Latest news with #We'reNotGonnaTakeIt
Forbes
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
From 'We're NOT Gonna Take It' To 'We're Gonna Take It'
Graspop Metal Festival Belgium Jay Jay French, the guitarist and manager of the legendary heavy metal band, Twisted Sister, has a business success story that goes far beyond the band's iconic 1980s image and ear-busting hits. From their early days as a cover band to their more recent record-breaking commercial and movie licensing deals, Twisted Sister's story is a testament to the power of long-term vision and the willingness to pivot in the face of changing tastes. I sat down with French to delve into their five decade journey, ending with the news that the band that produced heavy metal's most famous songs, 'We're Not Gonna Take It' and 'I Wanna Rock' recently decided We're Gonna Take It and sold their remaining rights to a music investor. When French talks about his journey as a member and manager of one of America's most memorable heavy metal hair bands, you quickly realize that you're speaking to a business strategist — once you get past the pictures of him in 6-inch heels and full makeup chained by the neck to the band's lead singer and famous frontman, Dee Snider. As French talks about the story of the band, from 1972 to 2024, he emphasizes the importance of key business challenges, such as de-risking the business and consolidating its financial records and contracts. Close your eyes, and you would think you're sitting across from a private equity executive strategizing the sale of a high-growth technology business rather than a guitarist who's used to playing in front of 100,000 fans. If you grew up in the 1980s, you couldn't turn on MTV without hearing Twisted Sister's two most famous songs and seeing their videos, 'We're Not Gonna Take It' (74 million YouTube views) and 'I Wanna Rock' (98 million YouTube views). It was the earliest days of MTV, and their full length videos had a complete storyline about teenagers rebelling against their overbearing parents and teachers. Watching Dee and Jay Jay, these twin six-foot cross-dressers singing 'We're Not Gonna Take It,' was seared into our young imaginations forever. Fast forward to today where I had the chance to work with French at our school for entrepreneurs, Birthing of Giants, helping him plot out the next chapter of his business using Birthing of Giants' 'One Year From Today' strategy stack. I suppose, my role in French's process was most akin to that of the teacher from 'I Wanna Rock,' played by Mark Metcalf, who also appears in the video 'We're Not Gonna Take It' as the young kid's irate father that screams, 'WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE?' (clip here) just before the kid transforms into Dee in full heavy metal regalia. It was a thrill to use Birthing of Giants' 'One Year From Today' strategy stack with an MTV idol from my childhood to help him figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Even more so to be backstage, so to speak, when the band that wrote 'We're Not Gonna Take It' — took it! On September 30, 2024, Twisted Sister sold their remaining recording copyrights, trademarks and other name, image and likeness rights to Warner Music Group. Fans will still get to hear the music and experience the Twisted Sister brand through TV, movies, commercials and more thanks to the efforts of the new owners. In fact, a recently released movie, 'The Gorge,' licensed the band's heavy metal rendition of 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful,' from their holiday record, 'A Twisted Christmas,' their final studio album which dropped in 2006. (Insider tip: 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and 'We're Not Gonna Take It' have the same melody). In the run up to the sale of the business, French undertook a comprehensive assessment of the band's assets, which required digging through decades-old contracts from around the world, some French didn't even realize were still in force. His thoroughness paid off, as it allowed them to understand the true value of their brand equity and simplify the complexities of a potential sale. One of French's key strategies for managing the band's assets was a long-term roadmap. Years earlier, he structured deals to ensure that rights would revert to the band at roughly the same time. This foresight, well before considering a sale, gave Twisted Sister greater control over their intellectual property. "It's about having a vision," French explains. "Can you see down the road, can you see the big story, not just what's in front of you?" This long-term thinking was crucial in an industry where bands rarely lasted more than a few years. "It's about having a vision. Can you see down the road, can you see the big story, not just what's in front of you?" Twisted Sister's journey was marked by several significant pivots. Over five decades, they transitioned from a cover band to writing original songs, embraced the music video era, and later focused on festival touring and licensing their hits. This adaptability was essential for their survival and success. French notes that the music industry is a "what have you done for me lately business," requiring constant reinvention to stay relevant. In the 2000s their songs became the most licensed heavy metal tracks from the 1980s. The band's internal dynamics also played a crucial role in their longevity. All the way back to the 1970s, French structured financial arrangements to ensure fairness and stability, initially providing a guaranteed salary to band members, minimizing band conflicts and keeping the band together while their peers fell into the usual traps of drugs, alcohol and creative disagreements. The decision to sell Twisted Sister in 2024 was driven by several factors, including the aging of the band members and the fact that none of their kids wanted to continue in the Twisted Sister business. After the sale closed on September 30th, French admits that the transition was a bit of a shock. After being involved in every aspect of the band's business for decades, he suddenly found himself with a clean slate and an empty email inbox. Looking back on his 50 plus year career, the most surprising thing about French and Twisted Sister's journey is how similar it is to most long term business journeys. Is the business about the people? The product? The profits? It's all of those things all the time. Over a lifetime, French and the rest of the band evolved with the times and stayed relevant. While French had no idea that he'd still be running the band he started as a scrawny 20-something in the 1970s, he led like all great entrepreneurs do: pivoting frequently as if the company's life depended on it, while simultaneously making decisions as if the company was destined to run forever — or at least 52 years.
Boston Globe
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Marty Callner, director of comedy specials and music videos, dies at 78
Mr. Callner, who preferred to stay in the background but was far from shy, 'might be the most successful director you have never heard of,' Jason Zinoman of The New York Times wrote in 2022. One day in the early 1980s, Mr. Callner had an epiphany. While watching television at his home in Beverly Hills, he found himself enraptured by a music video. It was Kim Carnes's 'Bette Davis Eyes' — and he couldn't take his eyes off it. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up "I said, 'This is unbelievable,'" he recalled on the "HawkeTalk" podcast in 2021. He called it "the most artistic and entertaining thing I've ever seen" and recalled thinking, "I've got to go do this." Advertisement MTV was then in its early days. But Mr. Callner was willing to give up his lucrative work on comedy specials at HBO for the creative rush of making music videos. In a meeting with Ahmet Ertegun, the chair of Atlantic Records, Mr. Callner was given a choice of three bands to make a video with. He chose the heavy metal band Twisted Sister, and in 1984 he turned the group's song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' into a funny cinematic story of teenage rebellion. In the video, a guitar-playing boy (played by his son Dax) sends his angry father crashing out of a window after he declares — in Mr. Callner's voice-over — 'I want to rock!' "However much Marty got paid, it wasn't enough," said Rob Tannenbaum, who wrote "I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution" (2011) with Craig Marks. "He made Twisted Sister." Mr. Callner spent more than a decade making memorable videos for, among others, Pat Benatar, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, and ZZ Top. The 18 videos he made for Aerosmith included 'Sweet Emotion' and 'Dream On.' Advertisement For the video for her hit song 'If I Could Turn Back Time,' Cher performed on the battleship Missouri amid hundreds of deliriously happy, hat-waving sailors in 1989. Mr. Callner persuaded her to straddle a cannon, a choice he explained by saying, 'We're getting as phallic as you can possibly get.' For most of the video, Cher wore a body-hugging black catsuit with mesh-filled cutouts, which she designed herself. During a rehearsal, Mr. Callner said, the Navy's liaison to the production was nervous that if Cher wore the outfit for the shoot, he would be punished by being sent to the Aleutian Islands. He told Mr. Callner that she couldn't wear it. 'I said, 'You go tell her she can't wear it,'' Mr. Callner responded. The liaison backed down. Martin Henry Callner was born Aug. 25, 1946, in Chicago, and grew up lower-middle-class in Cincinnati with his mother, Etheljane (Hirsch) Callner, after his father, Barnard, left the family when Marty was 2. Eight years later, after Barnard Callner's death, his family, which had real estate wealth, embraced Marty as the last of the Callner line. He spent his summers with relatives in Chicago, mostly with an aunt and uncle, until he was 18, surrounded by fine art. He attended three colleges, including the University of Kentucky, but he preferred partying to studying and he did not graduate. He later recalled that his creativity was unlocked when he was 19 or 20 and took a trip on the psychedelic psilocybin. He did not find an outlet for his newfound creativity until his mother, who worked at TV Guide, suggested that he interview at a television station in Cincinnati in 1969. Hired as a prop man, he was immediately mesmerized by the studio atmosphere. He quickly became the director of several shows. Advertisement But he left after a few years when the station manager refused to give him a raise — because, Mr. Callner said, he had left-wing politics and long hair. After being hired to make commercials in Cleveland, he left to direct Boston Celtics basketball games for the Boston station WBZ-TV. In 1975 he joined HBO, then a new cable channel, and established himself as a director of comedy shows with "An Evening With Robert Klein," HBO's first stand-up special. Mr. Callner's incorporation of backstage footage, and his use of five cameras to capture the feel of Klein's live performance, were called 'innovative' by Times critic John O'Connor. That plaudit led to a lucrative deal with HBO to direct a series of stand-up comedy specials starring, among others, Williams, Carlin, and Steve Martin. He was also a co-director of 'The Pee-wee Herman Show' (1981), a more adult-oriented early version of the hit children's series 'Pee-wee's Playhouse,' with its star, Paul Reubens. 'I learned that comedy directs me,' Mr. Callner told the Times. 'If a comedian is doing something physical, it better be a head-to-toe shot. If he's making a poignant point, it better be on a close shot. It was reportage.' At HBO, Mr. Callner also directed coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament; concert specials starring Liza Minnelli, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, and Stevie Nicks; and a filmed version of the revival of the Broadway musical 'Camelot,' starring Richard Harris, in 1982. Advertisement After many more years of directing music and comedy programming, Mr. Callner conceived the HBO football reality show 'Hard Knocks,' which has followed one NFL team during the preseason since 2001. His idea was to follow rookies during the preseason as they try to make the team. An in-season version of the series was recently added. "Everyone wants to go inside the locker room and see what happens when guys get cut," he told the sports and pop culture website The Ringer in 2022. Ross Greenburg, the former president of HBO Sports, said in an interview that the network and NFL Films quickly expanded the concept so that cameras followed not just the fate of the rookies, but also stories about the development of the upcoming season's team and veterans who are at risk of being told they are not wanted. Mr. Callner did not have an operational role in the series but he was an executive producer who won two Sports Emmys. In addition to his son Jazz, from his marriage to Aleeza (Zelcer) Callner, who also survives him, Mr. Callner is survived by his daughter Tess Levi, from that marriage; his sons Dax and Chad, from his marriage to Jan Mussara, which ended in divorce; a stepdaughter, Lin Swenson; a stepson, Oriel Zelcer; and eight grandchildren. In 1998, Mr. Callner directed Seinfeld in a live HBO special 'I'm Telling You for the Last Time,' from the Broadhurst Theater in New York. "Once the show starts, I'm taking the lights down to black," he told the Times before the telecast. He added, "There's nothing worse than a comedian looking out at a lighted audience." Advertisement He learned that lesson from directing a Steve Martin stand-up show in 1976. "I had the lights up and cut around," he said. "His agent came up behind me and whispered in my ear: 'Cold and dark. Comedy's cold and dark.' I chose not to listen to him. Steve Martin informed me later I had made a mistake." This article originally appeared in
New York Times
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Marty Callner, Director of Comedy Specials and Music Videos, Dies at 78
Marty Callner, a pioneering director of comedy specials who set the template for the genre at HBO in the 1970s before going on to make music videos infused with humor during the early heyday of MTV, died on March 17 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 78. His son Jazz Callner said the cause was not yet known. Over a half-century, Mr. Callner worked with some of the biggest names in popular culture, including Jerry Seinfeld, Madonna, Robin Williams, George Carlin, the Rolling Stones and Chris Rock. Mr. Callner, who preferred to stay in the background but was far from shy, 'might be the most successful director you have never heard of,' Jason Zinoman of The New York Times wrote in 2022. One day in the early 1980s, Mr. Callner had an epiphany. While watching television at his home in Beverly Hills, he found himself enraptured by a music video. It was Kim Carnes's 'Bette Davis Eyes' — and he couldn't take his eyes off it. 'I said, 'This is unbelievable,'" he recalled on the 'HawkeTalk' podcast in 2021. He called it 'the most artistic and entertaining thing I've ever seen' and recalled thinking, 'I've got to go do this.' MTV was then in its early days. But Mr. Callner was willing to give up his lucrative work on comedy specials at HBO for the creative rush of making music videos. In a meeting with Ahmet Ertegun, the chairman of Atlantic Records, Mr. Callner was given a choice of three bands to make a video with. He chose the heavy metal band Twisted Sister, and in 1984 he turned the group's song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' into a funny cinematic story of teenage rebellion. In the video, a guitar-playing boy (played by his son Dax) sends his angry father crashing out of a window after he declares — in Mr. Callner's voice-over — 'I want to rock!' 'However much Marty got paid, it wasn't enough,' said Rob Tannenbaum, who wrote 'I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution' (2011) with Craig Marks. 'He made Twisted Sister.' Mr. Callner spent more than a decade making memorable videos for, among others, Pat Benatar, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and ZZ Top. The 18 videos he made for Aerosmith included 'Sweet Emotion' and 'Dream On.' For the video for her hit song 'If I Could Turn Back Time,' Cher performed on the battleship Missouri amid hundreds of deliriously happy, hat-waving sailors in 1989. Mr. Callner persuaded her to straddle a cannon, a choice he explained by saying, 'We're getting as phallic as you can possibly get.' For most of the video, Cher wore a body-hugging black catsuit with mesh-filled cutouts, which she designed herself. During a rehearsal, Mr. Callner said, the Navy's liaison to the production was nervous that if Cher wore the outfit for the shoot, he would be punished by being sent to the Aleutian Islands. He told Mr. Callner that she couldn't wear it. 'I said, 'You go tell her she can't wear it,'' Mr. Callner responded. The liaison backed down. Martin Henry Callner was born on Aug. 25, 1946, in Chicago, and grew up lower-middle-class in Cincinnati with his mother, Etheljane (Hirsch) Callner, after his father, Barnard, left the family when Marty was 2. Eight years later, after Barnard Callner's death, his family, which had real estate wealth, embraced Marty as the last of the Callner line. He spent his summers with relatives in Chicago, mostly with an aunt and uncle, until he was 18, surrounded by fine art. He attended three colleges, including the University of Kentucky, but he preferred partying to studying and he did not graduate. He later recalled that his creativity was unlocked when he was 19 or 20 and took a trip on the psychedelic psilocybin. He did not find an outlet for his newfound creativity until his mother, who worked at TV Guide, suggested that he interview at a television station in Cincinnati in 1969. Hired as a prop man, he was immediately mesmerized by the studio atmosphere. He quickly became the director of several shows. But he left after a few years when the station manager refused to give him a raise — because, Mr. Callner said, he had left-wing politics and long hair. After being hired to make commercials in Cleveland, he left to direct Celtics games for the Boston station WBZ-TV. In 1975 he joined HBO, then a new cable channel, and established himself as a director of comedy shows with 'An Evening With Robert Klein,' HBO's first stand-up special. Mr. Callner's incorporation of backstage footage, and his use of five cameras to capture the feel of Mr. Klein's live performance, were called 'innovative' by the Times critic John O'Connor. That plaudit led to a lucrative deal with HBO to direct a series of stand-up comedy specials starring, among others, Mr. Williams, Mr. Carlin and Steve Martin. He was also a co-director of 'The Pee-wee Herman Show' (1981), a more adult-oriented early version of the hit children's series 'Pee-wee's Playhouse,' with its star, Paul Reubens. 'I learned that comedy directs me,' Mr. Callner told The Times. 'If a comedian is doing something physical, it better be a head-to-toe shot. If he's making a poignant point, it better be on a close shot. It was reportage.' At HBO, Mr. Callner also directed coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament; concert specials starring Liza Minnelli, Paul Simon, Diana Ross and Stevie Nicks; and a filmed version of the revival of the Broadway musical 'Camelot,' starring Richard Harris, in 1982. After many more years of directing music and comedy programming, Mr. Callner conceived the HBO football reality show 'Hard Knocks,' which has followed one N.F.L. team during the preseason since 2001. His idea was to follow rookies during the preseason as they try to make the team. An in-season version of the series was recently added. 'Everyone wants to go inside the locker room and see what happens when guys get cut,' he told the sports and pop culture website The Ringer in 2022. Ross Greenburg, the former president of HBO Sports, said in an interview that the network and NFL Films quickly expanded the concept so that cameras followed not just the fate of the rookies, but also stories about the development of the upcoming season's team and veterans who are at risk of being told they are not wanted. Mr. Callner did not have an operational role in the series but he was an executive producer who won two Sports Emmys. In addition to his son Jazz, from his marriage to Aleeza (Zelcer) Callner, who also survives him, Mr. Callner is survived by his daughter Tess Levi, from that marriage; his sons Dax and Chad, from his marriage to Jan Mussara, which ended in divorce; a stepdaughter, Lin Swenson; a stepson, Oriel Zelcer; and eight grandchildren. In 1998, Mr. Callner directed Mr. Seinfeld in a live HBO special 'I'm Telling You for the Last Time,' from the Broadhurst Theater in New York. 'Once the show starts, I'm taking the lights down to black,' he told The Times before the telecast. He added, 'There's nothing worse than a comedian looking out at a lighted audience.' He learned that lesson from directing a Steve Martin stand-up show in 1976. 'I had the lights up and cut around,' he said. 'His agent came up behind me and whispered in my ear: 'Cold and dark. Comedy's cold and dark.' I chose not to listen to him. Steve Martin informed me later I had made a mistake.'
