Twisted Sister’s frontman Dee Snider recently joined an interview with Armchair MBA’s Tom La Vecchia and revealed how grunge music affected his music career. According to the musician, grunge music was the element that ‘cured’ hair metal in a scenario where the rocker was already out of work.
Grunge emerged back in the mid-1980s, particularly in Seattle. Over the next decade, the genre’s popularity had spread. With the releases of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind,’ Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten, Alice In Chains’ ‘Dirt,’ and other successful albums, grunge became the most popular form of rock music. Due to grunge’s success, hair metal declined, and bands gradually left the mainstream music scene.
Formed in 1972, Twisted Sister was one of the bands that were heavily affected by the rise of grunge music. Although they found remarkable success with their first two albums and achieved mainstream success with their 1984’s ‘Stay Hungry,’ their following albums ‘Come Out Of Play’ and ‘Love Is For Suckers’ weren’t that successful. Due to that reason, Twisted Sister decided to disband in 1988.
In a recent interview with Armchair MBA’s Tom La Vecchia, Dee Snider talked about grunge’s impact on Twisted Sister and his music career. He stated that he was already struggling when grunge became prominent. Recalling that he tried to continue with Desperado and Widowmaker following Twisted Sister’s disbandment, Snider said he was already removed from the scene at that point.
Moreover, Dee Snider said that it was like receiving a letter from the public which read they no longer look like him, sound like him, sing like him, or perform like him, and they don’t want anything to do with his music anymore. The singer then gave a cancer specialist who finds a cure to cancer as an example and said grunge cured hair metal in that way while he was far removed from the music industry.
During the conversation, Dee Snider said about the transition from hair metal to grunge music the following:
“Well, no one saw it coming, but I was already dead and semi-buried before grunge hit. You know, Twisted Sister arrived in the early 80s, and then we hit our stride in the mid-80s. By the late 80s, the band had broken up, and I tried with a band named Desperado. I was sort of already removed as a featured artist by that point, and I was struggling, trying to find my footing with Desperado and Widowmaker.
Then grunge hit, and I got the letter in the mail, a certified letter, ‘Dear Mr. Snider, we are no longer doing what you do. We don’t look like you, sound like you, sing like you, write like you, or perform like you. We actually don’t want anything to do with anything you ever did. Sincerely, the music-buying public.’
That’s when the bottom really fell out. I mean, imagine being a doctor who studied a form of medicine they got a cure for. Like you’re a cancer specialist. ‘Specialist’ is what you dedicate your life to, and you get a pill that cures, and the disease is now out of work. Grunge cured hair metal, and I was out of work.”
You can check out the rest of the interview below.
