TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider is featured in a new interview with Powerline, discussing the band's early years. An excerpt is available below:

Powerline: Twisted Sister matched that sort of speed metal and power metal of the time.

Snider: "No doubt. Not only did we match it, I think we were helping to create it. Those Twisted tapes were getting around, it was the birth of that stuff. And people look at me like I have horns when I say it, but I’ll say it again and argue and prove it — that Twisted Sister is responsible for the birth of speed metal or at least partially responsible. And if you say ‘How?’ I say ‘Simple.’ If you use the live tapes back in the day played at such a high speed, musically. All the cover songs we did — everything was always sped up. That was purely due to my highly caffeinated state and my mental state. We didn’t realize how fast we were playing. I was the one controlling the speed and I kept screaming ‘Faster., faster!’ Bands like OVERKILL, ANTHRAX, CARNIVORE — they were out in the crowd, in Brooklyn, watching Twisted Sister, following Twisted Sister. If you ever saw the Rat Skates documentary [drummer, Overkill] … He did a documentary about Overkill and there’s a whole section on Twisted Sister and basically we were the standard that everybody emulated. Keith Alexander from Carnivore told me, ‘We came to see Twisted Sister and Twisted Sister played fast, so we played fast.’ They took frantic performance, our frantic performance and interpreted it as play fast, rule one is to play fast. And then they went back to the garages and sped everything the fuck up, literally to be like us. So it wasn’t like a conscious thing like ‘Hey, we’re going to create this really fast approach of playing.’ No, we just played that way and inspired bands like Carnivore, Overkill and Anthrax, who went on to the forefront of the whole speed metal movement. The influence that Twisted Sister had, people don’t’ even realize. Then you have bands like BON JOVI and CINDERELLA and POISON, who are coming down to see those same shows and they’re taking away a whole different set of rules. Their thing is, they’re seeing something else about how to create your sound and how to perform and how to look and they’re taking a whole other thing out of it. We are uncredited but we are without a doubt responsible for spawning all kinds. And then there are the punk bands that were into Twisted Sister. A lot of them overseas. To this day you will see a lot of punk bands that cover 'We’re Not Gonna Take It' and do Twisted Sister songs. There was a confused audience because there were ‘bangers, punks and skins and they were all coming to see the same band, looking at each other, going ‘What are you doing here?’ They all thought they were seeing the next punk/skin/ metal sensation. At the time — 1981, 1982 — there wasn’t Hair Metal by definition. There was new wave of metal and Twisted Sister wasn’t falling easily into anyone’s previous conception of what a band should be."

Powerline: That was the best time period for metal.

Snider: "Oh, absolutely. These people were living off of, as you said, information they got from their cousins. It was the age of tape exchange. We had no albums so these punks were hearing these high speed, machine gun songs, buzzsaw songs and go ‘Oh!’ And it wasn’t punk, it was Twisted Sister."

Powerline: And METALLICA opened for Twisted Sister and that was an amazing show.

Snider: "You were at the Fountain Casino show?! [December 30, 1983 in Aberdeen, New Jersey]"

Powerline: Yeah. What were you thinking about Metallica at that time? Did you think, ‘Wow, this band is going to be huge’?

Snider: "I didn’t even know they were on the bill. I didn’t even know they existed. And Jonny Z [Megaforce Records], who was a big supporter of Twisted, crammed them on the bill. When we toured with Metallica in Europe, they said ‘We played with you guys in Jersey. And I was like ‘You did?!’ I didn’t even know. I was oblivious to the opening band. In effect it was like a no name. And I was never out before the show. I was always in the back getting ready. You never saw me. You didn’t see me walking around the club. You only saw me on the stage and then I disappear. I’d get there before the doors opened and I left when the doors closed. You weren’t supposed to see a rock star walking around like a human being. So I had no idea Metallica played. But during that tour [1984], I remember clear as a bell when we arrived in Holland we see these posters that had a huge Metallica with like a troll head — an early symbol they used — and on the bottom it said ‘…and Twisted Sister’ in little letters. So I said to our tour manager, ‘Tell Metallica they can close, obviously people are coming to see them.’ And my tour manager comes back and says they said no. I said ‘No?’ He said Well, they said it seems suspicious. They are confused. ‘Why would you give up the headline slot? What are you up to?’ I went into their dressing rooms and said ‘Guys, the people are clearly here to see you. I’m not a complete asshole. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m the headliner. It’s obvious you’re the guys that everyone is coming to see.’ So they closed the show.

As a result it was the one time I got to see them. And I still remember standing on the side of the stage, watching their set and I turned to Mark (Mendoza) and I said these words: ‘These guys got a lot of heart but they’re never gonna go anywhere.’ So that’s what I thought of Metallica. (laughs) I just thought they were too heavy. It’s so heavy, there is no commercial accessibility, there’s nothing for them to get through to the mainstream audience. They would just be one of those great heavy bands. … You know the Overkills, the Carnivores, one of those bands. I admit saying that. (laughs) Nobody hears it all, all the time. Nobody sees it all. You get it sometimes, you completely miss it other times. Who knew that people’s taste would become acclimated to that much heavier of a sound."

Click here for the complete interview.

In the following video, courtesy of Artisan News Service, TWISTED SISTER vocalist Dee Snider and guitarist Jay Jay French talk about the band's five DVD Box Set, From The Bars To The Stars, and how it came about.

To read BraveWords.com scribe Martin Popoff's review of From The Bars To The Stars, click here.

On November 8th, Eagle Vision released From The Bars To The Stars featuring three decades of live performances including:

- Exclusive - Twisted Xmas: Live in Las Vegas
- Live at Wacken
- Live at Reading
- Double Live : North Stage Theater 1982 & New York Steel 2001

The set runs 490 minutes and also includes a TS Xmas ornament, official NY Steel backstage pass, classic TS pin 2.25”, and a reproduction of the first ever SMF fan club letter.

Tracklisting:

Disc 1

'What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)'

'The Kids Are Back'

'Stay Hungry'

'Destroyer'

'Like a Knife in the Back'

'Under the Blade'

'You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll'

'The Fire Still Burns'

'Shoot 'Em Down'

'We're Not Gonna Take It'

'The Price'

'Burn in Hell'

'I Wanna Rock'

'S.M.F'

Disc 2

'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'

'White Christmas'

'Shoot 'Em Down'

'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'

'You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll'

'Deck the Halls'

'The Price'

'Come All Ye Faithfull'

'Burn in Hell'

'Silver Bells'

'I'll Be Home for Christmas'

'I Wanna Rock'

'12 Days of Christmas'

'We're Not Gonna Take It'

Disc 3

'What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)'

'Destroyer '

'Tear it Loose'

'Bad Boys (Of Rock 'n' Roll)'

'Lady's Boy'

'Leader of the Pack'

'Under the Blade'

'Shoot 'Em Down'

'Sin After Sin'

'I'll Never Grow Up, Now'

'You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll'

'You Know I Cry'

'It's Only Rock 'N' Roll'

'Rock 'n' Roll Saviors'

Disc 4

'What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)'

'The Kids Are Back'

'Stay Hungry'

'Burn in Hell'

'You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll'

'Under the Blade'

'Shoot 'Em Down'

'Come Back'

'You Know I Cry'

'I Wanna Rock'

'We're Not Gonna Take It'

'The Price'

'SMF'

Disc 5

'What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)'

'Sin After Sin'

'Bad Boys (Of Rock 'n' Roll)'

'Destroyer'

'Shoot 'Em Down'

'Tear it Loose'

'Under the Blade'

'It's Only Rock 'N' Roll'