Shut Up and Give Me the Mic

by Dee Snider

  “How many friends of Twisted Sister do we have here?!” I bellowed.

  Ninety percent of the crowd went wild.

  “Well, we’re stuck on this stage and some assholes out there are throwing stuff at us, and there’s nothing we can do about it!”

  Our fans heartily booed the “throwers.”

  “All I know is, if we were out there and somebody was throwing shit at you, we’d kick their ass!”

  The crowd roared.

  “But we’re not out there . . . you are! So if you see somebody throwing stuff at us . . . kick their ass! And if they’re too big to beat up on your own, get a bunch of your friends, pull ’em to the ground, and kick the fucking piss out of them!”

  The crowd went absolutely insane.

  We launched into the next song with a vengeance. As Twisted Sister played, fights erupted throughout the massive crowd. At one point, a large fire started blazing for some reason. It was out of control! But nothing further was thrown.

  The rest of our set went incredibly well, with the Donington metalheads rocking Twisted Sister–style. When we got to the big audience-participation part of “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll,” after getting the crowd to throw their fists in the air and scream, “I like it!” . . . I decided to up the ante.

  “This time when I say ‘It’s only rock ’n’ roll,’ I want you to scream ‘I like it’ . . . and jump!”

  The crowd laughed.

  “I’m not kidding!” I said as if I’d read their minds. “I know not everyone will have the balls to do it. Some of you are worried someone might laugh at you! Poor babies!”

  The crowd laughed, cheered, and jeered.

  “The true sick muthafucking friends of Twisted Sister will jump! Are you ready to jump, SMFs!?”

  The crowd were beside themselves with excitement.

  “Then let’s do it! ‘I know it’s only rock ’n’ roll, but—’ ”

  Allow me to tell you what happened next by quoting the words of the writer from NME (New Musical Express) who reviewed our set at the festival. NME is no friend of heavy metal—they pretty much hate it all. After brutally tearing Twisted Sister’s set apart in her review, the writer said of the last moments of “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll,” “I have to admit, seeing 40,000 punters, leaping into the air in unison, is a sight and memory I will take to my grave.”

  It was incredible. Too bad they were all so drunk the entire crowd fell over like dominoes!

  WITH THE FALL AND winter approaching, the band had a lot more work to do. On the plus side, Twisted Sister was selling a steady three thousand records a week—not too shabby for a band with no record company support. Every Monday, during the weekly Atlantic Records telephone conference with all of the national reps, the New York office was forced to hear tales of how Twisted Sister had come into some region and totally dominated—our record was flying off the shelves. While it was nice knowing how much that had to annoy the powers that be, it changed nothing for us as far as support from Atlantic went. We were still on the road, completely on our own.

  Meanwhile, Twisted Sister was starting to get noticed on MTV. Not that they were playing our video all that much, but they did use a piece of it in a heavily played promotional clip for the network, and people were noticing. Outside of the tristate area I kept hearing, “Hey, you’re that guy from the MTV commercial!”

  MTV struck gold with heavy metal. The very idea of music television was to add a visual element to the already-existing musical one. Many hugely successful recording artists had nothing to offer on that front. The first song played on MTV, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, was prophetic to say the least. When people got a good look at artists such as Joe Jackson and Supertramp, their careers were over. There was a reason Joe Jackson’s biggest record had his shoes on the cover . . . and it wasn’t just the album title. MTV needed bands and artists with a visual element, and they readily found it in heavy metal. For metal bands, giving a compelling, live visual performance had always been a priority, and the imagery of much of the music lent itself to rock video. MTV’s embracing of heavy metal as a staple of their video playlist was key to the major breakthrough eventually experienced by the coming wave of bands, and what later became known as “hair metal.”

  OUR FALL RUN OF dates paired us up with Queensrÿche, fresh out of their rehearsal space, as our opening band. We didn’t know much about them, other than that they had a pretty cool four-song EP out on a major label and were getting some radio play and MTV rotation. When Twisted arrived in our beat-up van at the venue in Kansas City for our first show together, we pulled alongside a shiny, new tour bus. Whose the hell was that? Once we got inside, we found out.

  Queensrÿche was one of those bands whose record company support was the exact opposite of ours. Their label, EMI, was giving them everything they needed to make sure they succeeded. To quote their then manager, “We told the label if you want them to be rock stars, you have to treat them like rock stars.” Amen. If only someone had told our label the same. Not only did this band, fresh out of their Seattle basement, doing their third live show that night, have a tour bus, they had new equipment, stayed in nice hotels, and each had a credit card just in case he needed anything! Try as we wanted to hate them, we couldn’t. They were all cool, unpretentious guys who had drawn the long straw when it came to record companies. It wasn’t their fault our label sucked.

  That night, we took Queensrÿche to school. Not intentionally; it’s just what Twisted Sister does. You have no idea how many bands and front men stand on the side of the stage, or out by the sound-board, studying the band and me (right, Jon Bon Jovi?), trying to figure out the secret of how we did what we did (and still do).

  Queensrÿche opened the show in Kansas City that night, looking and sounding great. They were well rehearsed, dressed, equipped, and staged and went through their set with mechanical precision. Then Twisted Sister went on. During our usual chaotic sixty-minute set, pandemonium ensued. Two women climbed onstage and had a spontaneous “strip-off” to one of our songs, and a guy in the audience I’d verbally been tearing to shreds decided he wanted a piece of me. He climbed onto the stage to attack me, and I one-punched him back into the crowd. Through it all, Queensrÿche stood side-stage, watching the whole thing, their mouths agape.

  As Twisted left the stage at the end of our show, guitarist Chris DeGarmo grabbed me. “Is it like that every night?!”

  “Only the good ones,” I said, and ran off.

  All in all, the Twisted Sister/Queensrÿche tour went well. Some shows were wetter than others (the sprinkler system went off in the packed club during our set in Chicago), and rumor has it, the Queenrÿche boys were a bit disenchanted with some of the more clublike venues they were playing (poor babies), but Twisted Sister was kicking ass and selling records.

  In November, during the final weeks of our tour with Queensrÿche, our manager got the call. The president of Atlantic Records in the US wanted to meet with the band.

  30

  that’s a horse of a different color

  It came as no surprise to us that our record continued to sell at a steady pace. Now approaching 150,000 units in the United States alone—with no record company support—Twisted Sister’s commercial value could no longer be denied. We were becoming a force to be reckoned with.

  As we headed into New York City for our big meeting with the all-powerful Oz—I mean, president of Atlantic Records—we were sure he was going to tell us the label was ready to fully get behind our You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll album. Every band we had shared both the top of the charts and Top of the Pops with in Great Britain were having major hits in the United States with their UK releases. It was our turn to shine.

  We arrived at Atlantic Records to find a very different label from the one we had been so unwelcome at before. As we walked into the lobby, a placard said WELCOME ATLANTIC RECORDS RECORDING ARTISTS TWISTED SISTER! with the band’s picture on it. We were immediately ushered insi
de, toured the Twisted Sister–poster-adorned office complex and were warmly greeted by every person in the place. Everyone seemed to be a Twisted Sister fan and had a story to tell about how he or she had always championed the band. It was completely confusing. When we were finally brought in to meet the president of the label, we couldn’t believe it. Was this the same guy who had personally rejected our band multiple times, threatened to fire Jason Flom if he mentioned our name, and fought to have Phil Carson not sign us? He was so welcoming and nice!

  Once all the glad-handing was done, Mr. President got down to business. He told us that Twisted Sister were going to be huge. We’d proven ourselves in the UK and had continued to sell—on our own—in the United States. Now it was time to push the button and make things happen.

  At last! Twisted Sister and our You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll album were finally going to get the support and attention we deserved!

  The president’s next words were career-changing on so many levels, both good and bad: “But let’s not throw good money after bad. It’s time to focus on a new record.”

  What?! A new record? We hadn’t even scratched the surface of this album’s potential. We had two hit singles in Great Britain with You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll; they could be hits in America! While it was amazing to hear him say that Atlantic Records would “push the button” and make us real stars, why not maximize the financial potential of the record they’d already paid for?

  I’ll tell you why.

  Imagine you were the president of Atlantic Records. You fought tooth and nail, for years, to keep Twisted Sister off your label. You personally rejected the band, threatened people’s jobs for even mentioning their name, and had been shut down and overridden by a fellow executive, in front of your peers, over this band and this very album. Now, the band and album you did nothing to support and everything to stop had survived and were threatening to break through, leaving you as their sole naysayer. Not an enviable position to be in, was it?

  By playing the “let’s not throw good money after bad” card, Mr. President had shown a change of heart and real support for the band, while shutting down the offending record. This allowed him to distance himself from the album and appear to be the giving god, shining his grace on the new Twisted Sister record . . . which he will make sure everyone knows he was very much a part of. Nice move, asshole.

  If our label president had done the right thing (instead of the self-protective thing), You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll could have been a platinum or multiplatinum album (instead of eventually going gold years later), putting Twisted Sister at the forefront of the new metal movement in the United States and setting a strong foundation for a much-longer, hit-filled, and illustrious career. Instead, we were set to be a part of the initial wave of heavy metal and hair bands, with a much shorter life expectancy.

  We left the Atlantic offices that day pumped by the amazing new support we were getting from the label, but disappointed our current record would not be given the chance to shine and do what we all knew it could. Still, the holidays were coming, and 1984 held incredible promise for the band. Big Brother was gonna be rocking to Twisted Sister.

  WHEN SUZETTE WAS PREGNANT with Jesse, she would come down from time to time to see the band perform. She would tell me, when Twisted hit the stage, the baby would go crazy in her belly, kickin’ and rockin’. The heavier the song, the wilder it went. Our unborn child wanted to rock just like its dad. Now, at fifteen months of age, I had been away for almost two-thirds of Jesse’s life. I wanted him to see what his daddy did when he was away.

  Upon returning home from our tours, the band took a victory lap of the Northeast to celebrate our major-label album and trouncing of the UK metal scene. The self-fulfilling prophecy had come true, and the “bad boys of rock ’n’ roll,” whom the SMFs had believed so strongly in, had made it to the next level.

  One of those victory shows was on December 29, 1983, at the 2002 Roller Rink—turned concert hall for the night—in Sayville, Long Island. An all-ages show, the place was wall-to-wall with thousands of teenage kids clamoring to see a band they’d heard about from their older brothers and sisters for so long and who were putting the Long Island rock scene on the map. As Twisted Sister rocked the house of nearly two thousand, it was pandemonium. But what I was most focused on was my son Jesse Blaze, standing on the side of the stage for the first time . . . and rocking out to his dad!

  During the show, our eyes locked, and Jesse, with a look of determination, started to head out onto the stage to join his old man. I blanched, realizing that the band were deep into performing and oblivious of Jesse’s potentially dangerous action. Luckily, he only got a couple of steps before Suzette grabbed him by the shoulder and reeled him in. I was amazed. My little more than one-year-old son understood what his dad was doing and wanted to do it with me. How cool was that?

  NOT SURPRISINGLY, ATLANTIC RECORDS felt time was of the essence. They wanted to capitalize on the energy and goodwill Twisted Sister had already created before it went cold. Nothing releasing a couple of singles and videos off the You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll album wouldn’t have fixed. Oh, all right, I’ll let it go.

  The first thing we needed to do was choose a producer. Our choice and his availability would decide the recording schedule, and everything else would roll out from there.

  The band was asked to submit a list of producers we would like to work with, and we did. Martin Birch (Iron Maiden), Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne), Dieter Dierks (Scorpions), Mack (Billy Squier), and more were all submitted for approval. Nowhere on our list, or even considered or thought of in any capacity, was the response from Atlantic Records. “How about Tom Werman?” Who?

  Tom Werman was a former record company A&R man turned record producer out of sheer necessity. Having signed Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, and Molly Hatchet, he subsequently “produced” their records and had been credited for taking bands that were rough around the edges and making them commercially viable.

  Now, the term producer is very general, covering any person responsible for overseeing and delivering a record. Some producers are hands-on engineer types, who actually push the buttons on the board and technically help get the sounds, while others are musicians who contribute to the writing and construction of songs. Still others are truly old-school (remember, the recording process started out with some microphones in a room and the band playing live to tape) and just listen. Tom Werman is the latter. To quote the man himself: “I don’t write, I don’t create, I don’t touch the board. I’ll just tell you if I like it or not.” He said it, I didn’t.

  Werman had just finished the Shout at the Devil record with Mötley Crüe, and it was looking as if it was going to be huge. Noting Tom Werman’s work with the Crüe and the other bands he had “cleaned up” in the past, Atlantic thought Tom was the perfect choice.

  We listened to the Shout at the Devil record and were unimpressed. The guitars and drums sounded pretty good, but overall it was not the sound we were looking for. Not heavy enough. Still, the label wanted Tom to hear us, and for the band to meet him, so Werman was flown in from LA to one of Twisted Sister’s “Northeast victory-lap shows,” in Washington, DC.

  Arriving late, Werman came in midshow and saw Twisted do what it always did—destroy a packed house. After the show, we met and had a chance to chat. Tom seemed nice enough. Upon explaining his A&R background to me, and how he came to be a producer, I decided to ask Tom a simple question. If he were still an A&R guy, would he have signed Twisted Sister?

  Werman answered me simply and directly, “No.”

  While I appreciated his honesty, this clearly was not the producer for our band. We didn’t care for his work, and he didn’t care for the band. Done and done.

  A few days later, Mark Puma and I took another meeting with our label president to discuss the issue of Tom Werman and the choice for producer in general. During the discussion, I explained the kind of producer the band was looking for and why Tom Wer
man just wasn’t the guy for us. El Presidente pressed hard for Werman, and I countered, explaining how we needed to make a true heavy record for our fans. We went back and forth on the issue for a few minutes, until exasperated, our label head exclaimed, “Exactly how many fans do you suppose you have?”

  Thrown by the question and his intensity, I replied, “I don’t know, 200 thousand.”

  “What do you want, those 200 thousand fans, or the 800,000 others that will make your next record platinum?”

  Just like that, I was shut down. I didn’t have a response. I wanted a platinum album. Of course, I now know the correct answer was “both.” There’s no reason a band can’t have both their core audience and the mainstream rock fans. (Just ask Metallica.) But I was intimidated by our label president’s intensity and the pressure of the whole situation. This was our shot.

  So it was decided that Tom Werman would be producing Twisted Sister’s next album. That was the beginning of the end. I know it seems crazy to say that when our biggest album and greatest success hadn’t yet even happened, but I firmly believe the decision to hire Tom Werman was the start of a butterfly effect that eventually destroyed the band.

  31

  the ayatollah of rock and rolla

  By this point in Twisted Sister’s career, Suzette and I were a creative machine, always working way ahead, in anticipation of the band’s next move. As I finished writing the material for Twisted Sister’s next record, Suzette was already coming up with ideas for the band’s next look.