He has one of the most recognizable faces, voices and songs in the history of hard rock and metal music. He has sold millions of records, is a best-selling author, TV star, movie maker and has appeared on Broadway.
Dee Snider is all of these things and more. He became a legend along with his bandmates in the iconic band Twisted Sister with their MTV-beloved 1984 album Stay Hungry, which featured two of the most played singles and videos of that era: We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock.
But Twisted Sister was no overnight sensation. The band had formed in the New York/New Jersey era in 1976 but didn’t released their first album, Under the Blade, until 1982, and that was on a British label. The band’s seemingly outlandish stage attire (and remember this was the era of Kiss and Alice Cooper) and bombastic heavy metal made them pariahs within their own country early on, except for pockets of discriminating diehards. But in the U.K. and Europe, the band became bona fide stars, earning the respect of their British counterparts, including a ringing endorsement from Motorhead legend Lemmy.
Their second album, You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll bridged the gap and set Twisted Sister on the road to mass popularity, which exploded exponentially with the release of Stay Hungry. Two more albums followed, Come Out and Play in 1985 and the final album, Love is For Suckers in 1987. The band broke up, and Snider struggled to find his way for much of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
But with his inimitable never-say-die attitude he rebounded, and for the last 20 years Snider has been a familiar voice on airwaves with his hugely popular House of Hair syndicated radio show. He has written screenplays and acted in films and television (including voicing the character of Angry Jack on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants and numerous special programs on MTV and VH1), as well as being a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice. He continued to make music, with the bands Desperado and Widowmaker, and also performed as Dennis, owner of The Bourbon Room during an 11-week run of the Rock of Ages musical on Broadway a few years back.
As well, Snider has been a guest at numerous music, movie and pop culture conventions where he enthusiastically engages with fans, many of whom were too young to even remember the peak of Twisted Sister’s mid-1980s popularity. And he is coming to London, Ontario for the first-ever Rock ‘n Con, which takes place at the London Music Hall June 8, 9 and 10.
Snider is going to be making a personal appearance, meeting fans and also participating in a superstar jam at the event, something that he believes gives attendees a more personal and meaningful opportunity to meet their musical heroes.
“I have been doing these things for years now and it’s a unique experience. When you do an album or a movie or TV show or whatever, you put it out there, but you never really see the actual connection and reaction because it’s people sitting at home and listening to it or sitting at home or in a theatre watching it. When you even do a concert, you can see the reaction but with the exception of the people you see at the meet and greet, which is only a handful of people, you can see their reaction, but you don’t really have that moment together,” Snider said.
“Here, it’s literally about having that moment and memory; people meeting their heroes and sharing that moment. And I always engage people. I am not one of those people who just signs and tells you to move on. I want people to tell me about their connection or experience to my music and I like that. You get to sort of understand the effect of your work. And this comes from being a fan myself. So, when these people come up to me and say, ‘man I am kind of freaking out. I can’t believe I am meeting you,’ I know that exact feeling because I felt the same way when I met Robert Plant and Alice Cooper, and now I am friends with those guys. It’s a bizarre thing to meet your heroes so I try very hard not to disappoint.
“Even though it shouldn’t really affect the art, if your hero is a dick it might. At my first con experience I did a signing with some of the guys from Kiss and I saw they had a very disconnected relationship with the audience and I remember thinking at the time that was not the way to be. So, I sort of went the opposite way. Some people in this business, while they say they’re all about the fans, have a different view of what the fans’ place is in their universe. For whatever reason, I have become a different person. I think if had continued on my original trajectory, I might have ended up like a lot of those guys. But the humbling I went through in the late 1980s and early 1990s made me a changed man. A good humbling is healthy for a person. It makes you learn perspective and I started doing conventions and signings after that. I had been through something that really brought me down to earth and said to myself, ‘you’re not a god, you’re a rock star. And that’s cool enough so don’t be an asshole.’”
In early May it was announced that Snider has signed a solo record deal with noted metal label Napalm Records. A few weeks later, Napalm announced that Dee Snider: For the Love of Metal would be coming out worldwide on July 27. It is Snider’s fourth solo album after Never Let the Bastards Wear You Down (2000), Dee Does Broadway (2012) and 2016’s We Are the Ones. In actuality, the 1987 Twisted Sister album Love is for Suckers was supposed to be a Dee Snider solo record, but the label intervened and demanded that it be released under the band moniker. It proved to be the band’s fifth and final studio record.
For the Love of Metal came about as the result of a challenge from Snider’s pal, Jamey Jasta, frontman for hardcore metal stalwarts Hatebreed. Jasta ended up producing the album as well helping to line up guest artists such as former Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones, Lamb of God’s Mark Morton, Arch Enemy songstress Alissa White-Gluz. Snider’s main collaborators, and the anchor of what will be his live band are brothers Nick and Charlie Bellmore of Toxic Holocaust and Kingdom of Sorrow respectively.
“Sherpa Jamey Jasta challenged me to do a record and I accepted the challenge. And that’s the way I have approached my career for the last couple of decades. Sometimes the challenges come from other people, sometimes they are challenges I set for myself, like doing Broadway [he appeared in Rock of Ages]. It was the same thing when Jamey said I challenge you to do this. I said okay. We went into the studio with our own money and we just started recording and it just grew and grew and grew and now I have an album coming out that was totally unexpected. It wasn’t something I was planning on doing at all. And I especially did not expect to be releasing a hardcore metal record at this point in my life. It’s wonderful, but it’s just a complete surprise,” he said.
“It is hard and heavy for sure. The people writing on it include Jamey and people from Lamb of God, Disturbed, Killswitch Engage and Toxic Holocaust. Everything is heavy. And it’s called For the Love of Metal, so it goes to the heavier side of my leanings going back to the Under the Blade and You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll time of Twisted Sister. Yeah, it’s a heavy record but I have always been a melody singer, so that is what I bring to the table, just like what Rob Halford brings. We’re melody singers, so it’s that with contemporary heavy music.”
For the Love of Metal has generated a real buzz amongst the metal and hard rock community, including from fans, bloggers and the music press. It’s as though folks have been waiting for Snider to really embrace his metal heart and come out with a record that is unabashed, unfiltered, unwavering and pure, unadulterated metal.
“I have had more buzz about this than anything I have done for many years, which is exciting. So many people are aware of this record. My last record nobody was aware of. Actually. my last two or there nobody even knew they existed and here we are already talking about something that’s not coming out for almost two months, which is cool,” he said.
“My last few records were challenges as well. We Are the Ones was a challenge by a pop producer to do a mainstream rock record. And I said okay I will try that. And I did, but it didn’t resonate. And before that I challenged myself to do a record called Dee Does Broadway. Coming off my run in Rock of Ages I was always intrigued by the rock I heard in Broadway songs and how they could rock. So, I did this record with members of the Broadway community and it came out great. All the records I have done I have been proud of and they’ve come out great. But even my manager was asking me who was going to buy the records and I said probably nobody – and I was right. But at the same time, it was a challenge.
“With For the Love of Metal the challenge is coming in a place where I am meant to be and a place where I have a home and a place where people are genuinely interested. And actually I was worried about that. I asked Jamey ‘do you think people will care? I am seen as this 1980s guy.’ He said ‘dude, your voice is iconic. With the right songs, people still want to hear your voice today. But it has to be the right sound.’ So, we’ll see where it goes. It certainly is piquing people’s interest.”
The record was basically Snider and Jasta’s baby, as they lived, breathed, ate and slept For the Love of Metal for months, even before landing a record deal with Napalm, for whom Snider has nothing but high praise.
“There is a commitment here that I didn’t see on my other records. It all comes from inspiration. It’s so genuine. Jamey is inspired by me, I am inspired by Jamey. We went into the studio and were inspiring each other, inspiring the songs and the songs were inspiring me even more. Other people began reaching out. They heard Jamey playing some of it and they were all saying they wanted to be involved. And there was no money, no nothing, no promise of anything other than we were going to put everything we had into it to make the best record possible,” he said.
“Napalm is committed to promotion and advertising and videos. I am going to shoot two videos this month and I am like ‘what the f***?’ And Jamey is going, ‘of course man, you’re Dee Snider.’ And I wondered when did that happen? When did I get to that status? I sort of stopped seriously pursuing things in the metal world in the 1990s. I just sort of felt that, well my time is done, but somewhere along the way I became an icon. And that’s other people’s term for it, not mine. I think it’s this thing with so much time passing and me still being a presence through all the things that I do, like the radio show and TV and Broadway. I really don’t know what happened, but it’s cool as f***.
“It could be that I have always been in people’s minds subconsciously. Whatever I was doing in the meantime, like 25 years on radio especially with House of Hair and Twisted Sister reuniting where we did a lot of shows and whatever. I think I have also been representing the metal community with a dignity and always showing the flag for metal. I have been that guy. I have spoken out when someone needs to speak out and say something. I am a true fan of the genre. I truly believe in it, it’s the solution to a lot of things. We are all better for it.”
Snider said he drew on a lot of themes that have been staples of Twisted Sister and his other recordings for the past 35 or more years, and he used the writing and recording process – as most artists do – to process and unleash some of the darker emotions he was experiencing.
“I just suffered through the passing of my mom [on Jan. 2, 2018]. It was pretty tragic with a car accident and brain damage and through it I continued to record, and I continued to perform. I explained to people that heavy metal has always been this place I could go to express my frustration, my anger, my depression, my sorrow, my sadness – all these very dark emotions and very powerful emotions. They need to be released, they need expression, need to find a voice. And I always feel better afterwards. I couldn’t stop doing that and in fact I needed it more than ever,” Snider said.
“And there is no shame in that. On this album I get to express a lot of things. I’ve got songs about bullying. Bullying is on my mind a lot and there’s a strong anti-bullying sentiment there. And there are some political themes, but they are not the ones you would think. It’s not the polarity aspect of it, it’s a unifying message. And there are also statements to be made in the songs; statements about the old Dee Snider standards of believing in yourself, standing up for yourself and fighting for yourself.
“It’s like with the oxygen masks on planes, you’ve got to put on your own before you help others. We need to be strong within ourselves and then we can be strong for others. And I have lived that. I have made myself strong and I have felt I have gone out and done work to help others. I like to do charity work and lift people up. I continue to be the standard bearer for metal music and the metal community and it’s nice that people seem to have appreciated that.”
With so many creative and business irons in the fire, Snider said he won’t ever do extensive tours, but will try to get out as often as he can to promote For the Love of Metal at special shows and festivals around the world.
“I literally only have a handful of dates. I have some in July and then some in August. But with the record coming out and the energy that is building, we are already getting some serious offers from metal festivals for 2019, which I am already looking into. So, I am just going with the flow on this and I like the flow. It feels great and natural. We will see how people react and then we’ll be booking more and more. So, I will definitely be playing and performing. I am looking forward to it.”
As for Twisted Sister (we all knew the question would be asked) Snider said the band is finished as a live entity, but that there are still loads of surprises to come from the archives.
“[Guitarist] Jay Jay French is really unleashing the beast. We have so much material coming out, I like to joke and say it’s coming out posthumously. He’s got so much material. We filmed and documented our farewells around the world a couple of years back, and he has been working on that. Right now, the next thing that’s coming out is Twisted Sister Live at the Marquee, which was a concert in London that we recorded back in 1982 or 1983. I have seen the artwork for it and the pictures and it’s down and dirty and grimy and sweaty and great,” he said.
“So, Jay Jay has got years of product from Twisted Sister yet to come. But as far as reuniting, I am a man of my word, so no. I would get together just with the guys to do a song for charity or something but as far as the touring thing, getting up and doing a 90 minute or two-hour set – never. We will be men of our words.”
For more information on Rock ‘n Con in London, visit https://www.rocknconcanada.com.
For more information on Snider and For the Love of Metal, visit http://www.deesnider.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaehBH7DtR4
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