Dee Snider Thinks Political Action Might Force Twisted Sister to Reunite
This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, but Dee Snider is a pretty political dude. And while he’s had some stances that are pretty fucking regrettable lately, he still remains one of the “good guys,” for the most part. From his fight against the PMRC to potentially breaking out the makeup to protest anti-drag laws, let’s just say our guy has some left-leaning politics.
So it shouldn’t really be a surprise that Snider’s eyeing the current political climate amid next year’s unavoidable shitshow known as the 2024 presidential election and thinking it might be time for Twisted Sister to come back out of retirement. The warning, if you consider it that, came during a recent interview with Canada’s The Metal Voice, where he was supposed to be talking about his upcoming graphic novel titled He’s Not Gonna Take It.
“I won’t be surprised if we’re (Twisted Sister) reuniting this election year to champion some important causes. I can see we’re all on the same page (the whole band) pretty much all of us on the same page. And I could see us fighting, helping fight the good fight. I mean because this is a big picture election and with things like women’s right to choose, that’s a big picture thing you know, that’s going to hurt the other side.
“I say the other side because I’m not on that side. You can’t roll back the clock, we’re not going back in time, we’re going forward. So there are important important issues so it’ll be more about less about the politicians and more about the parties they represent and what they represent. “
Gotta say it. He’s speaking the truth with a lot of those points. It’s a big election… “soul of the nation” and all that shit, even though we’ll likely be choosing between one shitty old white guy and another shitty old white guy…
This wouldn’t be the first time Snider’s weighed in on a political issue, of course. We all know the story of how he stood up to the censorship-loving Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in a 1985 Senate hearing, championing musicians’ rights to say, act, and dress how they wanted as a matter of free speech. And while he ended up defending rock and metal, Snider says he felt like a pariah afterward.
“I felt very abandoned by the rock community for the most part, they did not understand the importance of what was going on. And the industry as I said to you before they folded before we even spoke. They agreed to the sticker; it was a done deal. And a lot of the other musicians stayed out of it, they went quiet, they said just waited for the dust to settle. They deliberately made that move. I damaged my band. I became Public Enemy Number One even though you the fans knew we were not the worst of the bunch.
“But still that face to Mom and Dad was like oh yeah you can go see Motley Crue but you can’t go see Twisted Sister. My mail was checked, my phones were tapped, my packages were being checked. It was disheartening. I remember Ronnie Dio trashing me in the Press and he said who is Dee Snider to speak for us. And my first line (at the hearings) was “I cannot speak for anyone but myself he didn’t even listen to my first line and then reacted and spoke out against me, years later he apologized but no one remembers the retraction.”
If you’ve ever followed Snider, you know none of this should be shocking or new. You also know whether you agree with the dude or you don’t. All that matters is that politics may give way to some more Twisted Sister in our lives. And only you can determine whether that’s cool or not for you.
You can check out the full interview below.
