Considering the endless disappointments and bitter periods of frustration that Twisted Sister have been forced to endure over the years, it’s something of a musical miracle that they’ve managed to survive. For many years, the chances of these rowdy rebels from Long Island, New York, who painted their faces, wore high heels and played brain-damaging rock ’n’ roll ever making it in this business seemed quite inconceivable. Yet, while many groups would have long since given up, Twisted Sister kept plugging away until they could no longer be ignored. Sheer determination and undying persistence were the key factors behind their incredible staying power.

Throughout their turbulent career, the band has been fronted by the awesome Dee Snider, who unquestionably ranks as one of metal’s most arresting frontmen, as well as a close runner-up in this year’s Bette Midler lookalike contest. Like David Lee Roth and Ted Nugent, he has a profound gift of gab and, when the opportunity presents itself, will allow his motor to work overdrive.

Quite understandably, Snider is totally over-the-moon at the success Twisted are enjoying with their second Atlantic LP, Stay Hungry, and bluntly declares: “It’s unfucking real. Over the past eight years, Twisted Sister and myself have gotten emotionally very cold. It was very hard to feel pleasure or enjoyment anymore. We’d worked so hard for everything we got that I couldn’t even raise a smile. When we finally got the deal with Atlantic, I just thought, ‘Well, that’s about time.’ I couldn’t really enjoy it, nor could the band.

“What Twisted Sister is trying to say is that people would be better off if they just try to stand up for themselves.” -Dee Snider

“Now, there’s no longer the feeling that we’re banging our heads against the wall. Everything we do, we see the direct results of in terms of album sales.”

Since its release, almost a million copies of Stay Hungry have been shifted and the LP should soon hit platinum. Mind you, it wasn’t so long ago that Twisted Sister were rejected by just about every American record label, with A&R departments predicting no future for them.

“It reached the point where we felt we’d worn down the door to the record companies,” Dee reflects. “We were going round to the labels for the fifth time and a lot of them were going, Twisted Sister again? I’ve heard them four times before; they sucked then and they suck now.’ We’d built up a huge following and had pretty well annihilated all the other bands on the club circuit, but we just couldn’t get a deal.

“We were almost ready to send our next demo tape out under a different name, with no publicity photo, just to see if we could get a bite. If it had reached the point where being Twisted Sister, looking the way we looked and having the reputation we had was preventing us from getting a deal, then we were prepared to sacrifice it all. The bottom line is that we’re rock ’n’ rollers; we want to play and have records out. We believed in our image and everything, but felt that we’d come to a halt. Luckily, there was an opening at the end of that dead end and there was a door that said England on it.”

To cut a long story short, having reached a stalemate situation on the home front, Twisted Sister flew to Britain in the summer of 1982, where they hooked up with the small, independent Secret Records label, for whom they cut their debut Under The Blade LP. After playing the prestigious Reading Festival in August, the group returned to America, but soon discovered that Secret had gone bankrupt.

Headed back to square one, Twisted became desperate. With practically no money of their own, they borrowed a substantial amount of cash and flew back to Britain at the end of ’82 for an appearance on the TV show The Tube, hoping that somehow they might negotiate a new record deal. For once, fate was to deal them a good hand, as Atlantic’s U.K. boss Phil Carson bumped into them at the television studios. Carson had actually been escorting Foreigner’s Mick Jones to the show, but when he caught Twisted’s act he was totally overwhelmed.

By the start of 1983, Twisted Sister had signed to Atlantic and it wasn’t long before they went into Jimmy Page’s Sol studios to record a new album. The resulting You Can’t Stop Rock 7V' Roll helped consolidate the band’s ever-increasing popularity in Britain., but its rough and ready qualities did little to endear the band to the American record buying public. Next step? Back to the studio, but this time with the right producer. And who better than Tom Werman, fresh off double platinum success with Motley Crue’s Shout At The Devil LP.

“Tom was great to work with,” assesses Snider. “He taught us to use the studio, rather than let it control or intimidate us. He definitely helped to give us a more polished sound.”

When Stay Hungry hit the streets earlier this year, it was quite clear that Twisted Sister had finally begun to realize their vinyl potential and had succeeded in coming up with a powerful selection of solid hard rock anthems. Swift to take advantage of the video boom, the band shot an elaborate promo clip for the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” featuring an hilarious father/son confrontation.

For those who have yet to see this opus, it opens with National Lampoon’s Animal House star Mark Metcalf blasting his son for wasting time listening to Twisted Sister records and playing a “sick, repulsive electric twanger.” Raging that he carried an M-16, he asks the kid what he plans to do with his life, to which the reply is “I wanna rock!” Horrified, father flies out of the window, son metamorphoses into Dee -Snider and the music starts rolling. Crude, but nonetheless effective.

“This is our ninth year together and we are gonna make some guys crawl for what they did to us.” -Dee Snider

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“I think video is the single most important element right now,” declares Snider. “When we go to town after town, the kids are aware of us, not because we’re getting massive airplay, but because of our video. Every night on stage, I ask the crowd ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ and the whole place yells ‘I wanna rock!’ The only place they got that from was the video. There are a lot of bands that don’t even bother touring and just rely on videos. Pat Benatar’s pregnant and she’s lucking out because, with the current power of video, she can do eight clips for her new album and stay at home to have the baby.”

Clearly keen to adhere to a winning formula, Twisted cast Metcalf in the video for their second single “I Wanna Rock,” this time as a hard-assed schoolteacher. Yet, while exposure on the small screen has broadened the band’s appeal, Snider warns: “Some people walk into the hall, expecting to see their MTV ‘idols’ on stage and there’s quite a lot of shock and horror in store for them. The first thing out of my mouth after the opening number is ‘Alright you sick motherfuckers, if you’re ready to kick some ass, we are Twisted-fuckin’Sister!’ You see some horrified faces and there are rude awakenings that we’re not the Duran Duran of the heavy metal set.”

Going to a concert and being branded a “sick motherfucker” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it seems that Twisted Sister’s diehard supporters are proud to recognize themselves as “The Sick Motherfucking Friends of Twisted Sister.”

“When we came to put a fan club together, we hated the idea of calling it the ‘Twisted Sister Fan Club’ because it just didn’t sound right,” Dee explains. “On stage, we always profess that the people in the audience are our friends and there have been a lot of comments about the close rapport we have with them. Anyway, on the old TV show / Love Lucy, there was an episode where she left home and joined a Salvation Army-type organization called ‘The Friends of the Friendless.’ The whole thing was a goof, but the idea was that it was a collection of people nobody wanted. We figured that it kind of summed up our audiences and so, when we were looking for a name, ‘The Sick Motherfucking Friends of Twisted Sister’ just seemed to roll out straight away.”

According to Snider, the qualifications for becoming a member of this dubious organization are simply to have a positive attitude about anything you want to do. Furthermore, he theorizes: “If you allow your fears, worries and hang-ups about parents, bosses, and people who are looking to intimidate you and keep you from doing what you really want to, then you are not an ‘SMF.’

“What Twisted Sister is trying to say is that people would be better off if they just try to fight for their individuality, stand up for themselves, believe in themselves and not be so quick to follow what everybody else is doing. I get asked whether Twisted Sister is political; my answer is that the only politics we’re into is the politics of personal freedom, which Iconsider to be one of the major problems of society.

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“Everybody is so busy worrying and wondering what the other guy is doing that they never stop to look at what they want to do or what they think is right and wrong. Too many people are thinking, ‘Is this OK? Am I doing alright? Do I need approval?’ Hey, fuck approval. If you just go by your sense of right and wrong, and what’s good and bad, then you’re gonna be OK.”

How different, you may wonder, is the offstage man behind Dee Snider’s highly extrovert rock ’n’ roll character?

“People say ‘Oh, you’re so different, blah-blahblah,’ but what I am onstage is a part of me,” he retorts. “It’s not an act or a split personality. It’s a part that everybody has in them—the negative side of your personality. And I’m harnessing that aspect and letting it out on stage. I’m using that part of my character. Just because I’m being nice to you now isn’t an act. I always tell people ‘Do you wanna see that person? Cross me, say something that’s gonna get me pissed off and you’ll see it right fuckin’ now!’ It’s there, everybody’s got it in them—even the meekest little guy in the world. There’s good and bad in everyone.

“Dee Snider on stage is all that negative energy harnessed, aimed, focused and let out. When I’m offstage, I feel no compulsion or need to run around acting like that. When I didn’t have Twisted Sister, I did, but now it’s not really necessary. Very few people can say they’ve done what I’ve done, experienced what I have, lived the life and done what they want to. I’m one happy guy.”

One thing that angers Dee, however, is the insincere back-slapping that Twisted Sister are encountering now that they’re enjoying full-scale success.

“The born again Sisters are all over the place,” he proclaims. “They’re coming out of the walls and I’ve got to say that some people are sincere. You get one or two who come up and say ‘I didn’t think you were happening and I was totally against you, but I’ve really been exposed to you guys and I think you’re great.’ There are certain sincerities that people come across with, which you can believe.

“But there’s a lot of people who are just being two-faced bastards. They’re against you when you’re down, they love you when you’re up and the minute you’re down again they’ll say ‘I knew those guys wouldn’t make it.’ We know who they are and you can print that in the paper. We have your names on a list and believe me you’re gonna pay. This is our ninth year together and we are gonna make some motherfuckers crawl for what they did to us. Right now, we’re still smiling, but it’s coming. It’s just like Santa Claus; he knows who’s naughty and nice.

“To be honest though, rather than getting revenge on people, what matters more to me is to pay respect for the few that believed in Twisted Sister.”