{"id":35924,"date":"2018-10-17T07:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T20:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=35924"},"modified":"2018-10-08T09:04:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T22:04:44","slug":"dee-snider-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2018\/10\/dee-snider-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Dee Snider"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cSo it\u2019s really unique and a chance for people to reconnect with me and like I said, I\u2019m pretty awesome in these speaking engagements that I do and then I get to rock out on the other night and do what I actually do best and that is front a metal band.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: He is one of the most recognisable and notorious frontmen of all time and DEE SNIDER ascended to hard rock royalty in the early 1980s as the lead singer for New York-based heavy rockers, the multi-platinum sellers TWISTED SISTER. The charismatic and outspoken SNIDER in 1985, alongside John Denver and Frank Zappa, testified against censorship in regard to the Tipper Gore led PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) — SNIDER and company topped the charts in 1984 with the all-purpose us-against-the-world anthems We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock. DEE SNIDER and TWISTED SISTER changed the face of MTV and the rock and metal world forever. Apart from those two monster singles, TWISTED SISTER also released all time classic tracks like Stay Hungry, The Kids Are Back, You Can\u2019t Stop Rock And Roll, The Price, Under The Blade and more! After the 1987 dissolution of the group, he embarked on a series of solo and group projects such as WIDOWMAKER and DESPERADO.<\/p>\n

In a studio in Las Vegas we gave the legendary Dee Snider a call to talk about his return to Australia after over thirty years for his upcoming spoken and shouted shows, his solo career, writing some of rocks biggest anthems, what\u2019s next, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

Spoken and Shouted is a great concept, a little different for here haven\u2019t had anything like this before, what was the idea behind doing these two nights?<\/strong>
\nI think it\u2019s a brilliant idea on a part of the promoter, I don\u2019t know how in Australia I haven\u2019t been there in decades with how my ongoing career in The States I think you get some of the reality TV I\u2019ve done, I\u2019ve been a radio personality for over twenty five years , I\u2019ve been doing talk radio, and doing Broadway, you know there\u2019s so many different things and I\u2019m a unique personality in that I can talk and be conversational and not just a soundbite machine like some of my peers like \u201cALRIGHT HOW WE DOING TONIGHT?!\u201d you know what I mean *laughs* that doesn\u2019t work in a spoken word concept. So it\u2019s really unique and a chance for people to reconnect with me and like I said, I\u2019m pretty awesome in these speaking engagements that I do and then I get to rock out on the other night and do what I actually do best and that is front a metal band.<\/p>\n

As they are two very different nights too, do we get to see two sides of Dee also?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely, I mean it\u2019s kind of interesting I\u2019ve seen it over the years people who would see me perform first and then come back to meet me were very different to people that would\u00a0 meet me before they saw me perform, the ones that saw me perform first were usually very nervous and trepidatious *laughs*. I remember the record company Atlantic Records the head of the company when he decided he wanted to sign us our manager said \u201cgreat come back and meet the band\u201d he said \u201coh no no no I don\u2019t want to meet them I just want to sign them\u201d *laughs* so he was literally afraid to go backstage and meet the band. So I mean it\u2019s an interesting conversation I\u2019ve had with a friend of mine and I don\u2019t know how much wrestling you guys get there, Mick Foley who is a WWE legend he and I are very good friends and we both have these on stage quote unquote personas then offstage personas but I was having a conversation with him and they\u2019re both part of the same coin, you can\u2019t have the coin without the head side and the tail side and we couldn\u2019t be as sort of the words people use, down to Earth\u2026 and well-adjusted and all those words that I\u2019ve gotten used to describe me, but I couldn\u2019t be that way without having the other side where I get to let my more animalistic tendencies out. So they\u2019re very different but they\u2019re also both sides of the same coin.<\/p>\n

With such a huge catalogue to choose from do you have an idea how you\u2019ll be structuring the set lists for the shouted night?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve got a really good idea, it\u2019s a very unique situation that\u2019s happened here, last time I was in Australia Twisted Sister was at their peak and now god, thirty something years, thirty five years later I\u2019ve just really kicked my solo career into gear, \u2018For The Love of Metal\u2019 went to number 20 on the Billboard charts in The States, I haven\u2019t been on the charts in over thirty years, since \u2018Stay Hungry\u2019 pretty much, it\u2019s one of the biggest metal records in the world right now, so my solo career is really taking off and here I am returning to Australia. So I\u2019m gonna give you half the show will certainly be that Twisted stuff that people are dying to hear by the other half is definitely going to be new stuff but judging by the reaction of seeing it internationally and it\u2019s been great because people are actually interested in my new solo album \u2018For The Love of Metal\u2019 which I haven\u2019t really dealt with before, usually you can say here\u2019s one from the new record you can literally see half the place go to the bathroom, they literally leave *laughs* like oh great a new song I wanna get a beer. So the reaction to this record has been tremendous.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long long time since you\u2019ve been to Australia, what if anything do you remember about that last trip back in 1985?<\/strong>
\nWell I remember it very fondly and my wife has been bugging the shit out of me to go back *laughs*ever since we went there, we\u2019ve been together a very long time and she just loved it, and I loved it, and just seeing part of the unique thing and I put art in quotation marks because I don\u2019t see myself as an artiste but it\u2019s just how you connect with people crossing all kinds of boundaries, oceans and countries and religions and political beliefs and all these kinds of things, so when we went to Australia and saw the response and the connection and reaction it just blew me away that so far away from my home we were connecting the way we did, and so I\u2019m anxious to come back to reconnect with the old fans and hopefully by the time I get there I mean the new album\u2019s already been out for a couple of months and its already taking hold and I\u2019m hoping that it\u2019s well ingrained by the time I get there so people will be enjoying the new stuff as much as the old stuff.<\/p>\n

You really haven\u2019t rested at all since Twisted Sister bid us farewell, with two solo albums in the last two years, what has making these solo albums now allowed you to do that you felt you may not have been able to with any of your other bands?<\/strong>
\nWell when you\u2019re in a band like Twisted Sister which is so defined its sound, its era, its look, on so many different levels it\u2019s a very strange relationship with the audience, while you see them saying they want to see something new, clearly they\u2019re purchasing does not reflect that *laughs* it\u2019s a very small minority who actually follow the band\u2019s new stuff and in concert like I said the new songs are the bathroom songs, time to get a beer or a burger or something. So you\u2019re very limited and also Twisted when we reunited they said hey we should do a new album I said I\u2019m really not crazy about going back to the future, and they said what do you mean back to the future? I said well people want an old sounding album in contemporary times and then they don\u2019t buy it anyway and really don\u2019t want to hear it, and that\u2019s not just me, that\u2019s KISS and Motley Crue across the board for the most part with rare exceptions, so I never felt motivated to do anything new. By retiring Twisted Sister it freed\u00a0 me to take chances, my first solo album didn\u2019t connect, it was more of a mainstream record and I did some crazy shit on there, I did a cover \u2018Head Like A Hole\u2019 by Nine Inch Nails, like full synthesizers and I could never so that with Twisted Sister. One thing that did connect was I did a piano vocal version of \u2018We\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u2019 which I wound up donating to the fight against children\u2019s cancer and I don\u2019t know about overseas but in the United States in a really big way people were really blown away by that, but I could never have done that kind of experiment while I was in Twisted Sister.<\/p>\n

That was actually my next question as that song just gave me goose bumps on goose bumps, when you arranged it and heard it that way did you find it took on a completely different meaning and power when performed that way?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve gotta give credit to the producer, he suggested it and I literally told him you\u2019re out of your fuckin\u2019 mind, I mean I\u2019m like I hate unplugging, I hate the whole concept of the metal band proving their merit by playing with acoustics, like fuck you let Paul Simon plug into a Marshall stack and ride the lightning see if he can handle that. There\u2019s this unspoken thing that you\u2019re not a real musician until you like strip down, expose yourself, I\u2019m against it. But he laid down the piano track that he had in mind and I walked in and I heard it and I suddenly started to see what he was seeing and that version was literally one take, I just went in and just blasted it out just the way it came out. People say the cry when they hear it, especially if they see the video for the children\u2019s cancer video because there are some images in there and Criss Angel deliberately put them in and fair enough his son is two and has leukaemia and he wanted people to feel it, he wanted people to understand the pain that families are dealing with and the combination was practically lethal.<\/p>\n

One take, that\u2019s unbelievable, there\u2019s so much power in your voice it\u2019s just crazy!<\/strong>
\nOne thing I haven\u2019t lost is power, and with Twisted and when I thought I\u2019d retired it wasn\u2019t with the intention to do new music, I never had that intention we just felt it had run its course and we had one of our members AJ Pero pass away, just like are we gonna keep doing this until one by one everybody drops off? *laughs* It\u2019s the inevitable, you can\u2019t beat your gravity, and we decided let\u2019s call it a day. I got literally challenged twice, once for the \u2018We Are The Ones\u2019 record to do a mainstream record, I accepted the challenge and I\u2019m really happy with the result but it didn\u2019t connect and then Jamey Jasta and I said ok, I didn\u2019t really think there was a place for me in the contemporary metal scene but Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed he approached me and said hey man, I\u2019ve seen you in concert and you\u2019re as powerful as ever, not only your voice but physically you\u2019re in amazing shape and you\u2019re just shaming twenty year olds up there and dude you\u2019ve gotta do a metal record. I said I\u2019m not sure what I should be doing so he said let me produce and I\u2019ll help you, and so thank you Jamey Jasta for helping me find my spot, because he said there\u2019s a spot for you in contemporary metal, so it looks like he was right.<\/p>\n

Jamey is such a great guy too, just a really nice dude.<\/strong>
\nYeah he\u2019s another one of those guys, this is back to the two sides of the coin, there was a recent study I don\u2019t know if you saw it but it was a legit study that head bangers grow up to be better adjusted adults than fans of other music and I was actually interviewed by Psychology Today and they were just investigating this study and trying to investigate why and I said, simple, because heavy metal focuses on the dark emotions, hate, depression, hostility, aggression, sorrow, death, heartbreak, all the dark emotions but these are the emotions you can\u2019t keep bottled up we have to let go and we feel better afterwards, after we head bang, after we thrash, after we\u2019re in the pit we come out smiling, sweating and laughing because we let it go. I mean Jamey in Hatebreed I mean fuckin\u2019 HATEBREED!! You get done expressing those emotions and you\u2019re better off for it, so I understand wholly why head bangers are better adjusted adults<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve written and recorded some of Rock\u2019s biggest anthems if you like, how does it feel to be associated with such timeless songs?<\/strong>
\nYou know my manager and also the guy who signed Twisted Sister and didn\u2019t want to come into the dressing room and meet us, *laughs* his name is Phil Carson and he\u2019s managed some of the greats, he manages Foreigner, and he managed Page and Plant and Ron Wood and Asia and signed some of the greatest bands in history, he signed AC\/DC to Atlantic records, OK, he\u2019s the guy, and he said hey man, if you\u2019re only gonna have two hits make them doozies. These songs have a life I never expected, \u2018We\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u2019 is I\u2019d say it\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s a folk song at this point, it\u2019s crossed and transcended the genre, transcended the band and it pops up anywhere and everywhere and pretty much everybody knows the song, they may never know who wrote it at this point but they know the melody and they know the chorus. So it just does blow my mind that all these years later I\u2019ll take my kids, actually my grand kids *laughs* you don\u2019t get a prize for that by the way you just have to knock somebody up when you\u2019re young and you get grand kids, anyway my wife I knocked up, but we went to see Spielberg\u2019s \u2018Ready Player One\u2019 and the fuckin\u2019 finale of the movie is \u2018We\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u2019, the finale of a Spielberg movie in 2018 is \u2018We\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u2019 that\u2019s fuckin; staying power.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve also done so much over your career, music legend, reality TV star, Broadway alumni, actor, horror movie director, radio host\u00a0the list goes on, but is there anything you still want to do that you haven\u2019t yet had the chance to do?<\/strong>
\nI keep saying no I\u2019m pretty much done and then something else pops up like the phone call I got a couple of years ago from a Broadway producer friend of mine who says hey what do you think about doing a cool animated children\u2019s show and I said alright sounds good and I hung up and my wife said you want to do a children\u2019s show? I said I\u2019d never thought of it before *laughs* but I\u2019m game, but we sat down and I can\u2019t get into the details because we sold it to Netflix and it\u2019s in production right now and Netflix has to announce it formally but the inspiration being I\u2019m writing the music for it and just creating a show that parents will not want to kill themselves if they have to watch it with their children and listen to the songs over and over and over because that\u2019s what kids do, they play things on repeat until you want to commit suicide, thank you very much Wiggles. So this was that cool new thing, but anyway I didn\u2019t know I wanted to do that, so I started a production company we\u2019ve got a few horror films in development right now and so I\u2019m doing more producing and writing, so I mean I\u2019ve got plans to write a novel, a fictional novel that I want to get started on, so there\u2019s still things I want to do, I want to do more behind the scenes, I did not expect to be in front of the camera so to speak at this point in my life but for some reason as they said in The Godfather 2, every time I think I\u2019m getting out they keep pulling me back in, so here I am.<\/p>\n

I remember seeing Twisted Sister at the first Rocklahoma back in 2007 and two things stood out, you made it snow on stage and played \u2018Silver Bells\u2019 in the middle of July and you played \u2018We\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u2019 mid set and told everyone if they were only there to hear that they could leave, everyone stayed it was amazing. What do you remember most about headlining that first festival?<\/strong>
\nThank you, you were there you know I still have the vitality! I remember poignantly for one major reason, people say you\u2019re still kicking ass, if it was fifteen years ago I\u2019m not still kicking ass I\u2019ve had knee surgery shoulder surgery, throat surgery I\u2019m being repaired and getting out there for more, so if I didn\u2019t have the repairs I wouldn\u2019t be back out there and I had a career ending knee injury which was from overuse and jumping around like a lunatic and I just come off surgery and therapy and that was the first show I did after my surgery and I remember it was a cement stage and I was just really, really like conscious of the fact that here I was because I just jump around and pound around and stomp around and I\u2019m going this is like a new me here and I\u2019m slamming my body onto this cement floor, so I remember it for that reason *laughs* it\u2019s not really a glorious reason but I do remember the show.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2019 Dee Snider will\u2026<\/strong>
\nOK\u2026 I want to say be on the beach in the house that we built in the Caribbean on the ocean right on the other end of the Great Barrier Reef and I\u2019d like to say be sitting under a palm on the beach in the Caribbean, but, judging by the success of this record I think I will probably be out on the fuckin\u2019 road *laughs* playing as a solo artist.<\/p>\n

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DEE SNIDER JANUARY 2019 TOUR DATES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thursday, 31st January – Sydney – Manning – SPOKEN
\n<\/strong>Friday, 1st February – Sydney – Manning – SHOUTED!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday, 2nd February – Melbourne – Croxton – SHOUTED!
\n<\/strong>Sunday, 3rd February – Melbourne – Croxton – SPOKEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

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TICKETS ON SALE NOW FROM:\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.hardlinemedia.net<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Essential Information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> New York, NY, USA<\/p>\n

Website: <\/strong>www.deesnider.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> For The Love Of Metal (Out Now – Napalm Records)<\/p>\n

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