Dee Snider recently appeared as a guest on the Rocker Morning Show and expressed that the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) underestimated his intelligence during his speech against music censorship.
When asked how he prepared for that speech, Snider replied:
“When they asked me if I would testify, I jumped at the opportunity. I viewed it as if I was going to carry the flag for rock and roll into battle. I knew for a fact that my intelligence was a pretty well-kept secret, at least from them.
I knew they wouldn’t do their homework. So I spent a lot of time with kudos and credit to my… If you see the video, the gentleman to my left, Joe Gerber. He was a tour manager and also a Columbia University graduate in rocket science. So the two of us work for like two weeks on my speech.”
Recalling the day he testified, the Twisted Sister frontman continued:
“It was a really sharpened blade. I went in there and set them up for a fall. The stories are pretty famous, you all know that. While Frank Zappa put on a suit, I came in there, and I cut off denim and snakeskin boots, wearing mascara.
They would not expect me to open my mouth and make sense. They thought it would be Vince Neil, but I’m not Vince Neil. I’m Dee Snider.”
Snider’s testimony became a significant moment in the debate over music censorship. He later emphasized that his real concern about PMRC’s labeling system was not the presence of the sticker itself but rather how it might restrict people’s access to the music.
You can listen to his full chat below.
