 and welcome to the metal voice Allen who do we got we've got the very we've got the very laid-back subdued self-effacing reserved frontman of formerly of twisters mr. D. Snyder himself. Don't touch my balls don't touch my balls. Oh thank you boys thanks thanks very much. I'm just joking man this is we got the SMF himself ready to launch his new album leave a scar and check your venereal disease at the door we got me Snyder with us today. Oh man how's it how are you doing guys life is good you know after working in you know you work on a right okay let me get start jump right in here so you get the idea to do a record and you're feeling some inspiration you know everything starts inspiration you go I got a great idea so and then you start working on it now you're writing and you're working and everybody's oh this is awesome this is coming out amazing this is incredible somewhere along the way it changes to question is this awesome it is amazing is it incredible all self-doubt starts feeding in on and it's a creative process you can't help it because when you just been working in a closed you know at any time you know you're in the studio but worse now during COVID you're not getting any outside input so finally people are hearing it and the response has been really good so far even after all these decades you still have this sound self-doubt when you're in the middle of the recording that's a good point yeah you know it's it's it's it's the truth and anybody who tells you they don't is a liar wow any creative any artist hey you know what truth of the matter is in all forms of work we you know we whatever we're doing this comes times where we're wondering how it will be received you was think honestly really good this this presentation is awesome is this presentation awesome like you know until you finally present it and go oh okay yeah it was awesome oh man they didn't like it I thought it was really good comedians right this is funny my son was a comedian he said that you're you're right a joke you go this is hysterical and then you're reading it over and over and you start this is hysterical you know you start questioning is it actually funny so yeah self-doubt is a normal thing but the live stream event the 29th it's gonna be amazing I haven't done a show in almost two years and we're doing it everybody's tested or vaccinated and we're doing it full-blown shoulder-to-shoulder it's a small venue about a thousand people but it's gonna be amazing to let the animals out of the cages one night and a lot of new music from my new album stuff for my solo career but then of course you can't I can't I don't want to not do twisted stuff so you know so there'll be some good twisted stuff in there as well these these got a rock again he's got a rock again I think what part of it yeah I think what happens in any art like you mentioned in comedy and music you lose perspective when you're so close to something you completely lose perspective if something's good or not such a great point that a lot of artists go through that and I mean sometimes it's the rise and that's the fall right it's it's you know throughout your career I'm sure you had a lot of doubts exactly the case it happens when you guys you do a show you go wow that was a great show yeah and then you know then sure until you play for the audience and they give you feedback and say and wow I thought they'd respond much better than that guess but they didn't you know I thought it was a great show this is just it's part of the process but it is you know it does torture you and keep you awake at night and so now that people are hearing stuff hearing the first singles guys like you are getting here more of the record starting to get feedback and responses and I'm very happy with what I'm getting back so far but you know for for the love of metal that made our top 10 that the year that it came out but it's like you know we always have to sell the Snyder to the people I don't understand like how do you remain relevant to the younger crowds these days somebody said oh the pet interviews I just did they said people going he's still around like oh how many things do I need to do I everybody we interview we get the same I've been on Broadway I'm going I'm still like still get I still get people come to the street go T Snyder where you been like you know but that speaks to the lack of you big witty as a word for everybody you big witty that we once had with things like MTV yeah where you couldn't get away from a rock band I mean you saw on the side of buses on billboards on posters on the walls whether you were a fan or not you you were aware they existed you know when you guys do Broadway well if you're not going to Broadway you don't know that these Snyder's on Broadway if you're not in I'm on 250 markets with my radio show House of Hair but if it's not in your market you don't know I'm on the radio so you know it's just it's not as ubiquitous as I once was yeah go D my wife is my gauge if my wife knows someone's name or a band then I go wow it's in the masses now right and right so I go do you know D Snyder she goes of course though we're not going to take it your or we saw you on Family Feud right like there's another how do you stay in the mainstream but so many people watch that show Family Feud and we kicked ass on that show but if you didn't watch the show like millions do no what was it like I'm just going off topic here what was it like to be on Family Feud like we saw you on TV your family did great you guys that amazing you beat who are you going games you're playing against Harry Bradshaw and Bradshaw that's right that's right former quarterback yeah family favorite yes yes what was it like behind the scenes that you didn't see there well I mean you know we were dealing with the covid protocols which you know and it was like even the audience like the even the audience was socially distant they weren't like the normal audience which was Steve Harvey you can see he was missing that rapport with you get from a packed house you don't get that kinetic is that the word I'm looking for energy when people are shoulder to shoulder laughter spreads excitement spreads when you force people to stay six rows apart and they're all over the place it's people are less likely to laugh alone you feel like an idiot a person last alone is insane okay we'll laugh in a group is part of a is you know I'm saying something to laughing what's wrong with that guy you know but so there was all that stuff going on but the thing biggest thing for us was when I looked up to see who else had been on the show they've never had a rock family let alone a heavy metal family oh the family feud and they've had rap they've had pop they've had all those kind of thing never rock family so I felt a sudden responsibility and my family I spoke about it said look let's not go out there be clowns even though it's fun to goof around it because they're kind of that's what they expect you to do they don't expect you to come in there and kick ass on the game win $25,000 for the coalition for homeless that's they don't expect you to do that so we we had a little talk backstage and said let's represent our community like I did when I went to Washington that's what I was gonna say yeah that could be to be an idiot and I said I'm not going to I'm gonna take this seriously I'm not gonna play into what they expect their definition of a heavy metal rock star and I'm gonna stun them by actually being intelligent and thoughtful on the subject of censorship which I did yeah yeah yeah yeah these still carrying the torch all these years later raising the heavy metal flag on national TV yeah you know it you know it's funny people asked me about censorship and I said first of all from the when the first word was spoken somebody was there said you can't say that yeah okay so censorship has been just a constant people one side is wanted to stop people from speaking their minds or expressing themselves openly and over time we the creatives have pushed to push back and we've come further and further but there's always been people who want to shut you down the odd thing is that now it's swung the pendulum it's coming more from the left than from the right before it was a puritanical right-wing conservative censorship now it's a you can't say that because it makes people feel bad about themselves and hurts their feelings and oh it's offensive and and I get all that stuff but it's gotten just like the other side get carried away this side's got carried away too yeah yeah you know okay you know what we're leaving out leave a scar okay all right the problem is when we have you on we just want to talk about everything you know Howard Stern once told me when I would I was on a show a lot I go dude you didn't talk about the album he goes believe me they know you got an album let's just talk and then I'll tell them you got an album it'll be right we'll just plug leave a scar you know every 10 minutes leave a scar July 30th on napalm records produced by Jamie Jasta right I mean this guy's taking it to another level yeah of hatred yes yeah he's of hate breed he helped me find my way home so to speak in 95 after the second widowmaker record I kind of felt I had overstayed my welcome in the community and I also read some things that said de snider you've overstayed your welcome did you just hold would you just hold up there widowmaker there you go stand by for pain very heavy record heavy so I stopped writing I stopped creating at that point and then went and got the radio TV movies all these other things I've been doing and then twisted sister reunited but that was oldies nothing new nothing creative and then a few years ago Jamie Jasta challenged me to do a metal record yeah on his podcast I said look I love metal I love contemporary metal I just don't know where I fit and Jamie said I know exactly where you fit and we went and did for the love of metal which showed me and showed the world that there was a place for de snider in the metal scene and when it came to doing this record I immediately first of all for the first time ever I went to the same producer for a second time and I called Jamie I said I want to do a new record but I need to be a part of the writing process I'm ready to be a part of the writing process and I've got things I got to stay on this record and so that was that was a big deal for me to come back after 25 years of relative silence coming back and being involved in the writing creating of this of this album I got I got two questions concerning one of the songs crying for your life okay how many vocals takes did it take you to do that because it's as if you're 20 years old again the power coming out of your vocals on that song is incredible thank you the power of Dio compelled me that one was very Dio inspired and when I heard when we started like working on it I said this is real DOE and I said well hell you know as one of my influences what a great voice we've lost and I'm gonna give it my DO best and and that guy used to say could pierce chain mail with his voice you know such a powerful powerful singer but yeah most of those things you know pull back the curtain and reveal that Oz is a man but this is with everybody usually you do three four sometimes five takes on a song and then you go through and you pick the best pieces and put them together and it's not that they weren't powerful is that sometimes you know you're missing you you break on a note you sing a flat note something like that so you got it you want it to be in tune you don't want to no one wants to hear a song that's you know live you get away with a lot more because people are caught up in the moment it doesn't have to be perfect but on a record we do all they're listening to is music you want it to be perfect yeah and then lyrics from that the second part of that question you do that you did the crime now you do the time is this written for John Schaefer maybe I don't mind you on there uh I mean certainly he was the cherry on the the cherry on top of the cake you know it's like a like an argument it's like this he was like the straw that broke the camel's back my observance and by the way listeners I'm not saying all of you I'm not saying you know not everybody this but a lot of the younger generations I'm uh I'm there you know I'm the boomer and I take credit for spoiling the kids uh but a lot of the younger generations best mine there's been a tendency to finger point and not want to take responsibility for your actions especially when things go wildly wrong uh and uh I come from a generation and that's saying is from my my wife's family's in the mob and uh they you know they would you never snitch you do the crime you do the time that was their saying and and you know snitches get stitches uh and things like that but um but I just said that's we've lost something here you know you know life isn't always perfect own your excrement I don't know if we curse at your show or not but own it you know when when I screwed up to his sister and I did it was me I didn't point fingers at the other guys of band and I and look I could break it down and say well you know that was Christmas and everything was that end of the day I was the problem and I'm the reason it broke up I take I take full credit and full responsibility and so many people around us go well that is an absolutely totally trust listen I'm not gonna sit there and nitpick the end of the day if I wasn't there it would have been a problem also you know take responsibility in general don't don't hand off blame you know be the boss I'm the boss okay so yeah it's my fault that's what happened I also take credit for the good things we sold 10 million records you're welcome yeah that's that's that's what people leave out all the time is the good stuff right the yeah they always leave that part out don't leave a mark leave a scar we talked to so many people D and the commonality the people who sold bands or artists who have sold so many albums over the years did you find that you were I don't know user were cheated but you were underpaid for all the albums and millions of albums that you sold over the years because I mean that's a common thing I mean we talked to artists after artists and they go their best selling album they haven't received much money from okay you're ready yeah I'm ready first of all yes okay twisted sister didn't start receiving any album sale royalties until we recorded uh we recorded a hero's a hard to find for the strange land soundtrack and in order to get the band to reunite the record label wiped our debt out that was 1997 wow the band had been broken up for 10 years we had sold tens of millions of records we had not gotten one royalty check we still you're still paying for all their dinners that's what it was right yeah I'm at air again somebody brought up to his attention that we were still in the red all these years later and they were trying to get us together and said omit would you please just wipe this guy's account clean haven't we got enough from them and I'm at air again probably didn't even pay attention know those things he's the the founder of Atlantic records he's past you know he's the man he's sort of the Clive Davis of Atlantic records um but he saw it and he said they paid enough and clear and so we we've been getting royalty checks but the ones we should have gotten those big ones never got so so now when we're talking about royalty we're talking about you know per album we're talking about what mechanical we're talking about like what kind of royalties like you had published royalties songwriters get songwriter royalties um and uh I was a songwriter I got those yeah yeah yeah because they are independent of the band and the record label because when you have an outside writer like Desmond Childs writing on a Bajovi record he's not in the band he's like I wrote a song so you you cover a song by a classic rock artist they don't want to hear the band still owes money for the recording sessions they give me my money you know and Warren always people they get paid so I got paid thankfully for that but then there's um but then there's the mechanical royalties over record sales and so in 97 we started getting royalties and by what when did when did Napster come out 2001 around there a few years later people stopped buying records so uh so our royalty checks are our our our joke Spotify Spotify is nothing nothing you know that guy the owner of Spotify said write more put out more albums that was his solution to make more money yeah put out more albums more cans of coke come out and sell more cans of coke can you uh get more money crazy that's what I heard like one thirty second of a cent for every hit yeah I remember it was uh um that guy sigh whatever it was his gangdom style he had like a billion plays on was it YouTube or whatever was the format and he got 35 000 dollars for a billion what do you get for a million then well do the math and what do you get for a hundred what do these young bands get when they we hit a hundred thousand here's your 25 cents it's slave labor I won't say that that harsh but it's basically using other people's intellectual property to profit you know that's that's what it is right yeah and you know we could talk on that forever because you know the red company they shot themselves in the foot by being greedy uh you know when they came out with the with the DVD the CDs and charge everybody a premium because it was a new technology yeah and then you know 20 years later they're still charging a premium for the new technology and it was costing them less than a buck to make them and people thought I said you know what you're ripping us off but sadly the artists got hurt while they were trying to punish the uh record companies yeah all right back to the album yeah back to the album made look just the in for the kill okay is this a new life philosophy for you I mean that's you know it's pretty pretty poignant lyrics to that one you know in for the kill which is a song about that moment in your life or moments hopefully you have multiple where you've prepared and you've gotten ready and you've rehearsed you've practiced you've worked you've studied and now's your shot so and it's a metaphor for that but and this speaks to the um censorship that's in the ethos here that's around us and I had a moment when I was writing those lyrics where a little voice my head said oh wait a minute I don't know if I could say that and then the loud voice the one I could take it for said are you fucking kidding me like screaming I'm like okay okay okay you know but and but then I said man how sucky is that writers use metaphor it's one of our tools for creativity for you know and and the fact that our writers are now questioning whether they can write a metaphor because someone might overreact or you know whether it's a person might you know pick up a gun because I wrote a gun metaphor uh or proven that you know that's god with how rare is that you know that's something like that happens and by the way for the record you know the only time that the media ever brings up that a killer listened to metal or hip-hop is when they listen to metal or hip-hop we have no idea what Dahmer was listening to yeah I'm pretty sure it was Barry Manilow well I mean Hitler was listening to Wagner right no idea what he listened to classical music probably but if it's Marilyn Manson oh heavy metal but D what they failed to say is that people have been killing people from the beginning of humanity I mean you know before there was even heavy metal right what was listening to classical right yeah right right no we never talked about that only if it's a hip-hop a gangster rap band or metal band so that's a BS yeah yeah yeah she is that about your wife you know I try I know I got into video day and a guy said to me is that about music is that that thinking your life that and I said wow I said that you know I love that you that you thought that there's a famous song by Rod Stewart you're in my heart you're in my soul you'll be my friend when I grow old you're thinking about a soccer ball yeah he's no he's true and you've seen the video he's kicking a soccer ball around for him soccer is his solace it's that escape it's that place he goes and so she I'm glad that somebody read something else into it because it's about my wife and you know 45 years and counting and you know I wanted to write a heavy metal love song I do write them from time to time hot love and you're not alone and songs like that over the years and I hadn't written anything in 25 years so I felt it was I was due last time I wrote it we've 20 it's 20 years now we're 45 years okay I gotta write a song I think it would if today if that was released in 1984 that would have been like a smash hit you know I don't think that would a lot of rotation very melodic and you know what Alan we should just talk about the album like my my perspective on this album is like it's it's just unbelievable it's unbelievable it's it's the album it's probably one of your best albums that's all I could say like I mean I from a melody perspective from a technical from a production perspective it's just it hits all the marks there really isn't any filler tracks thank you for saying that I mean because you know I'm not just saying that no and I and I appreciate about my son the filmmaker he said dad it's what they don't have to say he says yeah when you're getting a great new record that's what they have to say but when they go further and they break it down there's truth there because someone who didn't like it is not going to take the time they go oh no but I really like the proficiency and the melodies were really not they're not wasting your time or theirs so uh no I appreciate that because this is the things we were trying to do we're trying to create that that balanced record I want to appeal to younger newer fans but I also don't want to completely leave behind my older fans and I wanted that you know one thing I I love about the newer music is that technical proficiency the guitar players have that precise tight picking and the guitars guys are shredding my band is shredding I mean just unbelievable solos so we really were trying to to ride that that line but now it's a point of interest to you so I got a song on there where I have a death metal singer named corpse grinder that was my idea and Jamie Jocelyn calls me ogd he says he's because I'm always trying to push it harder and heavier and he's a picture like rains on me and Jamie the hardcore guy's going whoa dig let's not lose who you were and not that I don't love my past and whatever but I'm very excited by the new sounds and the new things and I love playing and experimenting with them but it's Jamie Jasta who would I would keep saying more great vocals more hardcore vocals and he'd go that's what music is missing today you're missing those Martin Birch producers you're missing people like Jamie who are sort of reeling you in and they have a vision as well on how to contain Dee Snider or whoever they're talking about well you know he said from the very beginning I said I don't know where my place is in the contemporary metal community and he said I do he had a very clear not just a respect and appreciation for me he feels that this is his word is not mine and my voice is one of those voices that he feels should be in the pantheon that's you know with Ozzie and Halford and Dio and all these great singers at Dee Snider's voice is one of those voices and he said the D I saw you live that was his that was his inspiration we run a festival together and he's like god you're singing as strongly as you ever sang he goes it's not like you've lost it and I said and so he really guided me and it's shocking really that this hardcore guy from this hardcore band who doesn't sing a melody in his songs is so involved in creating great melody with me and great and great balanced songs that would be right for me not for Jamie Jasta he's not trying to make a Jasta record he's trying to make a Dee Snider record and and I love for that man I mean I just so appreciate it I went back to again wasn't even a second thought Jamie I want to make another record it was a you know I didn't even think for a second should I use someone else no for me the for the love of metal that was like angry raw aggression and this one's like more of a measured aggression if I can call that with the lyrics are very focused and you have a message to tell but you do it in a subtle and very melodic way that's what I took away from the self well it's it's you know it's about 11 songs I pretty much bludgeon you for the first 11 with melody and with you know with uh with you know with great you know playing and stuff like that but first 11 songs are unrelenting and then all of a sudden I throw the brakes on and and when you're punch drunk I go now that I have your attention I'd like to talk to you for a second and I finish the song of Stan which is a ballad and I practically speak the first verse uh so you know this was really planned out but not in a contrived way in a way that we hope will reach people the most always a pleasure D and anxious have you back and see how this live stream goes we got more to talk about all right thanks D take care