DEE SNIDER Talks 'Broadway' Album, Autobiography And Possibility Of New TWISTED SISTER Music

John Jeffrey of RockMusicStar recently conducted an interview with TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RockMusicStar: Your latest CD, "Dee Does Broadway", seems like a very natural progression from the "A Twisted Christmas" album you released in 2006. Do you see the relation?

Dee Snider: The Christmas record definitely led to this, for sure. And hearing the rocking-ness in the Christmas stuff, which I always did — I've always heard (potential) heaviness in non-rock stuff. I've always believed that if Bach and Beethoven were alive today, they would be in SLAYER and METALLICA, respectively. At a young age, I heard these show tunes because I was in the choir, and my parents would always take us to shows. I always loved hard and heavy music, but even this stuff seemed powerful tome, even more powerful than the way that it was being presented.

RockMusicStar: It obviously makes a much more defining point as a solo artist to do a record like this, than to do a straight forward rock record, which ultimately would not be much different than doing a new TWISTED SISTER CD.

Dee Snider: People have been talking about doing a new TWISTED record. Which I feel is like going "back to the future." You'd be making an old record in contemporary times. And I really have no passion in doing that. And there really isn't a marketplace for it. Those records really don't sell, and people have shown that they're not really interested in old bands making new music. If it sounds like new music, they think you gave up and sold out. And if it sounds like your old stuff, they're like, "Yeah yeah, we've heard that already, we just want to hear the original stuff (we know)." This record is definitely a degree of a career move for me in a way, but it's also something that I felt passionate and excited about, and wanted to do it.

RockMusicStar: At the same time that your CD comes out, you also have your autobiography, "Shut Up and Give Me the Mic", being released. What's your angle with the book?

Dee Snider: First of all, I wrote every word myself. Simon & Schuster (the publisher) didn't want me to do that initially, because nobody does. And if you believe the heroin addicts actually took notes.... Really? They couldn't find their dick, let alone a pencil. I never did any drugs and I've never drank. So I'm really a clean and sober participant, and observer, of the "decade of decadence." The book for me, deals with my rise and fall. It starts with the day that I decided I wanted to be a rock star, and then ends with me at my lowest point in my life/career, post-TWISTED SISTER, when I lost everything (in the '90s). I was completely down and out. They made me put an epilogue on it, but I was like, "Everyone knows that I'm doing well now." But yeah, the ending is so depressing. The epilogue skips ahead 15 years, where I'm taking my final bow on Broadway, on opening night, reflecting on how far that I've come back in the past few years. The book is really the story of my struggle, my perseverance, and it sort of examines how things happened, for better or for worse.

RockMusicStar: You mentioned that you have no desire in creating new TWISTED SISTER music. Can you tell us what the status is of the band?

Dee Snider: They haven't read the book yet, and I hope they'll survive that. I didn't talk any dirt about the band, and didn't expose anything personal, it's not my place. But I do talk about the inner workings and relationships, and there's some things in there that they may not be happy that I'm speaking my feelings about. But we have some festivals booked around the world, a couple in the U.S., about 6 or 8 for this summer.

Read the entire interview from RockMusicStar.