TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider recently sat down with Ultimate Guitar and was asked his opinion on the ‘current trend” of bands who come out of retirement for a new tour, such as MÖTLEY CRÜE and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.
Dee says – “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.
“I have done so many things — I mentioned Broadway, I’ve been doing radio for 30 years now, voiceover work, I act, I write screenplays, I’m gonna be directing my first two movies, I was supposed to be directing in May but COVID stopped that; I just finished my first novel, and now, in the late stage of my life, I’ve found my voice, my place in the metal community. After a lot of attempts over the last couple of decades, I’ve finally found my place. So, if I do anything musically, I’m not gonna go backward; I’m going to continue forwards with Dee Snider for the new millennium, musically.”
In 2016, TWISTED SISTER embarked on their “Farewell Tour”, 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.
We don’t expect DEE or any other members of TWISTED SISTER to reunite and “blow up” a “cessation of touring” contract anytime soon, if ever. First off the band never signed one in an attempt to garner more ticket sales for their final trek and secondly because “blowing up” a contract doesn’t make it all of a sudden null and void. Otherwise I would have blown-up my apartment lease months ago. And that pain in the ass gym membership that keeps taking money out of my account.