Dee Snider recalls the first celebrity that he ever met

Dee Snider recalls the first celebrity that he ever met

Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider was recently interviewed by long-time Sleaze Roxx contributor Ruben Mosqueda for KNAC. Snider has a new live CD/DVD titled For The Love of Metal Live, which will be released via Napalm Records on July 31, 2020.

Snider was asked who was the first celebrity that he ever met and what he took from that encounter that helped him engage fans down the road. The singer replied (with slight edits):

“Wow! What an interesting question. It had a ‘massive’ effect on me, just ‘massive’. Billy Joel. It was before Twisted made it, we were this local phenomenon, but Billy Joel was Billy Joel. It was at a party, I remember Ritchie Blackmore was there too. Ritchie Blackmore was so weird, standoffish, odd, he wouldn’t look you in the eye, he was mumbly, he shook your hand like it was a wet fish! I wasn’t famous then. Billy Joel was gracious, self deprecating and open.

I remember there was one of the radio stations in New York City that was having a ‘subway campaign’. I took one of the posters and brought it to the party because I knew he would be there. I presented it to him to sign, he looked at it and said, ”I’m surprised somebody didn’t draw a mustache on this”? [laughs] I said, “What”?! He said, ”Oh, I would have definitely have drawn a mustache on this”! [laughs] He changed me that day. I said to myself, ”This is how I want to be around fans”. When he walked away the general consensus was “Wow! What a cool guy”! It was a huge contrast from when Blackmore walked away and everyone was like, ”Wow! What a diiiiiiiiick’! I knew what I wanted people to say when I walked away—what a cool guy. That experience changed me forever.”

In terms of his favourite social media platform, Snider indicated: “The one that I’m most active on is Twitter. It was my first one, I’m also on Facebook and Instagram and I have a loyal following on those too. Twitter would be my favorite I think, because it just has this ease of use. It’s also got this immediacy of reaction. I liken it to back in the day when you were on the radio and you talked about something and you reacted, so the phones would light up. It’s that immediacy of something that you said and it connected with people. I see a lot of that on Twitter, there’s responses, there’s likes and there’s shares. I use Twitter as a rule, though I often wonder what I’m missing out on by not being as active on some of the other platforms.”

With respect to standing for what he believes in on social media and not backing down, Snider stated: “I will say that there is an exchange of ideas on there. I think that’s something that has been lost and I’m trying to encourage more of that. I think things have been getting a lot more political lately as we get closer and closer to the election. I think it’s time to take a position, but having said that, I’m trying to keep the conversation going. There are times where people come back really fixed on their position, I do a quick ‘troll’ on them. I’m big on ‘trolling’ them! [laughs] I look and I see what they are about. I’m like, ”Crap! They’ve been to Sturgis! I’ve been to Sturgis! They ride a bike! I ride a bike! They love the freedom of riding and the camaraderie and the unity”. We are so similar and we have so much in common, but where is the ‘unity’? We should be able to talk about this, rather than to scream at each other.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Dee Snider by Ruben Mosqueda at KNAC‘s website.