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DEE SNIDER
by Mike Baronas
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” – the anarchic MTV anthem thousands upon thousands of us 30-something’s fed on during our teens which transformed many into long-haired, denim jacket-wearing headbangers. We can hold Dee Snider responsible for this and kiss his boots for guiding us down that path to musicial bliss.
GASPetc.com spoke with the ubiquitous Twisted Sister frontman (and Strangeland writer/producer/star) shortly after the band’s holiday release, A Twisted Christmas, about the mouthpiece he has become for both the Metal and Horror genres...
GASP: You seem to be everywhere lately…
DEE SNIDER: Yeah, that’s not by design. It’s awesome though.
GASP: The one question you must be getting hit with the most is, ‘Why a Twisted Sister Christmas album?’
DS: Because, after much consideration we figured out it was the one thing that could kill our careers entirely. We sat back and said, “Alright, 30 years together on and off, a 4 year reunion...” I said, “This is it. I’m done. What can we do to guarantee no ongoing success?” Then Jay Jay [French – guitarist] said, “Well, what about a Christmas album?”
The real answer is that the guys have been wanting to do a new album and I just haven’t been inspired to create, or go ‘back to the future’ so to speak. I love my past and I’m proud of my past, I love the guys, but the idea of creating new Twisted Sister music for the 2000’s, I just haven’t been motivated.
So when Jay Jay did mention an album for Christmas, I immediately said, “Yes,” which shocked the guys because I’ve been saying no for so long. When they said, “How come,” I clearly remembered an early `80’s, angry, young headbanger day during the holidays where I was just pissed off – listening to classic, folk, jazz, and disco Christmas songs – and saying, “Where the fuck are the Heavy Metal Christmas songs?” I said to my wife, “You know, when I get a break, I’m going to call Maiden, Priest, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Motorhead and get everybody to do a compilation Christmas album for the headbangers. I started thinking about it and I could just hear the way AC/DC would do “Silver Bells” and the way Priest would do “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”. So I had all these ideas and then after the holidays I stopped thinking about it until Jay Jay and I chatted last Christmas and I said, “Yes, and I know just what to do.”
GASP: It’s cool that you paid homage to all of those bands.
DS: That was it. I had all these great ideas and they’re favorite bands of ours, so why not do the ideas I had, because I couldn’t get them out of my head. And we just ran with it as a homage to the great metal bands that define the spectrum of metal, the old-school metal of course.
And as we did it, we were like, “Fuck, this is fun! Probably nobody else is gonna get it but us, but it’s fucking fun.” And it looks like everybody else is getting it too, so it’s cool.
GASP: It really seems to be paying off for you too.
DS: Holy shit, it’s like Springtime For Hitler [from the Mel Brooks musical The Producers]! We’ve shipped more units, we’re getting more attention than we have since the `80’s, and it’s completely shocked the band. I mean, we’re doing Leno, we’re playing at halftime at the Jets football game, things people wouldn’t have ever dreamed of giving us back in the `80’s, but now we’re like everybody’s favorite cross-dressers.
The press release, and my mouth, have been saying that this is the end of Twisted Sister – the last year, the last record. And I am now backpedaling like a motherfucker because who knew that this record was going to get the attention it’s getting. So, we don’t know if it’s sold through yet, but if it clicks with people, I’m gonna be hard-pressed to actually walk away from this quite honestly. And I’m being as fucking honest as I possibly can. So, if you ever want to see Twisted Sister again, tell your readers to buy this CD.
GASP: After taking a step back from being the cynical music critic and enjoying it for what it is, I found it to be quite fun. It grows on you.
DS: And it’s the spirit of the thing. First of all, when you tell anybody, “We did a Christmas album,” they smirk. And then, when they hear it, they go, “Holy shit,” and start smiling.
The reason I think it works is because we were very careful on two fronts: first, [bassist Mark ‘The Animal’] Mendoza produced it and approached it just like a metal record. He prides himself on, if you take the vocals out, they hold up as powerful metal tracks.
On the other side, these are our traditional songs; everyone knows the melodies. I always hated when the guys who took over for the guy who used to sing in a Broadway show or a new singer in a band takes the old melody and starts fucking with it cuz he doesn’t want to sing it the way the other guy did. You don’t fuck with them, just sing them!
And so that was the approach I took. I screech here and there, but for the most part I just went in and sang the melodies. I didn’t try and reinvent them.
GASP: When was the album actually recorded?
DS: During the heat of the summer.
GASP: I figured. How difficult was it to get into the holiday spirit?
DS: It’s one of the toughest things in the world, but that’s when all holiday movies and albums are done. It’s bizarre, but it’s part of the creative process. It’s A Wonderful Life was filmed in a heat wave during July. Jimmy Stewart isn’t wet from the snow in those scenes when he’s running through town, he’s wet from sweat because he’s wearing winter clothes and running around like a lunatic.
For me, right now I’m actually working on my latest screenplay which takes place at Christmas, and I did the bulk of the writing during the Spring and Summer. It’s a mindset more than anything.
GASP: Getting back to your omnipresence Dee, it would appear that you’re poised to overthrow Howard Stern as the ‘King of All Media’.
DS: Well, that’s an incredible compliment, and that would certainly be an amazing accomplishment. I think the only way that would even be possible is with Howard’s move to Sirius and not doing anymore movies or books or anything like that. He’s kinda slowed down a little bit.
GASP: Have you ever viewed your relationship with Howard as somewhat competitive?
DS: Not at all. Synergistic, yes, even though most people would not realize or appreciate it.
Howard and I met when he had just gone from NBC to K-Rock, and from afternoons, he had just switched to mornings. I never had heard of him; I was nighttime rock guy for years and not early morning guy. It was 1985 and I was doing the family Christmas in New York City rock star style, which meant me sitting in a limo peering out at the Rockefeller Center tree through a crack in the window while my wife and son went up and looked at it close. It was the peak of my notoriety for that era. And the driver said, “Have you ever heard of Howard Stern?” I said, “No.” He goes, “Oh, he’s a DJ on the radio and he was talking about you today.” I said, “Oh yeah? What was he saying?” He said, “He was talking about how ugly you are.” I just smiled because my thing is as long as they’re talking about me. Then he said, “He’s gonna be on Letterman today.”
So I’m sitting here at Rockefeller Center and I look out my window and there’s the NBC building where I had been on Letterman twice. I said, “What time is it?” He said, “5:00,” and that’s what time they film Letterman. So, I said, “Let me give Howard Stern a little taste of reality.” So I get out of the car, walk right into Letterman, they tell me where Howard is, and BOOM! I kick open the green room door, “You motherfucker, I’m gonna fucking kill you!!!” I’m standing there with my big hair, big shoes, in all my glory madder than hell, and Howard’s sitting there in a t-shirt, clear glasses, mustache, small afro, corduroy pants and sneakers. His eyes were wide and I go charging at him, throw him against the wall, “You motherfucker!!!” Then I started laughing. And he’s like, “You’re not mad?” I said, “No, fuck, I’m not mad. I’m just fucking around with ya.”
So we started talking and we kind of bonded instantaneously. Howard I can’t say was a Twisted Sister fan either. We grew up on Long Island, we were the same age, but he was away at college and we kind of played to people younger than us. We exchanged phone numbers and one of the first things I said to him was, “Dude, why do you look like this?” He goes, “What are you talking about?” I said, “You’re on the radio. You can look anyway you want.” He said, “Well how should I look?” I said, “Well you sound like a fucking pirate, you should look like a pirate.” So, he goes, “Well I don’t know how to dress.” I said, “Don’t worry,” and I literally gave him my clothes; here’s some shirts, here’s some pants; my wife Suzette who always did the make-up, hair and costumes for Twisted started cutting his hair, took him shopping and even ended up working on his Channel 9 show.
Anyway, if you look at Howard in the `80’s, he looked like a brunette Dee Snider. When his fame started going up and mine started going down, it really sucked when people would come up to me and say, “Hey, you look like a blonde Howard Stern.” I’d go, “He looks like me!” So, there’s my end of the synergy.
Then he was the first guy to recognize me as a personality, not just a rock star. When things fell apart, he’s the only one that kept me on the air. He said to me, “Hey man, you’re a good guest. I’ve passed on many a major star because they sound like shit on the air.” He goes, “It’s all about radio,” and he encouraged me to go into radio. He introduced me to [talent agent] Don Buchwald and ultimately my agent David Katz. So, Howard literally went in and championed me in different areas. He has paid me back 10-fold for my helping to refine his image, in helping me find my new life and my new careers.
GASP: Speaking of radio, most of us know about your syndicated House of Hair, but could you tell those of us who don’t have Sirius a little about being a horror host on Fangoria Radio?
DS: It’s the only national live radio show dedicated to the world of horror. It’s 3 hours a week of talk about movies, TV and any other offshoots; sometimes it’s clothing, it can be lifestyle, it can be a band like The Misfits or anyone with a connection to horror. We’ve gotten into the paranormal a little bit. Anything we think that might appeal to the majority of the core horror audience.
It’s conversational, it’s fun and upbeat. It’s not ominous in any way. Someone wrote in and said, “You guys are fucking this up. You should have all sorts of sound design. Dee shouldn’t be doing this. You need someone like the Cryptkeeper in there.” I said, “You dick!” When you see a Texas Chainsaw movie and you talk about it with your friends, do you sit there and, “[hilariously mimics the Cryptkeeper with something indiscernible]!” No! You have a conversation, and that’s what me and Debbie [Rochon – Scream Queen; see article in print issue #6 of G.A.S.P.etc.] and Tony Timpone do. We talk how people would when they’re passionate about something.
I mean, there’s lots of joking around too. Just because it’s a darker, ominous subject doesn’t mean you can’t laugh about how much blood was spilled in friggin Live Feed. I mean, when the blood spurts, you just know there’s a dude with a garbage pail on the other side of the camera just throwing blood. It’s unbelievable the amount of blood. And we just laugh, cuz that’s what people would do. “Did you see how much blood? Yeah, you could swim in it, Ha! Ha!”
GASP: Fangoria also has a Strangeland graphic comic in the works, right?
DS: Fangoria has started Fangoria Comics and they came to me and said they'd like Strangeland to be their first. I said, “Yes, under one condition – if my son writes it.” I saw their faces, but I know my son is a talented aspiring comic book writer, and it’s something that they realized the minute they got the first script. I also like the fact that this writer lives in my house and has access to me that nobody has, and I wanted to be very hands-on creatively with the property. So, it was very much his writing with my fingerprint all over it.
It’s a prequel to the story that takes you literally right up to the opening of the Strangeland movie.
GASP: I recently read that Lions Gate secured the rights to a Strangeland sequel.
DS: We had a meeting with Lions Gate and, yes, they want to do a sequel. We’re ready. I have the sequel, and it’s taken this long only because for the past five years I’ve been fighting to get the creative rights to the movie back. What happened was The Shooting Gallery, who made the first one, had an ‘Enron’ situation happen on a smaller scale. The CFO was federally indicted, the US Government seized all the property, and they began to unravel the mess that was The Shooting Gallery.
Anyway, so as is with the government, they don’t care about right or wrong, who owns what or contracts. Everything is thrown out until you can prove the property is yours. So for five years, and at great expense, I’ve had to have lawyers on standby to literally go in every time a notice was sent out that they were dissolving this property or giving away that property or selling off this property, to go in and say, “We object on the grounds of Mr. Snider who owns the creative property and was not party to blah, blah, blah...”
Five years later – yeah, in 2006 – I got the rights back.
GASP: What a nightmare.
DS: It was a nightmare. Immediately after the first one a sequel was greenlit and was in pre-production when the government shut it all down. But actually I think the passage of time has enhanced the position of the movie. 1) The cult status has grown, and 2) it certainly should be recognized, if it isn’t already, as the inspiration for the wave of torture movies that are out. It’s flattering but frustrating to have Eli Roth and other directors of these torture films in an interview say, “By the way, dude, LOVE Strangeland.” I’m like, “Yeah, I noticed.” Also, my status within the horror community and as a personality has grown again, so my value to the property had increased as well.
So, we met with Lions Gate originally about an extended “Dee-rectors” cut because they have the rights to the original DVD, and they said, “Well, what about the sequel?” And we were like, “Funny you should ask – here’s the script, Robert Englund’s attached, we’re fucking ready to go.” And they’re like, “Great!” We’re meeting with them in a couple of weeks to continue down that path. Nothing’s in writing, but these are the top people in the company have all expressed desire that the time’s right. Hopefully in 2007 we’ll be in production. And it’s going to be called Disciple.
GASP: That’s GREAT news! It’s cool to see you’re so firmly rooted in both Metal and Horror. I’ve always felt the two compliment one another perfectly.
DS: Incredibly well, and it’s funny how the public and non-metal fans are accepting of metal in horror movies. You notice how metal-driven so many horror movies have always been – and still are – and you get these Johnny Bravo disco-dance motherfuckers in to see Saw III absolutely loving what they’re hearing in concert with the visual that’s put on the screen.
I remember playing something for this non-headbanger who said, “ I kept feeling like I was being chased through the woods,” because her only frame of reference for metal comes from the horror movies she goes to see. So it really is a strong marriage.
GASP: What’s Dee Snider’s favorite horror movie?
DS: The Exorcist – the queen mother of them all. I remember the insanity of people passing out in the theatres and the way the word spread about this movie. And it still holds up. 
Then, a few steps down, is Silence of the Lambs and a few steps below that is Seven. Then there’s a huge gap and I start to get into the world of Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw, and original wave of real-deal slasher movies.
GASP: Would you agree the most prolific time for both Metal and Horror was in the 1980’s?
DS: [pause] Well, I guess by definition of ‘prolific’, yes. There was certainly more metal music being made and horror movies coming out of every fucking...I don’t know what...and of course we know of the popularity that Metal and Horror experienced in the `80’s.
It’s interesting that you keep connecting these two...like they’re almost linked at the hip, huh?
GASP: Well, it’s the crux of this website and my magazine before that, and, of course, it was the time in my life when I delved into both of these genres hardcore. It’s a connection I have always made between the two, but I know the darkness of both came across to quite a few of us.
DS: There’s definitely a connection, and we’re certainly seeing an upswing in the world of Horror. I wonder if that will link in the world of metal if they really are connected.
GASP: Do you think that most of the fun in each was lost after the 1980’s?
DS: It’s a good question. I don’t have an immediate response to that. It certainly was more fun for me back then, but we lose our objectivity – when I say “we”, I mean people like you and me – as we pull back the curtain and reveal that ‘The Great Oz’ is just a little dude.
Tom Savini said to me that we get into our chosen professions because the magic of it appeals to us. And the first thing we do is strip it all away and it’s never magic again. It’s an interesting observation on his part. Music isn’t magic for me anymore. I don’t look at the stage with that wide-eyed look of seeing David Bowie for the first time. And the same goes for movies. I know how the tricks are done. And you’ve stripped it away too. You’ve really started to analyze it.
GASP: Agreed.
DS: So, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. Would a young fan say that? I don’t know. It may be just as magical to them because they have no frame of reference to compare it to the old stuff. So I wonder if it really is, or if it’s just our perspective that’s changing.
GASP: That’s true. Good point. I guess it just sucks getting old.
DS: You’ve got no choice so you’re better off enjoying it as much as you can. So far, I’m having a fucking ball. I didn’t really plan much past 30 – I didn’t think I’d even be alive – so I’m having a great time!
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