TWISTED SISTER's DEE SNIDER: 'I Don't Think I'll Do Any More Shows'

TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider says that he doesn't think he will play any more live shows.

The 67-year-old singer addressed the possibility of returning to the stage while answering a fan question on Twitter about performing in the Springfield, Illinois area in the future. Snider wrote on May 17: "I am Dee Downer tonight. No, I don't tour anymore. I don't even think I'll do any more shows. I'm focusing on writing, directing and producing. Sorry man."

When one fan responded, "You've said this before... I believe nothing!", Dee countered with: "Well TWISTED SISTER hasn't reunited..." Another fan then wrote, "Yet…?", to which Snider replied: "I wouldn't hold your breath. @TwistedSisterNY promised ourselves we wouldn't be like every other band, doing a farewell, then coming back. We always considered that a bullshit, pussy move.... Yeah, you know who I'm talking about (every artist who pulled that shit)."

He later added in a separate tweet: "To further expound...I don't think any band should retire unless they want to. Stay forever; your fans don't want you to go. But don't say farewell, sell us the higher priced ticket, the goodbye program, and the 'No More Tours' t-shirt...then come back a couple of years later!"

Dee previously touched upon the topic of bands who come out of retirement for a new tour, such as MÖTLEY CRÜE and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, during a 2020 interview with Ultimate Guitar. At the time, he said: "I think it's bullshit. When you say farewell... RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE breaks up — that's not retirement. They broke up, and they reformed, and that's great. But when you do a farewell tour, and you announce this, and you sell tickets, and you have a t-shirt that says 'No More Tours' — thank you very much, Ozzy [Osbourne], I bought one of those — and then you come back, that's bullshit. So when you say, 'We're retiring,' people now don't take it seriously. So, you know, it's like a joke, and I think that a part of it is that these artists have nothing else going on. And I realize that — without playing, they have no career."

In March 2020, Dee told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that he had "no plans" to perform with TWISTED SISTER ever again. "I've heard people [talk about it], and I just shrug my shoulders," he said. "The idea of being a hundred on that stage terrifies me.

"I created a persona and a performance level for myself that I painted myself into a corner," he continued. "And there's a standard that people expect and that I expect of myself. And honestly, I'm afraid of hurting myself because my ego is too big to not thrash about.

"I've got no plans on the horizon," Dee reiterated. "And just the idea of a bunch of lumbering old dudes on a stage... I'm not impressed with a lot of the reunions. I won't name names, but one that's out there has been performing for way too long in their reunion, and they stand there at their microphones with virtually no movement at all. I was stunned to see a band that used to be all over the stage just standing there frozen in place… For my money, that's not the memory I want people to have of me and TWISTED SISTER.

"So, I have no plans. People say, 'Never say never.' But there's nothing on the horizon."

In 2016, TWISTED SISTER embarked on one final trek, titled "Forty And Fuck It", in celebration of its 40th anniversary. These shows featured the band's "core lineup" of Snider, guitarist Jay Jay French, guitarist Eddie Ojeda and bassist Mark Mendoza, along with drummer Mike Portnoy. The band's last-ever concert took place in November of that year — 20 months after the passing of TWISTED's longtime drummer A.J. Pero.

TWISTED SISTER's original run ended in the late '80s. After more than a decade, the band publicly reunited in November 2001 to top the bill of New York Steel, a hard-rock benefit concert to raise money for the New York Police And Fire Widows' And Children's Benefit Fund.