Dee Snider - Diamonds In The Dust? Page 2
By Martin Popoff

Where did the idea to do this come from?

"Really this was an album I was approached on, as opposed to me approaching somebody to do an album," offers Dee. "Traditionally you want to get the deal. You want to make records so you start pitching and wheeling and dealing, lawyers or whatever, to try and land a deal. Here it was the reverse situation. Mentally, essentially I've move on from that part of my life. I had no interest in starting over, so to speak, and doing a contemporary record. Now I'm doing radio, I'm doing movies, that's really where want to be at this time; occasionally doing something for a soundtrack, that's fun and intriguing, so I'm not saying I wouldn't do one-offs from time to time. But pursuing a music career, that's something I just really left behind. I was then told, 'well look, it doesn't have to be a new record. Is there music that you have that you've been wanting to release?' And that piqued my interest, because I've always written in quantity and had a great deal of trouble choosing the material for albums. On average, an album would have 25 songs that I put together, of which I would submit to the band, meaning that I had already gone through my own list of what I thought was worthy. To me, any of these 25 were album-worthy. Then the band would look at the 25 and choose the ten for the record. Subsequently, you're bound to have some songs that were omitted that you felt should have seen the light of day. So I certainly had a body of material over the years. I mean, the Desperado album, I had written a hundred songs with Bernie Torme, and I kind of harkened to that idea. And it was an opportunity to do something with the SMF guys. The SMF band was put together solely to play Twisted Sister material but they're really good musicians and they're really good guys. Each of the guys in that band are looking to aspire to success in the music business. But I have told them, look, don't look at this as a career move. Look at this as a fun sideproject. And if you can get something out of it, that's great, maybe it will sort of increase your profile. So the combination of playing songs that I had since my Twisted days on through Widowmaker and Desperado and a chance to do something with the SMF guys, like I say, that piqued my interest and I said let's do it."

Dee Snider - Diamonds In The Dust? Page 3