DEE SNIDER Interview Page 6
by Bob Nalbandian
SW: I used to collect metal videos, and one of my favorite videos was Twisted Sister doing "Under The Blade" on the Flo & Eddy show.Dee: Oh shit, that was early on! I think that was back in 1981!
SW: Even back then, which was way before you signed with Atlantic, Twisted Sister was doing national TV appearances...That's pretty major, even for bands who were signed.
Dee: That was pretty cool. Flo & Eddy would feature unsigned bands on their show. They had us, and on another episode, they had The Catholic Girls. They were looking for local bands that were making a noise and we were packing 'em in. We thought we were kings of the world. Even though it was a late-night show, there were people on the west coast watching us.
SW: Well...I guess that just about raps it up, unless you had something you wanna add...
Dee: You mean, you're not gonna ask me any questions regarding all the hoopla about the John Rocker incident?! Oh man, everyone's been talking about it. It's pretty f**kin' funny. I'll give you the short version...I kind of know John Rocker, and he was using our song "I Wanna Rock" as his theme song. After his Sports Illustrated interview, we decided we didn't want him to use our song anymore. The best way I can explain it is...it's like if a friend wants to borrow your car, and you look at him, and he's half in the bag, and you tell him, 'Look, I'm not lending you my car because if you get in an accident, I'm gonna be held accountable'. By him using "I Wanna Rock" as his battle cry, people hear it and say this song represents him, and we don't want anything to do with that racist bullshit. So, we notified the Atlanta Braves and told them we don't want him using that song anymore. We also did a press-release about this, and it was everywhere on the news yesterday...all the talk shows, every national news show, CNN...My favorite headline was, 'Gore, Bradley, Twisted Sister Denounce Rocker!'...I'm sure Gore is really happy about that! Like I said on my radio show, we re-issued the Twisted Sister catalog about two months ago and the only press interested in this fifteen year-old band were the core metal magazines. That same fifteen year-old band tells somebody they can't use one of the songs off of that catalog, and everyone in the world wants to talk about it! It wasn't a publicity stunt, and, still today, I'm turning down shit. It's funny, I got accused by this one radio station down south that I'm doing all of this for publicity...I did a phone interview with the DJ and he told me, 'You're old and washed-up, and you're doing this only to revive your band's career.' And, I told him... 'Publicity for what?! There is no band! There is no tour! There is no album! What am I pushing?!...For the love of God!!' The fact remains, we just didn't want our song used for that kind of publicity. The truth is, I'm hoping for a Rolling Rock commercial! [Dee sings]...'I Want A Rock! Grab Another Cold One!'...Hey, we got the Comtrex commercial , so it could happen...