Dee Snider
Daniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and media personality. He is best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. The band's 1984 song "We're Not Gonna Take It" reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80's Songs. Snider later formed and was the lead singer in the heavy metal bands Desperado, Widowmaker, and SMFs. He also released several solo albums. Snider was ranked #83 in the Hit Paraders Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.
Early life
Daniel Snider was born in the Astoria neighborhood of New York City's Queens borough on March 15, 1955, the son of art teacher Marguerite and New York State Trooper Bob Snider. He has Swiss and Ukrainian ancestry. Although his mother was Catholic and his father was Jewish, he and his siblings were raised as Episcopalians after his mother converted. He grew up in the Long Island towns of Baldwin and Freeport. He sang in a church choir, school choruses, and concert choirs in high school. He was selected for the All-State Chorus for singing. He graduated from Baldwin Senior High School in 1973.Career
1970s–1980s
In early 1976, Snider joined Twisted Sister and became the band's sole songwriter. The group released their first studio album, Under the Blade, in September 1982 and developed a following in the UK. Less than a year later, Twisted Sister released their second album, You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll. Their third album, Stay Hungry, hit shelves on May 10, 1984. This became the band's most successful record with the hits "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock". "We're Not Gonna Take It" reached No. 2 on the UK singles chart and No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80's Songs. To emphasize the "twisted sister" image, Snider adopted a trademark persona of metal-inspired drag with long blond curly hair, an excessive amount of eye shadow and rouge, a beauty mark, and bright red lipstick.During the mid-1980s, before the premiere of Headbangers Ball, the first MTV program to consist entirely of heavy metal videos was Heavy Metal Mania. The first episode aired in June 1985 and was hosted by Snider. It featured metal news, interviews with metal artists, and in-studio co-hosts. That same year, in November, Twisted Sister released Come Out and Play, which sold more than 500,000 copies in the USA.
In 1984, Snider was arrested for obscenity after a show in Amarillo, Texas. A parent who brought their kid to the show pressed charges after Snider cursed out a member of the audience for causing trouble. A fine was paid and the charges were later dropped.
In 1985, Snider was involved in a Senate hearing instigated by the Parents Music Resource Center, which sought to introduce a parental warning system that would label all albums containing what they considered offensive material. Prior to the appearance by PMRC in Congress, they had singled out a list of songs entitled the "Filthy Fifteen" to demonstrate the dangers of such material to youth, with "We're Not Gonna Take It" featuring on the list alongside Prince's "Darling Nikki", Madonna's "Dress You Up", and Venom's "Possessed", among other titles. The PMRC proposed a system involving letters that identified the types of objectionable content they determined to be found in each album. Snider, John Denver, and Frank Zappa all testified against censorship and the proposed warning system. The system was never implemented, and the music industry had already adopted what is now the generic "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" label.
The PMRC involved prominent public figures such as Tipper Gore, the then-wife of Senator Al Gore, and Susan Baker, the wife of then-Secretary of State James Baker. Tipper Gore and Snider had a publicly antagonistic relationship as a consequence, with Snider accusing her of having a "dirty mind" for alleging that the lyrics of "Under the Blade" contained sadomasochistic undertones, when in fact, they were about medical surgery. Snider also alleged during the Senate hearing that Tipper Gore had fabricated evidence concerning merchandise sold by the band when she stated that "the t-shirts that kids wear" featured "Twisted Sister and a woman in handcuffs sort of spread-eagled". Snider challenged her to produce such a shirt, to which Al Gore clarified that "the word 't-shirts' was in plural, and one of them referred to Twisted Sister and the other referred to a woman in handcuffs".
The fifth Twisted Sister album was Love Is for Suckers. The record was originally planned to have been a Snider solo effort, but Atlantic Records encouraged a release under the Twisted Sister name. Touring lasted only into October 1987, and on October 12, 1987, Snider announced his departure from the band. It was during this time that Snider formed Desperado, a band featuring ex-Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr, ex-Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme, and bassist Marc Russel. The group's only album, Ace, has never been officially released, but was heavily bootlegged on CD under the title Bloodied, but Unbowed.
1990s
In the 1990s, Snider formed Widowmaker with guitarist Al Pitrelli, bassist Marc Russel, and former Twisted Sister drummer Joey Franco. The quartet recorded two albums with limited underground success, titled Blood and Bullets and Stand By for Pain. In the late 1990s, Snider toured with a "self-tribute" band called Dee Snider's SMFs, sometimes featuring ex-Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero. The usual lineup included Snider, Derek Tailer, Charlie Mills, Keith Alexander, and Spike.In 1993, Snider composed the theme song for The Terrible Thunderlizards. By 1994, Snider had, by his own admission: "...lost every penny I made. I was riding a bicycle to a desk job for $200 a week answering phones in an office."
In 1997, Snider began hosting The House of Hair, a syndicated 1980s hard rock/heavy metal radio show on more than 200 radio stations across North America. It is syndicated by the United Stations Radio Networks. The show's format runs two or three hours depending on which version of the show a radio station carries and features Snider's closing catchphrase: "If it ain't metal, it's crap!"
In 1998, Snider penned a song entitled "The Magic of Christmas Day ", which Celine Dion recorded for her album These Are Special Times. According to Snider, Dion at the time was not aware of who wrote the song. Later that year, he also wrote and starred in the horror film Strangeland. Snider also penned the script to a sequel with the working title of Strangeland: Disciple.
As of January 2008, however, Snider was less than optimistic that Disciple would ever see the light of day, saying in an interview with Bullz-Eye.com that he had reached a point where he should: "...put a sign on my website that says, 'Y'got ten million dollars? Give me a call. I've got the script ready to go. Robert Englund's attached, I'm attached. If somebody's serious and wants to make it, call me. But don't call me 'til you're ready to hand the check over.
In May 2009, Snider revealed on his radio show "The House of Hair" that Strangeland: Rising Sons would go ahead and was set to begin shooting in the fall of 2009 and would be slated for a 2010 release.
2000–2009
From June 1999 to August 2003, Snider hosted a morning radio show on a Hartford, Connecticut Clear Channel station, Radio 104, called Dee Snider Radio. His show returned to the air at night in August 2004 on 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until June 2005. He fondly referred to his listeners as his "Peeps", and "DEE" euro stickers, printed by the station, could be seen on the bumpers of his fans' cars throughout Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Other members of the morning show included Nick Lentino, Beth Lockwood, "Psycho Dan" Williams, Sean Robbins, and "Darkside Dave" Wallace. He frequently featured high-profile guests, including Ozzy Osbourne, pro wrestler Mick Foley, and Kiss singer/bassist Gene Simmons.In 2001, Snider was the voice of Gol Acheron, the main villain for the PlayStation 2 video game Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. The following year, he rejoined with the reunited Twisted Sister. Snider also played himself in the 2002 TV-movie Warning: Parental Advisory. In 2003, he appeared with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger at campaign events during his drive to recall incumbent California Governor Gray Davis. Snider sang the Twisted Sister hit "We're Not Gonna Take It", which was adopted by the Schwarzenegger campaign.
Snider voiced Angry Jack in the episode "Shell Shocked" for the Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. He admitted to being a massive fan of the show during an hour-long 10th anniversary documentary of the show in 2009, stating that to be asked to voice a character on the show was an absolute honor. He changed the lyrics of his famous "I Wanna Rock" to "Goofy Goober Rock" for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
Snider has narrated and hosted many shows and specials on VH1, film trailers, behind-the-scenes segments, and DVD special features. He was featured as the "voice" in the bumpers for MSNBC's 2001/2002 "Fiercely Independent" branding campaign.
In 2003, Snider collaborated on a Halloween-themed project called Van Helsing's Curse. The project's first album, Oculus Infernum, was released by Koch Records and featured a blend of heavy metal and orchestral elements in the style of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The band began touring in 2004 and later released a DVD of the concert entitled Live in Philly '05.
Snider returned to radio in June 2006 with Fangoria Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 102 from 9–12 Eastern.
Snider hosted VH1's 2008 "Aftermath" concert in remembrance of the victims and survivors of the 2003 Station nightclub fire. During the winter of 2008, Snider was featured as a contestant on CMT's Gone Country. The show invited musical celebrities to compete against each other to win the chance to release a country song. In 2008 Snider also appeared on the first episode of Kitchen Nightmares, chosen by Gordon Ramsay as part of the marketing for the re-launch of the Handlebar restaurant. On the show, Snider donated a motorcycle on which Handlebar clientele could bid via the restaurant's website.
Snider has hosted Dead Art on Gallery HD, a show about cemeteries' beauty and art.
Snider has also hosted House of Hair, a radio show that plays heavy metal music. Snider has made appearances on the IFC Channel's original series Z Rock as himself playing the character of a "rock guru".