TWISTED SISTER: 'Christmas' CD To Feature DEE SNIDER's Duet With LITA FORD

A 12-minute audio interview with TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider, conducted earlier this month by Doug Podell of Detroit's WRIF 101.1 FM, has been posted online at this location (Windows Media). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On whether the rumors are true that TWISTED SISTER will disband soon:

Dee: "First of all, we haven't been doing any real cohesive touring since we've reunited; it's been all just odd dates here and there. But yeah, I've given my notice. This is my last year."

Q: It's been that bad, huh?

Dee: "No, I've gotta be clear about that. [Laughs] It's going great. That's one of the reasons I wanna stop — before it turns bad again. [Laughs] We get along great. We've been doing it for four years. I just don't wanna be one of those bands that just never leaves, you know. Everybody's gotta know when it's time. I'm doing so many other things. And so this is our final shows, yeah."

On TWISTED SISTER's upcoming "final" disc, "A Twisted Christmas", featuring metal versions of holiday classics, including "Deck the Halls" and "O Come All Ye Faithful":

"We've been in the studio… I don't know if you heard about this. It came to us that when it comes to Christmas, there's every kind of music Christmas records — there's jazz, there's barbershop quartet, there's classical, there's easy listening — but there's no old-school metal. And we have just finished recording 'A Twisted Christmas' — 10 traditional Christmas songs done '80s-metal style. I'm telling you — it works. It's unbelievable. It rocks.

"You know what? Years ago, back in the '80s, I was saying, 'Man, it would be great if all the bands got together and we each took a Christmas song and did it our own way.' So what J.J. [French, guitar] — knowing this is the last year for me — said, 'What do you think about doing a Christmas record?' And I said, 'You know what? That could just be insane enough to be successful.' So we went in and the stuff works, man. We've got an AC/DC-type version of 'Silver Bells', a MAIDEN version of… This is what we did: We approached it like, 'How would these bands do it?' A MAIDEN version of 'White Christmas', THIN LIZZY, a JUDAS PRIEST'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'. It rocks. Me and Lita Ford did a duet, power ballad-style, on 'I'll Be Home On Christmas'; it came out incredible and the record's gonna be coming out in October [via Razor & Tie Records] — it'll be in stores."