Twisted Sister are Back!! Well...sort of. The '80s glam-metallers have just re-issued their entire back catalog as well as the new collectors CD Club Daze (Spitfire Records) featuring 15 rare or never released studio gems from Twisted's earliest recordings, dating all they way back to 1978. My 'ole buddy/publicist Chip Ruggieri was kind enough to set me up with a phoner with the mighty Dee Snider the morning of January 20, 2000...the morning after the whole John Rocker/Kid Twisted incident erupted in the media. I, of course, was completely oblivious to this news, unaware that Dee had been bombarded with press people all morning regarding the Rocker incident. Like I could really give a shit, anyway...I just wanted to talk to Dee about metal!

I caught Dee at the station, where he hosts his nationally soon-to-be syndicated radio show...

SW: So how's the radio gig going?

Dee: I'm in my sixth month, the reaction has been really strong, I've been getting great response and thousands of emails. I'm enjoying it and I feel really comfortable.

SW: Since I'm in Los Angeles, I've yet to hear your show...I understand you play '80s heavy metal along with talk, and feature guest celebrities, is that correct?

Dee: No, that's my other show 'House of Hair' which is '70s, '80s, and early '90s hair bands and heavy metal. My show is a talk show, we play about two songs an hour. Howard [Stern] is in my market, so you really gotta figure out something that he's not doing. So, when he does a 20 minute commercial block, we try to cue in his listeners. So you find your mixture, but ultimately...I started with four songs an hour and now I only do two, and once I go national it'll be 100% talk radio.

SW: Let's talk about the new Twisted Sister CD Club Daze, which was recently released on Spitfire Records. What inspired you and the rest of the band to put this out, and why now?

Dee: Well, we had reconciled our differences about four years ago, at which point we discussed a reunion tour, in the general sense. But, at this time, there's no serious consideration right now. There's an '80s retro movement happening, and I've seen that with my '80s metal radio show, which started at only 30 stations and now we're doing 100. And I'm doing like 20 shares in all my markets. There's a nostalgia thing coming and most our catalog wasn't available. So, we talked with Atlantic Records about re-issuing our catalog, which we realized would appeal mainly to our core audience. We also realized that those are the same kind of people who are looking for something special and unique. And Twisted Sister has been together for six years before we had gotten a record deal. And in that time I had written about five albums worth of material. When the band finally broke, this material was left behind. And we knew that there were a body of people, particularly in the Northeast, who were always interested...asking us questions like "Why didn't you ever put 'Rock N Roll Saviors' on vinyl?". By the time we made it, songs like that were six years old! So, to us, it was ancient. For that reason, we put together a piece that would appeal to the collectors market and include the music that they've been longing to hear and make it available to them.

Click Here For DEE SNIDER Interview Page 2