DEE SNIDER thinking back on LEMMY: "I'm getting chills right now because when I think about Lemmy...

Published September 18 2023 at 17:22

Ultimate Guitar magazine has published a story about Dee Snider recollecting the first time that TWISTED SISTER was introduced to Lemmy, when touring in the U.K. in 1982.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Dee Snider recalled how Twisted Sister got saved by the late legend Lemmy Kilmister from an angry crowd while opening for Motörhead.

The story that Dee told Vintage Rock Pod in a recent interview highlights how the '80s were sadly a different times, and how the metal community - or at least some of its fans - were infinitely less inclusive than they are today. The incident took place at Wrexham football stadium, where Twisted Sister was set to perform in its now-iconic makeup, which obviously didn't sit well with some fans. Dee said (transcription via Killer Guitar Rigs):

"I'm getting chills right now because when I think about Lemmy... [he] became our savior. We got on a bill at the Wrexham football stadium with Budgie, Tank, and a whole bunch of other signed metal bands."

As Dee recalls, it was Twisted Sister's first-ever UK show, taking place at a time when makeup at metal shows was a strict no-no - which is ironic, given how it would become all the rage thanks to hair metal bands only several years later. The singer went on:

"And we were gonna go out on stage for the first time in daylight. And this is 1981, '82, somewhere around there. So you know the legends of 'Canvil', Anvil being canned off the stage and bottled off the stage at Reading, of Girl being bottled off the stage... because they wore a little makeup.

"There was actual conversation - not from me, but from my bandmates - about not putting on our costumes and makeup. I mean, our first song was called 'What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)' and I wrote it to be performed in silhouette, so the audience couldn't see us, so they would hear us first and then a third of the way through the song, the lights would come on and we'd go, 'This is what we look like!' People would go, 'Ah! I didn't expect that', but they were already taken in by the band."

The full article can be read here:

ARTICLE

And here's some vintage footage of TWISTED SISTER jamming with Lemmy on U.K. television: