David Daniel "Dee" Snider (born March 15, 1955) is an American musician, radio personality, and actor. Snider is most famous for his role as the frontman of the American heavy metal band Twisted Sister.
Born in Massapequa, New York, on Long Island, Snider grew up in nearby Baldwin, and graduated from Baldwin High School in 1972. As a child he sang in a church choir, several school choruses, and Baldwin HS Concert Choir. He also was selected for the All State Chorus by singing.
In 1979 Snider changed several rock bands, and in early 1976 he joined the recently formed Twisted Sister and became the only song writer of the band thereafter.
On MTV in the 80's before Headbanger's Ball, the first Heavy Metal show to feature all metal videos was called Heavy Metal Mania. The first show aired in June 1985. Metal Mania was hosted by Dee Snider and featured metal news, interviews with metal artists, in studio co-hosts, etc..
In the late 1980s, after Twisted Sister was disbanded, he formed Desperado (band), a band featuring ex-Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr, ex-Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme, and bassist Marc Russel. The group's only album Ace has never been officially released but was heavily bootlegged on CD (under the title Bloodied But Unbowed).
Dee Snider (on right)
In 1985, a Senate hearing was instigated by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), who wanted to introduce a parental warning system that would label all albums containing offensive material. The system was to include letters identifying the type of objectionable content to be found in each album (e.g. O for occult themes, S for sex, D for drugs, V for violence, etc). Dee Snider, John Denver, and Frank Zappa all testified against censorship and the proposed warning system. Such a system was never implemented, but the result of the trial brought about what is now the generic "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" label. The PMRC was initially formed by the wives of Washington DC power brokers Al Gore (D-TN, Senate) and Secretary of State James Baker. Tipper Gore in particular became the face of the PMRC and a public foil for Dee in the hearings. Ironically, in the 2000 presidential election cycle, Snider endorsed Vice President Gore for office. Public statements at the time (as noted in a July 2000 Reason article) have Dee justifying the decision based on Gore's environmental stance; however, other comments attributed to Dee quote him as saying he was backing the obvious winner.
In the 1990s, he formed Widowmaker, with Joe Franco (good friend to Twisted Sister, and drummed on the Love Is For Suckers album), Al Pitrelli, and Marc Russel. They recorded two albums with limited underground success, titled Blood and Bullets, and Standby For Pain.
In the late 1990s, he toured with a "self-tribute" band called Dee Snider's SMFs (Sick Mother Fuckers), sometimes featuring ex-Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero. The usual line up included Dee Snider, Derek Tailer, Charlie Mills, Keith Alexander, and Spike.
In 1998, he penned a song entitled "The Magic of Christmas Day (God Bless Us Everyone)", later to be recorded by Celine Dion to her album These Are Special Times - according to Snider, Dion at the time was not aware of who wrote the song. Later that year, he also wrote and starred in the horror film Strangeland. He has also penned the script to a sequel which has the working title of Strangeland 2: Cult of Personality. As of January 2008, however, Snider was less than optimistic that it would ever see the light of day, saying in an interview with Bullz-Eye.com that he had reached a point where he should "put a sign on my website that says, 'Y’got ten million dollars? Give me a call. I’ve got the script ready to go, Robert Englund’s attached, I’m attached. If somebody’s serious and wants to make it, call me. But don’t call me ‘til you’re ready to hand the check over.'”
From June 1999 to August 2002, he hosted a morning radio show on a Hartford, Connecticut Clear Channel station, Radio 104 (104.1 FM WMRQ), called Dee Snider Radio. His show returned to the air at night in August 2004 on 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until June 2005. He fondly referred to his listeners as his "Peeps", and "DEE" euro stickers, printed by the station, could be seen on the bumpers of his fans' cars throughout Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. Other members of the morning show included Nick Lentino, Beth Lockwood, "Psycho Dan" Williams, Sean Robbins, and "Darkside Dave" Wallace. He frequently featured high-profile guests, including his friend and KISS singer/bassist Gene Simmons.
In 2001 he was the voice of Gol Acheron, the main villain for the PlayStation 2 videogame Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.
In 2002 he rejoined with the reunited Twisted Sister.
Snider played himself in the 2002 TV-movie Warning: Parental Advisory.
In 2003 he appeared with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, during his drive to recall incumbent California Governor Gray Davis. Snider sang the Twisted Sister hit, "We're Not Gonna Take It," which was adopted by the Schwarzenegger campaign. Every Year since 2004 Dee has narrated a live show known as Van Helsing's Curse which tours the US around Halloween giving a mix of famous music with dark overtones and an occasional part of a storytelling to accompany the music. The concert has also been released on CD.
Dee Snider at the 2005 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Snider currently lives part-time in East Setauket, New York.
Snider is also a narrator for many shows and specials on VH1, movie trailers, behind the scenes segments and DVDs special features.
Snider was featured as the 'voice' in the bumpers for MSNBC's 2001/2002 "Fiercely Independent" branding campaign.
Snider returned to radio in June 2006 with Fangoria Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 102 from 9-12 Eastern.
Twisted Sister was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
During winter of 2008, Snider was featured as a contestant on CMT's Gone Country. The show recruited famous musical celebrities, who competed against each other to win a chance to release a country song.
Dee hosts "DEAD ART" on Gallery HD, a show about the beauty and art of cemeteries.
Since 1997, Dee Snider has hosted the House of Hair, a syndicated heavy metal/hair band flashback show that airs on over 200 radio stations across North America. The show's format runs two hours and features Snider's closing catchphrase, "If it ain't metal, it's crap!"
Snider has been married to his wife Suzette since 1981. They have 4 children, Jesse, Shane, Cody, and Cheyenne. His son Jesse hosted MTV2 Rock, a music video countdown program, in 2003. Snider is a personal friend of professional wrestler Mick Foley. Jesse Snider was on a 2008 MTV TV show called Rock the Cradle, where he was voted the runner-up (as a part of the show, he was mentored by his father). Jesse is also the lead singer of the Rock/Punk/Metal band Baptized By Fire (aka BXF). Snider has been on the MTV show MTV Cribs where he showed his house in New York. There two of his four kids Shane and Cheyenne appeared, Shane was playing the drums and Cheyenne was listening to Twisted Sister's song "I Wanna Rock".
Never Let the Bastards Wear You Down, 2000
