by Dee Snider
“What?”
“Well, if you are a success in another field, won’t that prove it wasn’t an accident? Wouldn’t that prove it wasn’t luck?”
He was right. All this time I had been fighting the tide to prove my value when I could just as effectively have made my point by succeeding at something else.
But what? What else could I do?
OVER THE NEXT ALMOST two decades, I would do, and succeed at, a lot of different things. My long climb back to the top was filled with a lot of struggle, strife, love, and plenty more “Dee Life Lessons.” But you’ll have to wait for Shut Up and Give Me the Mic Part 2 to read about that. (Sorry.) In a nutshell, I started out studio-managing a stable of writers for Ric Wake’s publishing company (it was hard for them to act egotistical with someone who had sold more records than they had), then moved on to worked in creative development for a toy company (thank you, Don Spector and Balzac). From there, my careers in both voice-over and radio blossomed. Besides all the commercials and documentaries I’ve voiced, in 2000 I was the voice of MSNBC (“Hardball with Chris Matthews. Tonight at eight on MSNBC!”). My radio career took me from a late-night metal show on Long Island (Thanks, WRCN!) to successfully doing morning talk radio in Hartford, Connecticut (WMRQ), and Richmond, Virginia (WRXL), to evenings in Philadelphia (WMMR). As of this writing, my weekly syndicated radio show The House of Hair is entering its fifteenth year and can be heard on more than two hundred stations in North America.
The advent of The House of Hair in 1996—a show dedicated to my era of heavy metal—reflected a change in the musical climate. While hair metal certainly wasn’t returning, people were looking back at it fondly. The minimalist stage-production values and “life sucks and I wanna die” messages of the grunge era made some rock fans yearn for the Decade of Decadence and the middle-finger attitude of eighties rockers. Suddenly my music was no longer an embarrassment, and I had the publishing statements2 to prove it. I eventually paid back all the money I had been advanced over the years, and I’ve never gone back in the red again. Fool me thirty-seven times, shame on me!
The nostalgic interest in eighties rock led to the reunion of Twisted Sister. Originally instigated for Eddie Trunk’s New York Steel, a concert event staged to help the families of the police, fire-fighters, and EMTs who lost their lives on 9/11, we have been doing sold-out shows, for massive crowds, the world over, for more than a decade.
My writing career has done pretty well, too, as I’ve sold a couple of television-show ideas and a few screenplays. The one film I wrote that’s been produced, StrangeLand, I also starred in. It led me to acting and television work.
I’ve done quite a bit of television (hosting, reality, and as an actor) and some other films as well, since my bottoming out in the early nineties, including Growing Up Twisted, Gone Country, Howard Stern’s Private Parts, and VH1’s Warning Parental Advisory. And somehow I’ve become one of the voices of my generation. As Alice Cooper said, I guess they just got used to me.
IN 2010, I WAS asked to star in the hit Broadway show Rock of Ages, one of the 100 longest-running shows on Broadway, centering around the club scene of the Los Angeles Sunset Strip in the 1980s. Featuring the greatest music of that time—including two of my songs!—it shines a light on a musical era that rock ’n’ roll critics and historians look down their noses at, but audiences loved . . . and still do.
But it didn’t stop there.
As of this writing, I’m part of the 2012 Celebrity Apprentice cast (and did well) and have recorded a star-studded album called Dee Does Broadway. My career is headed in a whole new direction and I’m becoming a bigger star then I ever was in the ’80s. Hell, I’ve even had my memoirs published!
IT WAS STANDING ON the stage of the Brooks Atkinson Theatre opening night, taking my curtain call, that the full realization of how far I’d come washed over me. Suzette and my now-grown children—including my granddaughter, Logan Lane—were in the house, and the crowd was on its feet, cheering, while behind me the cast sang the refrain of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” over and over. The lyrics hit me like a ton of bricks:
“Don’t stop believin’. Hold on to that feelin’!”
In the years since that terrible night putting flyers on cars, I had fought, clawed, and struggled my way back to the top. Now I was taking my bow on Broadway? How the mighty had fallen . . . and risen again!
Through it all, my wife and children had stood by me, but there was one word—one poem—that had also inspired me to never give up. Written by William Ernest Henley—a man who suffered from lifelong tubercular disease—it’s entitled “Invictus”:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Don’t ever stop believin’. . . . Invictus!
Young and so innocent. Who could imagine what was to come?
Gettin’ an attitude by 1972. Maroon and tan clothes? Apparently, I was an “autumn.”
Performing with my high school band Dusk in 1973. Sparkle velvet pants with a pink-and-white top. My flamboyant side was starting to show!
With my sister Sue and my youngest brother Doug at my high school graduation in ’73. Check out the ’stache!
Kickin’ ass with Harlequin in the parking lot of a McDonald’s. Hell yeah!
Very early shot from 1976 B.S. (Before Suzette) with only a touch of makeup.
The night I met Suzette wearing the now legendary T-shirt. Wasn’t I the catch?
The beautiful Suzette, age seventeen. Yowza!
Rockin’ my favorite Suzette Christmas gift with Jay Jay French, circa 1976.
The game-changing fashion faux pax, as me and Suzette bought the same shirt. For the record, it looked much better on her.
Yet another “Suzette original” Christmas gift in action, this time with a very disco-looking Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda.
Twisted Sister promo photo, 1978.
“Sweet Transvestite”—era Twisted Sister, circa 1979. Look at those legs!
The view from the stage at the sold-out Palladium show in NYC, circa 1979.
Clowning around on our wedding day. That’s Suzette’s co-maid of honor/sister Roseanne on the left.
Me and my best man, “The Animal.” If it weren’t taken in 1981, you’d think the heads were Photoshopped onto the bodies!
Broke, record deal-less, out of work, and happy, fall 1982. I had discovered “it.”
Picture from home, winter ’83. I see my son sit up for the first time, inspiring “The Price.”
Twisted Sister ’81/’82. The look is finally coming together. I have released my inner beast!
Post show, Marquee Club dressing room, 1982. I’m sure I was telling somebody how hot it was the first time we played there!
A literally “cocky” bastard, backstage at Donnington.
In the thick of things at Castle Donnington, UK, 1983.
In all my glory B in the D (Back in the Day)!
When men were women . . . who were men!
The handwritten guarantee by engineer Geoff Werkman (RIP) that “Stay Hungry” would go platinum.
Mark Metcalf, Marty Callner, and me during the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” video shoot.
The original Twisted bone logo sketch that Suzette did in five minutes.
Yes; that was my real hair! But clearly the �
�car-pits” don’t match the drapes!
Busted in Amarillo, Texas!
Meeting up with my family in Florida mid-tour, October 1984. I was happy to see them, too.
Hangin’ out at MTV, 1984.
Me with A.J. Pero and Brian Johnson in 1985. Really! That’s Brian Johnson!
Just an average dad washing the family car!
Playing with my baby boy Jesse backstage after show at The Pier in NYC.
Me and Shane, 1989.
The Snider family happy in Florida, 1990. You wouldn’t know the bottom had fallen out of my career, would you? That’s because I had “it.”
Me and Bernie Tormé backstage at the only Desperado gig we ever did. Check out the beard! I had to grow it after a boating accident. Did I forget to tell you about that?
Me and the great Howard Stern (both sans sunglasses) backstage at a Widowmaker show on Long Island in 1990.
Lean and mean fronting Widowmaker in 1990.
Me and the love of my life, Easter ’92.
Me, struggling but happy and celebrating my fortieth birthday with Cody Blue in 1995.
The Snider Family, aka “It” (l. to r.): Cody, Shane, Suzette, Dee, Jesse, Cheyenne.
Thank-Yous
Ron Starrantino
Mick Foley
Joe Gerber
Dave Marfield
Randy Jackson
Jesse Blaze Snider
John French
Adam Green
Eddie Ojeda
Mark Mendoza
Anthony Pero
Alfred “Ralph” Allen
Savage Steve Holland
Lisa Marber-Rich
David Katz
Traci Ching
Don Specter
Eric Hermann
Larry Meistrich
Cooch Luchese
Danny Stanton
Sheryl Buckridge
Terri Baker
Mitchel H. Perkiel
Matt Mangus
Kevin McPartland
Pam Edwards
Steve Lehman
Jay Beau Jones
Eric Sherman
Eric Luftglass
Ric Krim
Chuck LaBella
Greg Bavaro
Michael Caputo
Ed Schlesinger
And most of all to my wife and children for their constant support and encouragement through it all and during this entire writing process. I love you all more than you will ever know. . . .
Photo Credits
Page 1:
Photos 1–4: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 2:
Photo 1: © Sal Di Bennetto
Photo 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection.
Photo credit: Laurie Palahnek
Page 3:
Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 4:
Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Photo 3: © Sal Di Bennetto
Page 5:
Photo 1: © Sal Di Bennetto
Photo 3: © Chip Rock
Page 6:
Photos 1–4: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 7:
Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 8:
Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 9:
Photo 1: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Photo 2: © Mark Weiss
Page 10:
Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 11:
Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 12:
Photo 1: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Photo 2: © Mark Weiss
Photo 13:
Photo 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 14:
Photo 1: © Mark Weiss
Photo 2 and 3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Page 15:
Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Photo 3: © Bruce Dworkin
Page 16:
Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection
Photo 3: © Jeff Katz, Los Angeles Studio
Chapter 1
1. He was the host of a Saturday-morning kids’ show that had up-and-coming rock bands on from time to time.
Chapter 3
1. For those wondering, after a television-less year, my father finally had enough “puzzle making” and one night stormed out of the house with a simple “That’s it!” He came home a short time later carrying two new televisions. We were reconnected!
2. Paul Revere and the Raiders are one of the original “garage rock” bands out of Portland, Oregon, and the first to record the federal-government-investigated “Louie, Louie.”
3. Sue turned me on to Deep Purple’s Machine Head—an early metal album—and was into Alice Cooper before I was.
Chapter 4
1. Oddly, I believe it’s that undefinable quality that has allowed me to appeal to so many different types of people over the years. Even my religion and politics are blurred. Go online and you will find I’m Jewish, Christian, a satanist, a Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, and Independent, heralded and reviled at the same time by supporting and opposing groups! I love it!
2. Mannello went on to become Don Fury, legendary New York City hardcore-music producer. I’m proud of you, Don!
3. I ultimately finished high school a classically trained countertenor, making All County, All State, and All Eastern Seaboard Choirs (making me one of the three hundred top high school voices on the East Coast), and received a 6A rating, the highest rating from the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA). The only negative on my rating card was the comment “Moves too much.”
4. Randy Jackson, guitarist/lead singer of Zebra, told Atlantic record company mogul Jason in 1982, “Twisted Sister is the best live performing band in the world. We can’t touch ’em and neither can anyone else.” After seeing the band that night, Jason said, “The band (Twisted Sister) . . . put on one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen (and I’ve pretty much seen them all).”
5. As much as they used to beg, they eventually grew to love metal. My brother Mark became the producer and writer of the legendary, hugely popular eighties syndicated-radio metal show Metal Shop. I was so proud.
Chapter 5
1. Phil was called Wha because every time someone talked to him, he responded, “Wha?” (Get it?)
Chapter 7
1. Credit to Alice Cooper for the T-shirt idea. It was a play on an old airline commercial where stewardesses—that’s what they called them back then—looked into camera and said, “I’m Cindy . . . fly me.”
2. Leslie West, a childhood hero of mine, has since become a dear friend.
3. Back then, your record company would often pay for you to be on a tour, and those costs were billed against your account.
4. To Twisted Sister’s credit, we chose the latter and chose it early.
5. I used to get upset when people called me a fag, homo, or gay, getting into confrontations and fights. Considering how I used to dress and what I looked like, what did I expect them to call me, “Macho”?
Chapter 8
1. Hey, if you have to be whipped, let it be by pussy.
2. It’s been said if you want to know what the girl you’re with is going to look like when she’s older, take a look at her mom. Suzette’s mom was a thirty-eight-year-old knockout. Check!
Chapter 9
1. Discussing with Suzette the insanity of what I got away with, she is quick to point out that her mother trusted me and knew I was a good guy. Jeanette was right on both accounts, but still . . .
2. To this day, after all the songs I’ve written and the millions of albums I’ve sold, I still feel
great discomfort showing a new song idea to anybody. Not as bad as that day with Jay Jay, but I still feel very vulnerable having to do it.
Chapter 10
1. My father was a yeller. I hated the way he would talk to my mom, and I used to pray as kid that I wouldn’t grow up to be like him. In spite of that, as I got older, I fell into the same pattern with my girlfriends, screaming at them just as my old man did to my mom. It took a fifteen-year-old Suzette all of one almost-leap from my car and the words “If you ever talk to me like that again, I’m out of here!” to cure me of that. Oddly, my prayers were answered.
2. I only recently found out that my wife never liked my voice. When I expressed shock at this, Suzette responded, “You know my favorite singer is Steve Perry from Journey. What about that would make you think I would like your singing?” Ouch.
3. Twisted always made a point of taking off most holidays so we could enjoy the day and spend time with our families. We still do. We were to have the part of the “house band” in Rodney Dangerfield’s movie Back to School, but passed because it meant being away from home at Christmas. Apparently Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo didn’t care about things like that. Heathens.