Shut Up and Give Me the Mic

Dee Snider

• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451637410
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

DEE’S NOT GONNA TAKE IT

As lead singer and songwriter of Twisted Sister, Dee Snider became the poster boy for heavy metal, hair bands, and the wild side of rock. Now, in his twisted new memoir, he reveals the real stories behind the crazy makeup, the big hair, and badass hits like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.”

A classically trained countertenor who sang with his high school choir, Dee remembers the day he decided he was “not gonna take it” and stopped caring what people thought about him. Following in the footsteps of his idols Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath, Dee jumped from band to band before meeting Jay Jay French and Twisted Sister. But it wasn’t until he met his costume-designing soul-mate Suzette that they developed his unique style. Dee’s hard work finally paid off with an impressive resume that includes: a monster hit record; smash MTV videos; a long-running radio show, “The House of Hair”; appearances in film (Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Howard Stern’s Private Parts, StrangeLand) and television (Growing Up Twisted, Celebrity Apprentice); and a starring role in Broadway’s Rock of Ages. He even authored a teenage survival guide that was required reading in Russia!

In his journey from every parent’s worst teenage nightmare to Renaissance man, Dee avoided the usual pitfalls associated with rock stars. But that didn’t stop Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center from targeting him—a fight that led him to testify before Congress with Frank Zappa. He may have been slapped with a Parental Advisory warning label, but, through it all, Dee stayed positive and focused on being the best he could be.

Filled with entertaining anecdotes and candid confessions, Shut Up and Give Me the Mic takes you through the good times and bad with a heavy metal star who worked as hard as he played, and who did it all for his wife, four kids, and millions of “SMF” (Sick Mother F******) fans

This story is mine.

I’m the guy that gave it all to beat the odds, left everything he had on the stage each night, didn’t screw around on his woman, took care of his kids, and was sober enough to remember it all and write about it . . . myself.

The one thing that has surprised and confused me, though, is my unlikely transformation into a “beloved public figure.” How did the unpopular kid, who grew up to be the angry young man, who became the ’80s poster boy for the evils of rock ’n’ roll, arrested for profanity and assault, and boycotted by parents and religious groups, become the likeable mensch he is today?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Description
• Author Bio
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Forewarned
• Prologue: I Just Kept Hoping I’d Wake Up
• Chapter 1: I’m Gonna Be a Beatle
• Chapter 2: ”This Boy Can Sing!“
• Chapter 3: No, No, a Hundred Times No
• Chapter 4: To Be or Not to Be
• Chapter 5: Crash and Burn #1
• Chapter 6: This is Twisted Sister?
• Chapter 7: Wild Enema Nozzles
• Chapter 8: Oh, Suzy Q . . .
• Chapter 9: The Demolition Squad
• Chapter 10: So This is Christmas
• Chapter 11: The Gauntlet Is Thrown
• Chapter 12: Leaps and Bounds
• Chapter 13: That “Just Jailed” Look
• Chapter 14: I’m Just a Sweet Transvestite
• Chapter 15: You’re Gonna Burn in Hell
• Chapter 16: O Come, All Ye Faithful
• Chapter 17: I’m Snider Than You Are
• Chapter 18: Bang the Drum Slowly
• Chapter 19: The Doldrums
• Chapter 20: I Got You Babe
• Chapter 21: Drums, Drums, Drums, Drums!
• Chapter 22: Lemmy Kilmister: Fairy Godmother
• Chapter 23: Scarred for Life
• Chapter 24: I Can’t Believe They Threw a Shite
• Chapter 25: Man-O-Wimp and the New Flower Children
• Chapter 26: It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll . . . But They Like It
• Chapter 27: The Price
• Chapter 28: Welcome to the Real World
• Chapter 29: Welcome to the Promised Land
• Chapter 30: That’s a Horse of a Different Color
• Chapter 31: The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla
• Chapter 32: The Guarantee
• Chapter 33: Twenty Pounds of Shite in a Five-Pound Sack
• Chapter 34: The Game Changer
• Chapter 35: What the Hell Did He Just Say?
• Chapter 36: Why Does the Rain Smell Like Pee?
• Chapter 37: Have Some Cheese, Ratt!
• Chapter 38: How the Hell Did I Get Both Platform Shoes in my Mouth?
• Chapter 39: “These Times They are A-Changin’”
• Chapter 40: A Rock Star Is Born
• Chapter 41: “Click Click Boom!”
• Chapter 42: “Mr. Dee Snider . . . the Twisted Sister”
• Chapter 43: What Do You Mean “Nobody Showed Up?”
• Chapter 44: And Then the Other Shoe Dropped
• Chapter 45: “We All Fall Down”
• Chapter 46: How Do You Say “Holy Shit!” in Russian?
• Chapter 47: “Putting the ’Desperate‘ in Desperado”
• Chapter 48: “Whadaya Mean you Didn’t Listen to the Record?”
• Chapter 49: Pissin’ Against the Wind
• Epilogue
• Photographs
• Thank-Yous
• Photo Credits
• Endnotes