Shut Up and Give Me the Mic

by Dee Snider

  Chapter 11

  1. Though never released on an official Twisted Sister major label LP, “Pay the Price” can be found on Twisted’s Club Daze Volume 1: The Studio Sessions CD in its demo form. Though not the sound we ultimately became known for, it’s still a good song. Especially for my first.

  Chapter 12

  1. Formerly going under the names The Rock Pile and The Action House. Some of the most legendary bands in rock history had played there, including Jimi Hendrix and Cream.

  Chapter 14

  1. You can see Twisted Sister’s name on the marquee of the Calderone for the convention on the DVD extra “History of the Rocky Horror Show.”

  Chapter 15

  1. Years later, Twisted Sister would forbid Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker from using “I Wanna Rock” as his intro music after a particularly scathing racist tirade of his was published in Sports Illustrated.

  2. I didn’t remember them opening or even seeing them that night, as I was always backstage getting ready for our show. When we toured together years later, they told me about their opening. Someone eventually sent me the ad from the local paper a few years ago. Amazing.

  3. From this point forward, Joe Gerber’s name will be popping up frequently. So frequently in fact that my editors decided there would be no need to continually reintroduce him every time he is mentioned. That’s just as well, given how many titles he held. Joe began as our Road Manager (Joe essentially functioning as our day-to-day manager). He eventually earned Co-Manager status. At various points along the way, Joe also served as Tour Manager, Stage Manager, Production Manager, Monitor Engineer, Lighting Designer/Board Operator, Advance Man, Security Director, Video Liaison/Supervisor, Executive Tour Manager, Travel Agent, Truck Driver, Bus Driver, Indie Record Company President/Field Rep/Distributor, Merchandise Salesman, Enforcer, Bookkeeper, Bouncer, Bail Bondsman, Consigliere, Confidant, Father Confessor, and Designated Scapegoat. You get the idea. Whatever needed to be done, he did it . . . he’s my dear friend and will be a great supporting role for some actor in the film adaptation of this book.

  Chapter 16

  1. The only song I ever wrote on the guitar is “Destroyer” on Twisted Sister’s first album. Though a longtime fan favorite, it does underline my limitations as a player.

  2. I feel the best stuff I’ve ever done was with a band called Desperado. The project was shelved in 1989 by our label (more on that later) at the eleventh hour and didn’t see the light of day until recently, on a small indie label. Seek out “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

  3. The club Detroit has often been confused with the city. It’s not. It was named after a great Good Rats song called “Takin’ It to Detroit” (which is about the great rock city of Detroit), used as the club’s theme song on commercials. Confusing, I know. New York club-goers referred to it as “Detroits,” as in “Hey, youse goin’ tuh Detroit’s tonight tuh see Twisted?” Adorable.

  4. Detroit was one of the growing “megaclubs” built to handle the massive, young audiences turning out to see the bigger area bands such as Twisted Sister. It was cavernous and held close to fifteen hundred people.

  Chapter 17

  1. We hired a top Manhattan ad agency, at great expense, to produce the definitive Twisted Sister logo. When they asked me to tell them about the band and to give them a feel for what we needed, I said something like “We’re metal, but we’re glamorous. Think black and pink, leather and satin.” Weeks later we received their best effort: the block letters T and S in black leather with studs, on a pink satin background. Thanks.

  2. Years later, when I started acting, one of the most difficult emotions for me to portray was embarrassed. After all the years of looking the way I have, that feeling has become completely disconnected!

  3. When the band starting performing together again in the early 2000s, I had forgotten about the ban (it had been over twenty years since it had been instituted) and got into an exchange with Eddie. It ended with Eddie on the verge of quitting the band and calling me a “white supremacist” (which I most certainly am not). I have since gone back into self-imposed “insult exile.” I can’t take me anywhere!

  4. Roger Offner remains my best friend to this day. He is godfather to my son Shane and I to his son Roger Jr.

  Chapter 18

  1. For the record, Suzette wants it known that she didn’t want to get engaged or married. Are any of you buying that this strong-willed young woman had absolutely no say in the course her life was taking? Our kids don’t.

  2. Carmine Appice is a legendary drummer who has played with the likes of the Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Rod Stewart, and Beck, Bogart & Appice, to name just a few. His incredible style helped to define heavy metal drumming.

  Chapter 19

  1. As of this writing, Twisted Sister is still reunited, but our original recording days are far behind us. Hence the “postmortem.”

  2. Contrary to popular belief, the nickname Fingers was not given to Eddie because of his guitar-playing prowess. It comes from a joke I made about Eddie after he had cut his fingers repeatedly and, temporarily, screwed up his ability to play guitar.

  Chapter 20

  1. This can be found on Twisted Sister’s You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll album.

  Chapter 21

  1. My dentist had a state-of-the-art . . . Walkman cassette player! What better to listen to while you’re getting your teeth drilled than blasting heavy metal? The opening, whining guitar lick in “Under the Blade” was inspired by a dentist’s drill. I told Jay Jay, “Play something that sounds like you’re getting your teeth drilled,” and that’s what he came up with.

  2. A.J. was stunned to find out that the professional press kit—complete with bio, photo, and résumé—he had given his friend had been reduced to an unmarked cassette by the time I received it. I guess it was just meant to be.

  3. To this day, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is considered a punk anthem, owing some of its own inspiration to the Sex Pistols, for sure.

  4. According to world-class authority Wikipedia: “Oi! is a working-class sub-genre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other working-class youths.”

  Chapter 22

  1. The North Stage Theater Concert DVD, found on the Double Live: North Stage ’82–New York Steel ’01, is a must-have for any true fan of the band. I don’t say that about too many things we’ve done, but filmed on the eve of our initial breakthrough, the band was at its best!

  2. Pete Way and Fast Eddie Clarke (along with Jerry Shirley of Humble Pie) would later form a band called Fastway, who would have some success, despite Pete’s leaving before the band recorded their first record.

  3. Considered by many metal fans to be one of the greatest opening songs of all time.

  4. That’s not completely true. Every Halloween, Twisted Sister would perform in street clothes. We figured while the world was dressing up, we would take that one day off each year.

  5. It should be noted that Jay Jay always wore sunglasses onstage. At that time, nobody else ever did.

  Chapter 23

  1. I once weighed myself before and after a show, and I had sweat off eight pounds! Sometimes I would take off my shirt and wring it out—sweat pouring off it—in front of the crowd to show them how hard I was working and motivate them to rock harder. My roadies would have to mop up the sweat on the floor beneath me so I wouldn’t slip on it and fall.

  Chapter 24

  1. When I put on my costume that day, I realized I’d left my armbands, gloves, and neck chain back in the States. I got ahold of roll of black duct tape and used it to make armbands and wrap my hands with. If you look closely at photos from that day, you can see it. The crucifix around my neck is a blessed one I wore every day.

  2. You can find this killer Reading show in Twisted’s DVD box set From the Bars to the
Stars.

  Chapter 25

  1. We didn’t find out about Joe’s grand gesture until a couple of years later, when a bonus structure was being discussed for him because of his years of service. When his generosity was revealed—as an example of his commitment to the band—some of the band members were unaffected by his kindness, and one—in an effort to further discredit his action—actually said, “You didn’t ask us if you could do that.” Unbelievable.

  Chapter 26

  1. We did have a song being played on a couple of New York stations. Our demo of “Shoot ’Em Down” was part of a radio-station compilation album (along with a then unsigned Jon Bon Jovi’s “Runaway”) being played on WAPP, and WPLJ had added the song off our Ruff Cutts, then Under the Blade records.

  2. This performance can be found on Twisted Sister’s Video Years DVD.

  3. That year, our performance of “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll” was voted one of the top five videos of the year, in the Sounds readers’ poll, even though it was never released as a video. Several years later, I would return to the Tube studios to find one entire wall of the greenroom with a blown-up picture of the last anarchic moments of Twisted, Lemmy, and Robbo performing. I’d say it was a memorable performance.

  4. I remember Phil’s being particularly surprised when one of the band’s main concerns was if there was a gym close to the recording studio. He said most bands wanted to know how close the nearest bar was.

  5. “Artist & Repertoire.” The term coined to describe the function of people at record labels in charge of finding and developing new talent.

  6. Full disclosure: Phil is now my manager, business associate, and lifelong friend. In all my years in the record business, he is the only record-company person I have had an ongoing relationship with. He is the real deal.

  7. Atlantic Records had a trade deal with Air India and flew all of their fledgling acts on it. Imagine Twisted Sister sitting in coach amongst a 747 full of Indians, eating curry and watching Bollywood movies. Hysterical.

  Chapter 27

  1. I later read an interview with Mick Jagger where he said the key to good lipsynching is singing along with the track. I’ve done that ever since. Problem solved.

  2. As exemplified in the movie The Warriors by the rivalry between the Orphans and the Warriors.

  3. The strangest things I ever signed were plastic fetuses. At a festival, an “anti-choice” group was handing them out to show people the horror of abortion. I was doing a signing there, and fans were waiting on line to have me sign them. Weird. Of course I signed them. They weren’t actual fetuses.

  Chapter 28

  1. All labels would only agree to pay the band songwriters three quarters of the statutory rate (union-defined royalties). They would give the writer a choice of signing a waiver giving up his or her right to the full royalty or they wouldn’t sign the band.

  2. That’s not their actual name, but I won’t give them the pleasure of having their actual name in my book. Some of you will know exactly whom I’m talking about.

  3. Ugly Duckling rent-a-cars are the cheapest rental cars you can get because they only rent used cars. There is nothing luxurious about the beaters you rent. They truly live up to their name.

  Chapter 31

  1. Some of these original demo tracks can be found on Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry 25th Anniversary Edition. They are almost identical to what you hear on our album.

  2. A couple of years ago, Suzette and I were booked into the Oakwood Apartments for a few weeks when my son Jesse Blaze was starring in MTV’s Rock the Cradle—we didn’t last a night. (“What am I, an animal!? Get me a real hotel!”) Funny how people adjust their standards.

  Chapter 32

  1. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s and Robert Englund’s autographs are the only ones I have ever asked for.

  Chapter 34

  1. Marty Callner is still the premier director of live-concert filming, including concerts by Justin Timberlake, the Rolling Stones, Britney Spears, Garth Brooks, and many more.

  Chapter 35

  1. Years later, I would do rock-talk radio on WMMR in Philadelphia, and after an interview with Brian, I played “Guess What Brian Johnson Just Said?” with my listeners. Playing back audio clips from the interview, my audience would call in and try to figure it out for a chance at winning an ’mmr rocks! T-shirt. They rarely got it right.

  2. In spite of the failed promotion of “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” when we perform the song at any show in Great Britain, it brings the house down every time.

  Chapter 37

  1. Vic often said that he never experienced the kind of attention and fanatical behavior I attracted with any of his other clients. I explained to him that it was the “Elephant Man” factor. Looking the way I did, and being as large as I am—especially in five-inch heels (all of his other “bosses” were about five-and-a-half feet tall—totally under the radar)—you didn’t have to be a fan of my band, or even know who I was to be curious and drawn to me. Everyone wants to get a closer look at the Elephant Man.

  Chapter 38

  1. Point of interest: While the son was played by director Marty Callner’s son Dax, the voice of the “possessed” son is Marty’s. I had envisioned something a bit more Exorcist-ish, but I guess it worked. Marty can also be heard “chuckling” when the mother throws water on Neidermeyer, just before the song kicks in.

  2. Mark and I have been in touch from time to time since those crazy video days. As with my own, I can assure you, Mark’s “asshole days” are far behind him.

  Chapter 39

  1. I would come to understand just what it meant to have someone championing you when you were down. When Skid Row first broke, Sebastian Bach would sing my praises endlessly, despite that Dee Snider’s and Twisted Sister’s careers were dead in the water. Thanks for that, Sebastian.

  2. Point of interest: The scourge of Amarillo, Texas, has been a regular on the radio down there for years now. My internationally syndicated show, The House of Hair, is broadcast weekly on KARX 95.7. What was once dangerous and threatening is now comparatively easy-listening and the music of a generation.

  3. I can’t remember the city we were in, or the name of the mayor at that time, but Miller will work in example.

  4 I found out years later that one of those Sunrise theater vandals was none other than a young and inspired Marilyn Manson. The show had quite an effect on him.

  5. Years later (in the 2000s) when the band reunited and finally toured some of these countries, it was sad to see and meet now middle-aged fans who had been waiting decades to finally see Twisted Sister.

  Chapter 41

  1. As I wrote this, word arrived that Clarence had a stroke. Weird. I hadn’t thought about him in years. A few days later, he died. Rest in peace, my friend.

  Chapter 42

  1. Ronnie later publicly apologized for this unfair accusation after my brother Mark Snider, who was then producing a national heavy metal radio show called Metal Shop, informed him of my position at the hearing. Thanks, Mark.

  Chapter 43

  1. Years later, when watching the video with my kids, I would spot a then unknown Luke Perry (normal and zombie-fied) in the classroom.

  Chapter 44

  1. You can’t park in front of 30 Rockefeller Center anymore; they’ve closed the street for security reasons.

  Chapter 45

  1. Records are “cut out” when the label discontinues production and sells off remaining stock at a drastically reduced price.

  2. This long self-teaching process eventually led to my writing and selling screenplays, sitcoms, and reality-show ideas, and writing, coproducing, and starring in StrangeLand.

  3. Frustratingly, as Howard’s star rose and mine sank, people started telling me I looked like Howard Stern!

  Chapter 46

  1. Joe would go on to work with me on many more projects and play drums on some of the biggest records by Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and other pop divas.

&
nbsp; 2. For the record, this is an amazing way to address your issues, and if you can afford it and dedicate the time to it, I highly recommend it. Doing it in this way, you can actually see improvement and change happening.

  Chapter 48

  1. Desperado’s Ace CD was finally released on indie labels in 2006.

  2. “Make fun of” in English slang.

  Chapter 49

  1. It was later recorded and released on my Koch Records solo album, Never Let the Bastards Wear You Down, as “Ride Through the Storm (Suzette’s Song Part 2).”

  Epilogue

  1. During my post–Twisted Sister days, I always insisted on driving the van that would transport my band from town to town. Not that I wanted to drive, but I viewed it as self-flagellation for my failure. I was punishing myself.

  2. Publishing statements are documents reflecting music sales, airplay, and licensing (commercials, television, movies, etc.). When there is a lot of activity, they are always accompanied by a nice big check.