Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider recently opened up about an unexpected licensing deal involving the band’s iconic hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” sharing the story in a video posted on Instagram.
Snider explained how song licensing has become a crucial source of income for songwriters and bands. He detailed the surprising circumstances behind one particular deal for his most famous track.
“It’s Dee again. So I don’t even know this, but vaginal dryness put my kids through college. You heard me. Let me explain,” Snider said. “Song licensing is the biggest source of income for songwriters and bands, post record sales of their heyday, okay? And ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ and ‘I Wanna Rock’ are two of the biggest, most licensed songs of the ’80s. Get a call from my manager. We got a big offer to license ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ for a network commercial. That’s big money. I’m like, awesome, great. What’s the product? Women’s premenopausal medication. What? We’re Not Gonna Take It. And I’m telling this to my manager.”
Snider went on to describe his initial hesitation about licensing the song, followed by his decision to move forward with the deal.
“It is the biggest song that I ever did, and I’m not just gonna give it up. By how much? My art? But the money, pay it. I’m a whore, but I’m an expensive whore, and this is the right price for me to bend over. Tell the number,” Snider continued. “Dudes and dudettes, like I said, put my children through college. All of them.”
He then recounted the moment he learned exactly what the medication was designed to treat, and how he came to terms with the deal.
“But I still need to justify making this decision. So I ask my manager, I said, For the love of God, man, what does this thing do? It stops hot flashes. I’m like, Yeah, it can stop vaginal dryness. I said, Well then I’m doing God’s work, aren’t I? I’m stopping it with my song. I’m not gonna take vaginal dryness. Sign away!” Snider said. “And that’s how vaginal dryness put my kids through college.”
The Twisted Sister frontman shared the story as a lighthearted look back at the unexpected ways classic rock hits continue to generate income decades after their release.
Snider’s comments highlight just how central “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has become to his career and finances, long after its original release. The song’s staying power in advertising and pop culture is no accident. Its history explains exactly why brands keep coming back to it decades later.
Snider wrote “We’re Not Gonna Take It” for Twisted Sister’s 1984 album “Stay Hungry.” The track went on to become the band’s only Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its anthemic chorus and defiant message turned it into an instant rock staple, one that has since transcended its heavy metal roots to become a broader cultural touchstone.
That crossover appeal is precisely what has made the song such a magnet for commercial licensing over the years. Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French once said that roughly forty major corporations have licensed either “We’re Not Gonna Take It” or “I Wanna Rock,” a staggering figure that underscores just how frequently the two songs have turned up in television, film, and advertising campaigns.
That track record puts Snider’s premenopausal medication story in context. Far from an isolated oddity, it fits a decades-long pattern of the song being repurposed for products with little to do with its original defiant, anti-authority message. The mismatch between the song’s rebellious lyrics and its use in a health commercial is part of what made Snider’s anecdote so memorable in the first place.
It also reinforces the broader financial reality Snider described in his video: for veteran rock songwriters, licensing deals for proven hits like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” have become far more lucrative than record sales ever were in the streaming era. Given the song’s long history of corporate use, it is little surprise that Snider was willing to weigh a lucrative offer against his pride in the song’s legacy.
