campaign against music cost Al Gore my vote.

So you helped give us W?

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by scottymac at 10:46 PM on March 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


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