Twisted Sister to Do One Final Tour as a Last Hurrah

 
Within the past couple of weeks Twisted Sister, their families, and their fans have had to cope with a tremendous blow: the death of drummer AJ Pero. To honor and respect Pero's memory and bring their own careers to a close, Twisted Sister will be doing one final tour next year to wrap up the band's 40 year history. This report comes from a TMZ article which singer Dee Snider then officially endorsed on his own Facebook page

Filling Pero's shoes for the position of sticksman on this final excursion is Adrenaline Mob and former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. The tour will be called Forty and Fuck It, though before that tour happens the band will play a couple of tribute shows for Pero over the next few months.

Twisted Sister were already considering calling it a day before Pero's passing, but this was pretty much the nail in the coffin. (Sorry for that pun. I couldn't resist. My condolences to Pero's loved ones.) Guitarist J.J. French had said “[W]e need to look at this and say to ourselves, as a live entity, on which our reputation rests, How do we honor that history? How do we honor AJ? And how do we honor the fans’ loyalty?”

Personally I think this is probably the best way to end the band's career at this point. Instead of going the Led Zeppelin route where they just completely stop after the death of their drummer they instead celebrate his life by giving the fans one last hurrah before the band retires. They definitely could not have picked a better drummer to fill the vacancy. Portnoy has also filled in on stick duty before for a passed on drummer when back in 2010 Avenged Sevenfold lost their drummer The Rev and needed a temporary replacement until they could find a permanent fix. I congratulate Twisted Sister on 40 years of rocking and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.