Dee Snider has opened up about the health issues that made him step away from a planned Twisted Sister reunion tour earlier this year.
Talking to former collaborator and longtime Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta on his podcast The Jasta Show, the singer says that while he’s “not dying anytime soon”, he pulled out of the comeback due to struggles with degenerative arthritis, which spread throughout his body, as well as heart problems and hypertension.
“My body’s been causing me problems with growing arthritis and degenerative arthritis through my shoulders, my neck, my arms,” Snider says (via Blabbermouth). “It’s worked down my legs. It's throughout my body. It hurts all the time.”
He adds that he started using painkillers “by the handful” to try and ease the symptoms, though these led to more health struggles. “You start hurting the liver, the kidneys or other organs in your body,” he continues. “And that started to become an issue for me. It was really when they discovered that I have hypertension and some heart issues that I have to address, and by addressing it means I gotta calm the fuck down, [that I knew I had to back out].”
He came to the decision after his four children – Jesse (born 1982), Shane (1988), Cody (1989), and Cheyenne (1996) – begged him not to go back on the road for the sake of his health.
“I don’t know if I could stop myself,” he says. “I don’t know if I would want to… My kids sat me down and said, ‘Please stop’ – some were crying – ‘because you are gonna kill yourself,’ ’cause they know who I am.”
Once he made the decision, his Twisted Sister bandmates attempted to talk him into staying by accommodating his condition, offering to bring medical technicians on tour or wheel him on and offstage. Ultimately, his manager Phil Carson stepped in and informed the band that it wasn’t going to happen.
“Phil said, ‘Dee, you cannot do this. I know you. I’ve stood on stage and watched you for decades. You cannot do this. You’ll hurt yourself.’ And he called the guys up and said, ‘He’s out. He cannot do this. So stop offering him everything in the world.’”
Twisted Sister’s plans to reunite and celebrate their 50th anniversary with a world tour were announced in September, but the shows were cancelled and Snider announced his decision to vacate his role in the band in February.
A statement said, “Unbeknownst to the public (until now) Snider (70) suffers from degenerative arthritis and has had several surgeries over the years just to keep going, able to only perform a few songs at a time in pain.” It later added that Snider “can no longer push the boundaries of rock’n’roll fury like he has done for decades”.
On March 3, it was announced that Sebastian Bach, formerly of glam metal hit-makers Skid Row, had stepped in to front the band. He voiced his excitement over the role in an interview shortly afterwards, saying, “I’m looking forward to rocking out with Twisted Sister, because I love the music. And you cannot even challenge me on do I love the [music]. I really do love the music. So you can’t fake love – and I love Twisted Sister.” On March 8, he covered Twisted Sister’s I Wanna Rock at a show with his solo band.
The Bach-fronted iteration of Twisted Sister will tour in the autumn. Dates and details are yet to be announced.
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