Hello, My Name Is Dee

Hello, My Name Is Dee
Q&A With A Twisted Sister

IE: So A Twisted Christmas, this is it? The final chapter of Twisted Sister?
Dee Snider: Not so fast [laughing]. I was saying it was the final chapter and the last nail in the coffins of our career, but as it turned out it might have actually revived us! Dude, we’ve shipped more units of this CD to all the major chains than anything we’ve done since the ’80s. We’re getting more press coverage, more attention, MySpace is getting tens of thousands of spins, we’re doing “Leno” for the first time, we’re doing halftime at the Jets football game on December 10th; it’s like, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

IE: Why do a Christmas record?
DS: Back in the mid ’80s I clearly remember being home and just at some point, being the angry young headbanger that I was, going “What the fuck is this fucking Christmas music? I have to listen to jazz, classical, disco, ’50s, fucking Euro pop. Euro pop Christmas music?! Where’s the metal Christmas music?” Cut to 20 years later and Jay Jay [French, guitarist] says “What about a Christmas record?”, and it goes back to the angry young headbanger.

IE: Lita Ford plays and sings on a song. It seems she has been in hiding, so how did you pull that off?
DS: Fortunately for us, Lita and I are friends. [Our families] have stayed in touch and socialized and vacationed together sometimes. When I decided I wanted to do “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” as a power ballad I thought one of the great power ballads is Ozzy and Lita doing “Close My Eyes Forever.” She said “I love it,” and she played a little guitar, sang . . .

IE: So she was on board right away?
DS: Yeah, before we even recorded song number one. I didn’t talk about this [project] to too many people because I knew other ’80s bands — given the dangerous music of the ’80s is now the easy listening of the 2000s. ’80s metal is likeable and fun and safe — would think it’s a great idea. Interestingly, I’m out in L.A. sitting at a coffee shop with a friend and who walks in? C.C. Deville. CC comes over to the table and I said “C.C., look at this.” He goes [using his best C.C. voice] “You motherfucker. Why the fuck didn’t I think of that? Shit!” So I said “What are you doing?” and he said “meeting Fred from Cinderella.” So in walks Fred . . . what’s his name? The drummer . . .

IE: Coury?
DS: Coury! So he comes in and C.C. goes “Look at this,” and Fred goes “Shit! I told Tom [Kiefer, Cinderella vocalist] we should do that!” It was the perfect thing for an ’80s band to do, and they knew it right away and so did Lita.

— Trevor Fisher

Twisted Sister’s A Twisted Christmas (Razor & Tie) is out now. The band play House Of Blues December 7th.

Category: Columns, File