TWISTED SISTER Frontman On 'Still Hungry', His Workout Regimen And Possibility Of New Music

David "Gus" Griesinger of BackstageAxxess.com recently conducted an interview with TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

BackstageAxxess.com: Can you tell us about the re-release of TWISTED SISTER's "Stay Hungry" CD?

Dee: That's funny because I just got off a call with someone from Uruguay and I was finally able to verbalize it correctly. Wait, are you talking about "Still Hungry" or "Stay Hungry"?

BackstageAxxess.com: Actually I was going to ask if you re-recorded "Stay Hungry" because you weren't satisfied with "Still Hungry"?

Dee: "Still Hungry" was like to us what "Some Kind of Monster" was to METALLICA. Realization was that things started to unravel during the recording of "Stay Hungry" and things continued to unravel until we broke up a few years later. If you follow the path, where did the problems of the band start? It was a disagreement during the recording of "Stay Hungry". I said, "We should go back to the studio and re-record it to the way we envisioned it." The way METALLICA went to therapists to solve their problems. METALLICA wound up getting it filmed and releasing it on DVD. Our record company said, "If you are going to do that, we will pay for it and release it!" Basically, "Still Hungry" was our therapy. The observation of it, when all is said and done, the differences are so slight that the differences are what we wanted in the recording process and the arrangements would have changed the fate of the album. We then would have been a much happier band and have a longer life. Instead, the record company and record producers squashed more metallic elements of the band, but the difference is really not that much. So now to the 25th anniversary of "Stay Hungry", there are so many things other bands have done to commemorate things. This is a 25th anniversary, it's a significant milestone, our biggest selling record (5 million international) and the record company wanted to do a special release package. It's like we're not re-inventing the wheel here, so they were like what do you have? Well, interestingly, when I wrote songs for albums I always overwrote. In this case, we went in and demoed almost 25 songs. Then the band will sit and pick the best 10. So when we were going over the tapes we had, I started calling J.J. [French] and it was like, "Holy shit, man" there was some great shit we didn't put on that album. We could have done a follow-up with "Stay Hungry II", or a double album, or something like that. This makes it a find for the listener or true fan. So we put all of those oddities and extra tracks and all that stuff (what people do) on there. Then the song I wrote when I was on "Gone Country" on CMT was a song called "30" as my country song. Two notations, one; I really write good country (laughs) and two; country music and rock and roll have a lineage. Rock and roll is descendant of early country and blues. So basically, it's a rock and roll song and when the band heard it (the song was about me and TWISTED SISTER lyrically),they were like, "Fuck, man, let's rock this out! It's pretty much "Rock and Roll" by LED ZEPPELIN. So we recorded it for this record.

BackstageAxxess.com: Will there be a full tour in support of this, or sporadic shows here and there — pretty much what you have been doing the last couple of years?

Dee: It will be sporadic shows. People have been talking about a full TWISTED tour, including members of the band, but I'm just doing too much stuff. To me, as much as I love my past and I'm proud of it and enjoy the shows with the guys, it's back to the future. I don't want to go back to the future. I'm working hard to create radio and movie opportunities, television and other vehicles. Going back 25 years and going back and playing the old stuff as a full-time gig, it basically just kills any future work thing you have going on. Again, love it, proud of it, and have fun doing it and shit... Monster Circus thrives on it. But, at the same time, I have to do things that are forward moving in some fashion. Even if it's doing an '80s revival in Vegas, it still has a future to it, in a sense that it's a newer element thing and forward looking and hopefully will establish itself as a permanent resident at the Las Vegas Hilton.

BackstageAxxess.com: Anyone who has seen a TWISTED SISTER show in the last couple of years has seen you in the "Stay Hungry" regalia. I heard in another interview that the "Stay Hungry" regalia will be retired following the anniversary tour or sporadic shows. Is this still the case?

Dee: I hope so! Don't misinterpret on what I say, but I love putting it on. I read this in Metal Edge magazine where they ask all of these rock stars a question and they would give an answer and give a poll. The question was this: "When you see old pics of yourself, what do you think?" I'm reading it and everybody is either apologizing, throwing somebody under the bus for it, saying it wasn't my idea, the manager made me do it, everybody was doing it, and then you have Dee Snider: "I think I look cool!"

BackstageAxxess.com: (Laughs)

Dee: We were doing it in the early '70s when nobody was doing it. I joined twisted in 1976 and that shit was dead as it can be, but yet we said fuck that man, we like doing this shit! So when I say I hope it ends, everything needs to have a logical end. I'm in my 50s, and I'm in good shape wearing these skintight, skimpy outfits and I'm pulling it off! At some point something has to give (laughs)!

BackstageAxxess.com: You obviously still fit into the costume, so what kind of workout regimen do you do?

Dee: It's not what you do, it's how consistently you do it! I have been training consistently for decades. You don't have to do a lot, you just have to commit to it and that goes with eating-wise too. I'm not like "I don't eat anything" kind of guy, you just stay away from the fried foods or the cheesy things or fettuccine Alfredo stuff. It's the cumulative effect over the years. So if you're looking for the miracle of being fit in their 50s, it's not going to the gym four hours a day, five days a week. It's putting that 30 minutes to 45 minutes a day, four days a week.... ALWAYS! You've seen me perform and...I rock! (Laughs.) I can't believe it myself! When it comes down to it, I always adhered to a certain lifestyle and certain fitness regimen. Again, nothing fanatical, just always consistent!

BackstageAxxess.com: Were you surprised by the huge success of your Christmas CD "A Twisted Christmas"?

Dee: Yes and no. Well, TWISTED keeps trying to get me to do a new record.

BackstageAxxess.com: That was my next question. So you can tie that in with this question.

Dee: Yeah, I tend to do that (laughs). The guys are like, what do you think about doing a new album? I'm like, guys..why? You do a new album like KISS' "Psycho Circus" and none of this shit sells. People don't want to hear the new stuff. Radio won't play it, MTV won't play it, and VH1 won't play it. Your doing it for your own head. Quite honestly, after having multi-selling records, I'm spoiled. I want to hear it on the radio and want to turn on the fucking TV and see it and get that reaction when you go into the song. The crowd smiles at the speed of sound and the crowd goes "Yeah!" I'm not into writing stuff because I'm a musician now or I have something to say. If I have something to say, I'll say it onstage. I don't need to say it in a song anymore. I actually gave them my notice a couple of years ago, no problem. there is no reunion. KISS doesn't know what the definition of what reunion means. Dee, it clearly means you get together and you never leave and slowly replace the band with other people (laughs)! So if it's a reunion, you come back for a couple of years, then you say goodbye! So I gave them my notice. J.J. says: "What do you think about doing a Christmas album?" I turned to him and said, "Yes!" I remember this clearly. I pointed to him and said "Yes!" He said "Yes?" He was stunned because I'm always saying no. I said that can fucking work! That's a novelty that can work. Your not playing original music and your actually playing hits. Your doing covers essentially. On top of everything else, back in 1984 or 1985, I remember wanting to do a Christmas album. There was one Christmas when I was home and at somebody's house and they were playing some Euro disco Christmas record. I said, "What the fuck?" Where is the metal Christmas record? They have every kind of Christmas record out there and no metal. I started thinking it through and saying, I can do "White Christmas", and started thinking about all the bands I was going to contact. AC/DC will do this one, JUDAS PRIEST will do this one, so when I get back I will reach out to them and put together a record of everyone doing Christmas songs. Just like the hole in the roof when it starts raining, and then it clears up and then your going to fix it, and then your too busy. So anyway, I forgot. Everybody thought you were out of your fucking mind. That is going to be the last nail in the coffin in your career. It's going to kill your career. I look up at them and say, "What fucking career?" (laughs) We're a band from the '80s, we haven't put out new product in forever, your more likely to hear our music on a commercial than on the radio, we don't tour, and I'm like, what have we got to lose? There is nothing more dangerous than someone who has nothing to lose. So we went ahead and recorded the album and would you have fucking known it... it was our biggest-selling record since the '80s. Now inspired by the success, I have written a full-blown musical based on the Christmas album. The band stayed together. so instead of exchanging miseries, JJ is like "The album is a hit what are you gonna do?" I'm like, well, I can't leave now! So I stayed. I wrote this musical based on it. We are working on new TWISTED SISTER original music for the first time in like 20 years. For the most part, the musical requires additional songs. It's actually a fictional story and the music of the show is the old TWISTED stuff, the "Twisted Christmas" stuff, and the additional music that is about 8-10 songs specifically. We are in the process of writing for the first time in forever. So you may hear new TWISTED SISTER music by 2010.

Read the entire interview from BackstageAxxess.com.