A&E Biography has your backstage pass to stories behind the biggest icons who have transcended the genre. Next up in the “Rock Legends” series is Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who started as a high school choir boy before truly finding his voice and becoming one of the larger-than-life figures of the 1980s.
The show-stopping performer’s success was born out of rejection from record companies and naysayers including his own dad. Snider turned frustration into inspiration. It fueled the band’s anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” The hit song turned glam metal on its ear during the early days of MTV. Twisted Sister was launched into superstardom thanks to its best-selling record Stay Hungry, which also included “I Wanna Rock.” With big hair, spandex, colorful makeup, and platform shoes, Snider, founder Jay Jay French, and the rest of the group blazed a trail all their own.
The band was so big in this era that Metallica was opening for them on tour. They even had a cameo in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Of course, the Biography installment doesn’t just tap into Snider’s highs but lows too. He hit rock bottom at one point declaring bankruptcy and answering phones at an office job. There were also history-making moments like speaking out against censorship during the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) Senate hearing and rocking sold-out crowds. The proud New Yorker has been through it all.
Ahead of the premiere, Snider opens up about his journey.
A&E
What does it mean for not only you but also your peers to get the spotlight through Biography?
Dee Snider: It’s great to have a light shined on what we do as hard rock legends. Hard rockers and heavy metal guys, we’re down and dirty. We have some tales to tell. It’s nice A&E tipping the hat, showing respect, and appreciating the tens of millions of records we’ve sold and tens of millions of people we’ve performed for in our careers.
You’ve been around a long time, but in the doc, you’re sitting in a rather empty garage with just a couple of boxes. Was that your house they filmed you in?
You know what? You’re focusing on the wrong thing [laughs]. I’m impressed you noticed that. We made the big move about 10 years ago from the house where we raised our family, which meant getting rid of stuff. We had just moved into that house. We’re moving again because we’re always moving. It’s very organized. Plus, I’ve had so many reality shows, not full biographies like this one, but things where they wanted to see memorabilia, growing up Twisted. I had to go through it and be more organized. It’s weird because here I am in this big beautiful house and they have me on a folding chair in the garage. They could’ve filmed me in my dungeon! It would have been so much better.
Along with yourself, we also see others like bandmate Jay Jay French featured. You and he go back to some hard moments the band faced. What was it like revisiting some of those dark periods?
I hope the bio reflects how manicly driven I was. The more rejection I got, the angrier and more intense, more focused, I became. I also became a very difficult person to deal with. Looking back, I know how awful I was to my bandmates. I was just an angry miserable person because I felt like the world was against me. I’m having success, but that was what drove me. It wasn’t about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It was about you can’t stop us. I wrote every song. I was mad at the world. When I finally broke through, I was mad they didn’t let me through sooner.
I was a real a-hole in the ‘80s, and I lost everything, I got humbled I came back and went into different fields of radio, TV, movies, acting, Broadway, and writing books. I had some self-realization and reunited with the band. It was 9/11, which was a really good reason to reunite. It wasn’t money. It was just what can we do to help as New Yorkers. That was the only reason we got together. It got us past their hatred of me, and I was past my hatred of them, but they didn’t know I had grown and matured. It took them a while to see Dee was not the same guy he was. That was the reason I wanted to reunite. I told the guys that when you tell the stories to be honest. I was not a nice guy. I made their lives miserable. I wanted them to speak freely about that because I deserved that. I worked hard to get my excrement together and be a better person. Suzette, my wife of 48 years, helped get me there.
Suzette is featured in the doc. I love the story she tells of how you met.
She was at a bar with seven people in it. She got a phony proof ID when she was 15. She came to see the girl group. And it was us.
What’s the secret of how you made your relationship work for so long?
In 48 years, we’ve had our share of problems. I was an a-hole in the 1980s. We’ve been to marriage counseling and thank God we made it through. When we met with the marriage counselor for the first time on the first day, he said, “The only difference between couples that stay together and couples that divorce is couples that stay together don’t accept divorce as an option.” We already had kids. We wanted to figure this out. The two of us weren’t accepting divorce as an option. Once you take divorce off the table, you have to work it out. Thank God we did. Relationships have ups and downs, but 48 years later she is my partner in crime, my best friend. She is amazing. We’re amazing together.
There are many cautionary tales of your counterparts falling into drugs and alcohol. That never was you. How did you escape all that?
Thank God I never did drugs or drank. My poison, drug of choice is caffeine. I drink a lot of coffee. So much so, and this is true, Twisted Sister threatened to fire me from the band for being too caffeinated. These were guys where one had cocaine up their nose while the other guy had a beer in his hand at 10 in the morning. I said, “Wait a second. You alcoholics and drug attics have a problem with my coffee driving?” They were like, “Yeah man, you’re driving us crazy.” Suzette comes from a family that has suffered from drug addiction. She never drank or did drugs. The two of us had that in common. We were the oddballs that didn’t participate in that stuff. It takes that issue off the table. That’s not to say there weren’t other problems like an ego so big that it destroyed the band. I became a megalomaniac.
After so many years of being told no, once people started saying yes, I was consumed by the power of it all. It’s power baby. The one person who didn’t say yes to me all the time? Suzette, which is why we nearly broke up. It becomes a drug. Power is a drug. It killed my career. By the early 1990s, I had lost everything whereas in the 2000s I was back in action.
This comes out after “We’re Not Gonna Take It” just turned 40. It’s amazing how the song still resonates. How is it for you to see its staying power?
It wasn’t by design. I wrote the song myself and was very sure not to make it specific. I wanted people to put their situations into the song. I remember there was a review in the Village Voice. “Twisted Sister, “We’re Not Going to Take It Anymore” from Atlantic Records. What from whom?” Then they left a big blank space before the next review just to make a point that they were dismissing the song. I was screaming at the paper, “That’s the point!” It’s your what for your who. The song has become more than I ever thought. It has become internationally known. I agree with some of the causes it supports and other times I don’t. That is free speech and the design of the song. For people to put their frustration into the song. I wish QAnon didn’t use it as their go-to, but I’m not going to censor them on that because I’m a First Amendment guy. I fought censorship.
There was a point where you were everywhere. I still look back at seeing you on Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. How was it being on set for that and working with the late Paul Reubens?
Doing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was a life changer for me and not for the reasons you would think. I met Paul at an MTV New Year’s Eve party. We saw each other backstage. We had mutual admiration. This was when Paul was a college circuit comedy club guy. He asked us to do a cameo. Being on that set, with Tim Burton by the way. That was his first major picture. Watching insanity come to life. Having just done the Twisted Sister music videos, which were insanity brought to life, I got thinking I wanted to write movies and screenplays.
I started to learn how to write. I’ve written screenplays, shows, and theatrical shows. My new company Defiant Artists will soon be making a major announcement. I’m teaming up with a major Hollywood studio to do three to five movies a year starting next year. It all started on that set. That day watching Pee-wee being chased by Santa and Godzilla I believe and going, “Man I can think of anything and someone can bring it to life.”
What do you think the legacy of Twisted Sister will be?
The world reduces everything to one sentence…Twisted Sister is we’re not gonna take it. They didn’t take it. That will be on the tombstone. You’re lucky you’re remembered for anything. What I like about the Biography is that it shows that I was a frontman, first and foremost. You get to see me in action. Being a frontman is different than being a singer. Different jobs. The frontman is a guy who engages the audience, connects the audience, and makes adjustments to bring the audience in. One of the things they show in the Biography is me challenging 35,000 people to a fight. The audience was stunned because they could see on my face I was serious. They started laughing and thought, “This Yank is crazy. We like crazy.” This was in England. It was a game-changer. That was me being a frontman, doing what needed to be done to listen to the band.
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What is the state of rock today?
Guys out there who shall remain nameless…Gene Simmons. Gene, leave your mansion and go out to a club, festival, or theater with younger bands. Not the 1980s old band festivals. My kids have dragged me out to these places. There is passion, talent, and heart. Audiences know every word. You know what? These musicians have very little hope of making a living doing it. They are doing it purely for the love. I wanted to be rich and famous. That’s why I wanted to be a rock star. I did. Most won’t become rich or famous but have a love and passion to do it. Heavy metal, rock-and-roll, is alive and well. You’re not maybe seeing it like you used to, but there are some great bands out there.
Biography: Rock Legends, Sundays, 9/8c, A&E
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