Jay Jay French and his daughter, Samantha, cradle the Gibson J-200 and Martin 000-18
flattops he commissioned to raise money to combat the rare eye disease Samantha has
suffered from since she was 6 years old.
If you’re a child of the ’80s or hip to
Reagan-era hard rock, John French
Segall (aka Jay Jay French) needs no
introduction. As co-lead guitarist for
Twisted Sister, he cranked out fistpumping
melodic anthems like “We’re
Not Going to Take It” and “I Wanna
Rock” that gave voice to the angst and
rebellion felt by whole swaths of youth
eager to indulge in everything their parents
feared and hated. Those anthems
brought French and Twisted Sister
worldwide album sales of more than 15
million units, in addition to 37 gold and
platinum awards from eight countries.
But even if you’ve never been into
that particular music scene, you can
probably relate to French as a gear nut—
he’s famous for his trademark “pinkburst”
Les Pauls. If you’re a parent, you’ll probably
also identify with what he faces as
the devoted father of a 17-year-old girl,
especially as you read on and try to imagine
what it was like when French and
his (then) wife learned that Samantha,
then 6, had uveitis—a disease that
causes inflammation of the middle layer
of the eye and that is the leading
cause of blindness among American
girls (see “What Is Uveitis?” sidebar on
p. 5). Regardless of your musical or
gear proclivities, you’ll likely feel pangs
of empathy as you contemplate the 11
intervening years of pain, uncertainty,
and heartache as French’s family learned
to live with the disease.
French didn’t want to just live with it,
though. As a restless rocker and a vigilant
dad, he wanted to do something to help
the cause. So three years ago he began the
Pinkburst Project—an effort to amass a
collection of one-off custom guitars and
amps that could be auctioned to raise both
awareness about uveitis and money to fund
research for a cure. French commissioned
Fender, Paul Reed Smith, Epiphone,
Gretsch, Martin, Gibson, Marshall,
Vox, Mesa/Boogie, Hartke, Diamond
Amplification, Finland’s Ruokangas
Guitars, and Orange to design a lineup of
25 exquisite guitars, basses, and amplifiers
to that end, while TKL designed one-of-akind
cases for the axes, Red Monkey created
customized straps, and Harley Hoffman
of Kayline Industries supplied the custom
vinyl covering for the amps.
We recently spoke to French about his
family’s struggle with uveitis, what led him
to begin the Pinkburst Project, and what
it was like selecting the gorgeous guitars,
amps, and accessories that comprise it
(we’re displaying selected portions of the
project here, but you can view the entire
collection at
pinkburstproject.org).