A Little Background...

I was 15 or so. A wannabe rocker just starting to really try to play the guitar after years of dabbling. I was at a club called L'amour in Brooklyn NY. A band called Twisted Sister was playing. They were a cover band. Doing Priest, Ozzy, UFO, AC/DC and so on. Not just any cover band though, they broke attendance records everywhere they played.

The lights go out and an intro tape starts. After a long time, five huge, hulking figures come out of the dressing room and climb the stage. Taking up instruments, the tape stops and a grating sound starts. The opening harmonics of What You Don't Know... blasts from the stage. The stage is still dark as the vocalist starts the lyrics. At key parts, impossibly bright white backlights strobe and throb in time with the music.

At the precise moment, the drummer kicks in with a fucking gunshot of a snare drum hit, the front lights illuminate the stage and the band kicks into the full-on assault of the tune. Standing there are four musicians dressed in brightly colored, custom-made costumes with face paint that was part Kabuki, part TV/TS and all scary. The crowd goes nuts, I'm changed forever.

Most people know Twisted Sister as a pop-metal band. While they did plenty of that, I know them as a heavy, brutal, passionate and hilarious local band. Dee would rap onstage about doing your own thing, not paying attention to those who put you down for being different and the power of music and friendship. That made an indelible impression on me.

After I saw him testify during the PMRC Hearings on the floor of the US Senate my respect and admiration for this man grew tenfold. Little did I know I would eventually share a stage with him.

18 years after seeing that show, I met Dee while piercing at the Gauntlet in NYC. We reached an agreement regarding my consulting on his movie "StrangeLand." That was cool enough, but a few months into the job, he asks me to audition as a guitar player in his band Dee Snider's Sick Mutherfuckers. We'd be playing 100% Twisted Sister tunes around North America and overseas. I pass the audition and I'm in. Unreal.

People would ask if this was a dream come true, and I'd say no. Never in a million years would I have entertained the notion of playing those riffs WITH that man. Multi-fucking-Platinum tunes in front of thousands and thousands of screaming lunatics. Awesome. Hell, opening for goddamn Motorhead in Sweden, standing stage right while Lemmy kicks 15,000 squarehead asses. Or doing We're Not Gonna Take It on Finnish television...

Better yet, sharing a tour bus, planes and hotel rooms allowed me priceless time to pick his brains and grill him on a wide range of subjects from family and creativity to reconciling ambition with religious beliefs and so much more. Van rides where we got to watch the sun come up over Washington State mountains and ferry rides watching the sun set over the Baltic Sea.

I left the band in 1999 on great terms and continue to watch in amazement as Dee racks up achievement after achievement. One week he lands the voice-over gig for MSNBC, the next, a movie about the Senate Hearings...

I've wanted to post the transcript of his testimony for many years. I've finally found it.

Dee Snider’s Statement to the Senate September 19, 1985

"I do not know if it is morning or afternoon. I will say both. Good morning and good afternoon.

My name is Dee Snider. That is S-n-i-d-e-r. I have been asked to come here to present my views on the subject of the content of certain sound recordings and suggestions that recording packages be labeled to provide a warning to prospective purchasers of sexually explicit or other potentially offensive content.

Before I get into that, I would like to tell the committee a little bit about myself. I am 30 years old. I am married. I have a three-year-old son. I was born and raised a Christian and I still adhere to those principles. Believe it or not, I do not smoke, I do not drink, and I do not do drugs. I do play in and write the songs for a rock ‘n’ roll band named Twisted Sister that is classified as heavy metal, and I pride myself on writing songs that are consistent with my above-mentioned beliefs. Since I seem to be the only person addressing this committee today who has been a direct target of accusations from the presumably responsible PMRC, I would like to use this occasion to speak on a more personal note and show just how unfair the whole concept of lyrical interpretation and judgment can be and how many times this can amount to little more than character assassination.

I have taken the liberty of distributing to you material and lyrics pertaining to these accusations. There were three attacks in particular which I would like to address.

Accusation No. 1.
This attack was contained in an article written by Tipper Gore, which was given the forum of a full page in my hometown newspaper on Long Island. In this article Ms. Gore claimed that one of my songs, Under the Blade, had lyrics encouraging sadomasochism, bondage, and rape.

The lyrics she quoted have absolutely nothing to do with these topics. On the contrary, the words in question are about surgery and the fear that it instills in people. Furthermore, the reader of this article is led to believe that the three lines she quotes go together in the song when, as you can see, from reading the lyrics, the first two lines she cites are an edited phrase from the second verse and the third line is a misquote of a line from the chorus.

That the writer could misquote me is curious, since we make it a point to print all our lyrics on the inner sleeve of every album. As the creator of Under the Blade, I can say categorically that the . . . only sadomasochism, bondage, and rape in this song is in the mind of Ms. Gore.

Accusation No. 2
The PMRC has made public a list of 15 of what they feel are some of the most blatant songs lyrically. On this list is our song We’re Not Gonna Take It, upon which has been bestowed a V rating, indicating violent lyrical content.

You will note from the lyrics before you that there is absolutely no violence of any type either sung about or implied anywhere in the song. Now, it strikes me that the PMRC may have confused our video presentation for this song with the meaning of the lyrics.

It is no secret that the videos often depict storylines completely unrelated to the lyrics of the song they accompany. The video We’re Not Gonna Take It was simply meant to be a cartoon with human actors playing variations on the Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote theme, Each stunt was selected from my extensive personal collection of cartoons.

You will note when you watch the entire video that after each catastrophe our villain suffers through, in the next sequence he reappears unharmed by any previous attack, no worse for the wear.

By the way, I am very pleased to note that the United Way of America has been granted a request to use portions of our We’re Not Gonna Take It video in a program they are producing on the subject of the changing American family. They asked for it because of its light-hearted way of talking about communicating with teenagers.

Accusation No. 3.
Last Tuesday a public forum regarding the lyric controversy was held in New York. Among the panelists was Ms. Gore. Trying to stem the virtual tidal wave of anti-ratings sentiment coming from the audience, Ms. Gore made the following statement: I agree this is a small percentage of all music, thank goodness. But it is becoming more mainstream. You look at even the t-shirts that kids wear and you see Twisted Sister and a woman in handcuffs sort of spread-eagled.

This is an outright lie. Not only have we never sold a shirt of this type; we have always taken great pains to steer clear of sexism in our merchandise, records, stage show, and personal lives. Furthermore, we have always promoted the belief that rock ‘n’ roll should not be sexist, but should cater to males and females equally.

I feel that an accusation of this type is irresponsible, damaging to our reputation, and slanderous. I defy Ms. Gore to produce such a shirt to back up her claim. I am tired of running into kids on the street who tell me that they cannot play our records any more because of the misinformation their parents are being fed by the PMRC on TV and in the newspapers.

These are the only three accusations I have come across. All three are totally unfounded. Who knows what other false and irresponsible things may have been said about my band or me. There happens to be one area where I am in complete agreement with the PMRC, as well as the National PTA and probably most of the parents on this committee. That is, it is my job as a parent to monitor what my children see, hear, and read during their preteen years. The full responsibility for this falls on the shoulders of my wife and I, because there is no one else capable of making these judgments for us.

Parents can thank the PMRC for reminding them that there is no substitute for parental guidance. But that is where the PMRC’s job ends.

The beauty of literature, poetry, and music is that they leave room for the audience to put its own imagination, experiences, and dreams into the words. The examples I cited earlier showed clear evidence of Twisted Sister’s music being completely misinterpreted and unfairly judged by supposedly well-informed adults.

We cannot allow this to continue. There is no authority that has the right or the necessary insight to make these judgments, not myself, not the Federal Government, not some recording industry committee, not the PTA, not the RIAA, and certainly not the PMRC. I would like to thank the committee for this time, and I hope my testimony will aid you in clearing up this issue."

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