DEE SNIDER Says He Threw CANNIBAL CORPSE's First Album In The Trash: 'It Wasn't Being Artistic In Any Way'

More than thirty years after TWISTED SISTER's classic song "We're Not Gonna Take It" was included in Parents' Music Resource Center's (PMRC) "Filthy Fifteen" list of objectionable songs, the band's frontman, Dee Snider, says that most of the tunes that made the list are "easy listening by today's standards!" He told Noisey in a new interview: "I'm eminently a fair person, I try to be fair in my judgements. When people ask me about the war against censorship, I tell them that it is ongoing. It never stops, partially because we the artists keep on pushing the line. As my good friend Robin Quivers once said, 'What good is having a line if you don't cross it?' So in their defense, what was dangerous in the '80s is easy listening now. The line has been pushed quite far, it's our job as creative to push it, but is it their job to push back? I guess if you are gonna be a conservative, that's kind of the job description. [Laughs] An open-minded conservative is an oxymoron."

Asked how far is too far, Snider — who found himself giving testimony to the United States Senate's Committee On Commerce in a congressional hearing on "record labeling" in 1985 — said: "I have been in radio for 25 years, and I once threw a record into the garbage: CANNIBAL CORPSE's first record. I was disgusted, because, to me, it wasn't being artistic in any way. It was being vulgar and disgusting just for shock value. You talk about fucking a nun in the ass with a knife, it was literally — that was one of the songs!"

He continued: "I was reading the lyrics, and you know, I'm an artist, I'm for creativity, for exploration, give me something to say that this is your artistic statement, but when you're just writing down the most despicable things you could possibly think of for the sake of shock, well, that, to me, isn't art. So, is that too far? That's too far. Who am I to judge? Everyone can judge for themselves. Would I say they should still be allowed to make their music? No. Should their music be kept form people getting it? No. That's the difference between a person who wants to decide for others, or who wants to decide for themselves. That was one of my positions when I went to testify. As a parent, listen to this shit, decide, and control your world. Don't ask the government to babysit your children. Judge for yourself, and do what you gotta do."

Snider's solo album, "We Are The Ones", was released on October 28 via Red River Records (distributed by BFD/RED). Produced by Damon Ranger, the record is described by Dee as "an album that is think part FOO FIGHTERS, part IMAGINE DRAGONS, part THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS." He added: "Forget anything from the past. Most of my heavy metal fans are gonna hate it; I've abandoned my past to move forward."