Shut Up and Give Me the Mic by Dee Snider

by Dee Snider

Shut Up and Give Me the Mic

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Ebooks, Book Club, Autobiography

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Daniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer-songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality, and actor. Snider is most famous for his role as the frontman of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister.

Reviews

[Sebastian Bach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great. The way it is written, the grammar, attention to detail, humor, the stories, it's all perfect. Dee is truthful and pulls no punches in telling the tale of the incredible highs and lows of his life. At the end, he reiterates what is truly important in life; which is love. He has always had love, and nothing is more important in this world. As he so succinctly states in this awesome book!

[Θανάσης · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it honest and sincere. As i said for other autobiographies, it's up to the reader to choose what to believe. The only thing i didn't like, is that he doesn't mention the relationship with the other members of TS after some point. Since then ofcourse, all of them have said that they hated him the last years pre-break up. Even DS admitted that, but it's not mentioned in this book. And WHAT got them to hate him. The mention for their relationship after one point is very superficial. At least he admits to many thing he has done wrong, one of them being a narcissistic asshole hehe
+i love his humour.
If you're an S.M.F. ,you need to read this book.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dee Snider is a rare animal: a rock musician who is drug and alcohol free and always has been. He has company in that respect in Gene Simmons and Ted Nugent, but Dee manages to do it without being a nutjob (Nugent) or a womanizing creep (both). He managed to avoid substance abuse without picking up another vice. He met his wife at 21 and hasn't strayed since, and she and his children are everything to him and have sustained him through the leanest times of his life. Snider makes clear that while he was driven to be a performer, he found little joy in it, and hated the accompanying lifestyle. Keeping his nose clean didn't save him from the fall however, because a series of bad choices, mismanagement, and his inflated ego ended Twisted Sister's worldwide fame after just two albums. Most of the book covers the time period leading up to that fame, his childhood and the near decade spent as a wildly successful regional band prior to getting a record deal, and the collapse of it all. Snider makes it clear that this is only volume one of the story and he will tell of the rebuilding of his career in a later book. Dee's self-deprecating humor makes this a fun read, and I particularly enjoyed the section on the PMRC hearings. The whole thing was just so ridiculous especially in light of today's popular entertainment. Were they really so afraid of men in makeup and a little Wile E Coyote video violence?

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Don't let my having only a couple hits fool you. Hit records are no reflection of songwriting ability or quality. Making a song a hit is a whole other process, in most ways beyond the control of the creator."

[Donna Milward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although not a Twisted Sister fan, I've been a huge admirer of Dee Snider since he intelligently and articulately faced off against the PMRC. I looked forward to reading more of his quick wit, especially since he wrote this book without help from a ghostwriter.

He does okay... I guess. Even if his stories are delivered like a book report--Not much spice or emotion with the exception of arrogance and anger.

He freely admits that he's accustomed to being the center of attention and that he's made some dumb mistakes in life.

The trouble is, his ego is still gargantuan. He takes credit for almost everything Twisted Sister has ever done, good or bad. Except Twisted Sister's look...all of that was his wife Suzette.

And he's so resentful of his past, he comes across as a bitter old bitch and it makes me wonder why he suffered through the whole ordeal rather than just a get a job like anyone else. It sounds like NONE of it was worth 'The Price'.

I finished reading this, but I almost ditched it after Chapter 28. Snider won't name the band, he hates them too much to give them the pleasure of being in the book.

Snider would have us believe that their management ripped Suzette off for her costume work and threatened her life. THEN, her mafia family did nothing to get her money back and Dee still hates himself to this day for not doing anything.

Then why didn`t you name the band,Dee? Why didn't you finally say something? Especially since you're so very quick to point out the cowardice of Manowar in Chapter 25.

Not that he gives all the dirt on that either. Many of the stories in this book are cut short to protect names or either Mr. Snider doesn't feel like telling everything. (And why not? He's comfortable blabbing about Suzette's mob relatives.) He even publishes a photo of himself unshaven after a boating accident, but he forgot to tell the story, and mentions that in the caption.

Needless to say, I'm not much of a fan anymore. If Mr. Snider had brought in a ghostwriter, this book might have been interesting. In actuality it comes across as the smug and pissy rantings of a diva.

[Steve Coscia · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don't have to be a Twisted Sister fan (I am not) to enjoy this book. I found Dee's ups and downs (and he has been way up and way down) easy to relate to and his perseverance throughout is inspiring. This memoir is written plainly and there are many edge-of-your-seat episodes that keep the pages turning. Dee's "life rules" and descriptive writing style kept me engaged. I read this book in one sitting. Very enjoyable.
This is a real good book, and not just because Dee Snider grew up a few miles from me on Long Island or that we played in the same nighclubs.

[Ben Haskett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly do not remember the context in which I first saw the music video for Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." I remember only that I was a teenager (had to be late 90s), that I'd never heard of them or the song before that moment, and that I was absolutely delighted by what I saw. I loved it, loved the goofy, low-budget short-film vibe. It was catchy, and fun, and silly, and the lead singer was a little scary in an odd way. About a year later, I bought a cassette of their Come Out and Play album from a music store for less than a dollar (still brand new; it was just heavily discounted because, as I learned from this book, there was a surplus). I took it home, listened to it for about three minutes, and then threw it away*.

That was pretty much the last time I thought about Twisted Sister until a couple of months ago when a good friend of mine told me Twisted Sister is one of his favorite bands. That surprised me, mostly because I hadn't considered that Twisted Sister might be anyone's favorite band, now or in decades past. I always figured they were just one of a million 80s-era also-rans. Every decade has them, right? I can think of 20 off the top of my head from the 90s and early aughts, bands that were huge but that, when historians 50 years from now write documentaries about the 90s, won't even get a mention. (But what do I know? Totally possible I'll run into someone 20 years from now who's still gaga for Powerman 5000) I used to read a magazine called Hit Parader, and I don't even remember seeing Twisted Sister's logo show up on any of the dozens of merchandise ads (you know, where they display a wall of little thumbnail graphics showing t-shirts or pins from a thousand different classic and current rock acts?).

Anyway, my pal queued up one of their albums, which I thought sounded like nondescript 80s metal. But as we continued our card game, he sang or hummed along with the whole thing. He wasn't kidding around — he was a big fan. Then he started to share interesting little anecdotes about their lead singer, Dee Snider, and at length he piqued my interest — I couldn't help but get swept up in my friend's enthusiasm. And I had no idea TS was ever so relevant — or groundbreaking! He went into another room and came back a moment later with this book.

And it was a really good read. Here are some disorganized thoughts:

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• Snider was a late addition to the band in the 70s. For many years (before and after Snider joined) they were strictly a cover band — as Snider tells it, audiences had near-zero tolerance for original music from local bands. The only way to sneak an original song in there was to preface it with a lie, like "This is a little-known Deep Purple song from their first album" or "This next Motorhead song never made it to the States, but it's great!"

• Even as a cover band, TS played up to five shows a night, five nights a week, all over the tri-state area and raked in lavish wages. They and other bands with similar work schedules were able to make more than a quarter-million dollars annually, all in cash, in 1970s money. I asked a couple professional musician friends if this could possibly happen in this day and age and the responses basically boiled down to "lol, no." One friend likened live performances to a passionate hobby.

• Once TS felt emboldened enough to switch to original music, they had become minor celebrities around the NY tri-state area, mostly due to the insane shows they'd put on. Their sound was part of a wave of new music that influenced a generation, but the music was almost secondary; Snider was so animated all the time and poured so much energy into his performances (his wife Suzette is responsible for their iconic, postapocalyptic drag image) that attendees would get worked up into a headbanging frenzy. They were legendary. And after TS outgrew the confines of the biggest clubs, they would sometimes rent entire arenas, promote their own shows, and play to sold out crowds of thousands. Imagine a local band, today, independently renting arena-sized concert spaces, selling out, and making rockstar-level profits from their efforts. Insane.

• Despite TS's considerable successes, literally no record label would touch them. Plenty of talent scouts would come to their shows and be blown away, promise them the world, even put together tentative contracts, only to follow up a few days later with tearful apologies because their bosses would flat out refuse to allow the deal to move forward. There were various reasons given, including that their appeal was limited to the tri-state area, and that their music was terrible (the genre wasn't exactly in its infancy, but this particular brand of rock was still looked down upon by most record labels). TS was finally signed by an overseas label that could barely afford to support them, but they got the push they needed to make themselves known worldwide. Sometime later, they ended up signing with Atlantic Records.

• Whenever Snider would get to a part in the book where the band would release a new album, or demo, or whatever else, I would don headphones and listen while I read. Whenever he got to a music video, I would set the book down and watch the video in full. It was super neat to get the behind-the-scenes and director commentary while listening to his music. Straight up, this just isn't my kind of music and never has been**, that sound popularized by the likes of Twisted Sister, Ratt, Motley Crue, Guns n' Roses, Cinderella, etc., but I tell you what, it really grew on me, and this book got me closer than ever to really getting its appeal. It was fun music for people who wanted to let loose and have fun, or to shake off all their pent-up aggression of the day. Who couldn't see the appeal in that?

• Snider wrote pretty much all of TS's songs, despite the fact he has virtually zero skill with any musical instrument. He had a tedious and unsophisticated method of recording himself singing all the imagined instruments, one at a time, and then layering the recordings. Then he and the rest of the band would get together for practice and Snider would playback a janky a cappella recording of whatever song he cooked up. I'm honestly, genuinely surprised by the mileage they got out of this. TS has some undeniably great songs. To think that any of their guitar melodies started out as "La, la, la, la LA la!" gets me every time, lol. Granted, when you listen to the Stay Hungry album you can kind of see the bones; the melodies are catchy but very simple and only consist of a few notes (even the solos tend to mimic the vocal melody). But it’s still inspiring as hell: the only tools you need to make music are an idea, a means to make noise, and a means to record it. Don’t ever let a lack of gear (or even the ability to play a particular instrument) stop you.

• (He laments once or twice that no one else in the band ever participated in the songwriting process. In my own meager way, I can relate to his bandmates. I was in a band in high school (nothing memorable, but we played original material live on a regular basis, had a website, recorded songs in a few semi-professional studio environments and had a couple CD-R releases). In the year we were together, I contributed very little compositionally. The singer and the other guitarist would bring their ideas, sing some lines of verse, show me some chords, and that's what we played. I would riff on those parts, sure, but no more than any half-competent guitarist could do. Songwriting is hard, lol, and once I saw someone else in the band could do it (they were actually really good at it!), I was relieved to let them carry that burden. The two creative forces in that band went on to other musical projects; one even got signed to a major record label.)

• Almost as soon as Twisted Sister finally hit it big, things started to go downhill. Right off a cliff, in fact. Snider anticipated things would only get better and better and better, and he put together an ambitious, genre-bending album with guest musicians, paired with a comically elaborate live setup. Meanwhile, he was spending all his money on houses and exotic cars and not even thinking about saving anything. He even had his teeth filed to points. Years before, penniless and pre-fame, he was kicked out of a gym after he was caught using the equipment without a membership. In the throes of embarrassment, he declared he would one day come back after he was rich and famous and buy that gym, and the staff laughed at him. So of course he went back there and bought the gym.

• Further, he agreed to literally every interview request, only dimly aware at times that he was overexposing himself to audiences. Couple that with the fact he hosted a metal-focused show on MTV, and that clips of TS's We're Not Gonna Take It video was showing up constantly in MTV commercials, and after a while, longtime fans were getting sick of them... and their new fans were far younger. Adults were gradually replaced with highschoolers who related to the tone of their music videos.

• Further still, Dee Snider and several other musicians were CALLED BEFORE CONGRESS to testify about their allegedly obscene music. (This is what eventually resulted in Parental Advisory stickers, which, go figure, is how I always found the best CDs in whatever music store I visited.) It's at this hearing that Snider reveals he does not smoke, does not drink, does not do drugs, has been in a committed, monogamous relationship almost all his adult life, and that he identifies as a Christian. He explains how that song Tipper Gore thinks is about sadomasochism is actually about a fellow bandmate undergoing surgery. All the songs the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) thinks are about sex and drugs are about anything but.

• Now, my aforementioned good friend explains that this is when TS lost their popularity, because all their fans saw this testimony and realized their heavy metal demigod was actually just a huge dork. And I believe him — he's always been a huge fan of TS, and he lived through this as it occurred. (He just so happens to like huge dorks, as do I, as we are, and he celebrates the same about bands like Rush, etc.) But as Snider tells it, the testimony was cut up and manipulated before it aired on the news so that Snider looked like an absolute A-hole. And every primetime-TV-watching parent decided then and there that their teenagers would never, ever, ever set foot in a venue where TS was performing. In short, their longtime fans were sick of seeing them everywhere, and their new fans were barred from seeing them live or buying their music.

• So yeah, their next album, Come Out and Play, bombs (comparatively — it sold more than 500K copies in the US alone). They end up canceling their tour early for lack of ticket sales. The CD sits in piles in music stores across the country. TS is pretty much done for. Snider writes a solo album but is talked into releasing it as a Twisted Sister album, and that's how we got Love is for Suckers. I hate to say it, but that album — performed by Snider and various non-TS musicians, has their best guitar work by far. Snider's financial situation imploded — he went from that lavish, rich-and-famous lifestyle to riding a bike to a dead-end desk job (which he was, to his credit, thrilled to be able to do in order to support his family).

---

There's more to the book than all that, and obviously there's more to Snider than all that, but this summary is too long already. In my opinion, the only real criterion for a good memoir is honesty. I've read messy self-published memoirs that moved me to tears (form, pacing, spelling and grammar, etc., never seem to matter when someone's pouring their heart out) and polished turds from politicians who, too concerned with their image, provide boring, sanitized depictions of everyone in their circle. Snider appears to inject a lot of honestly into his writing, and the writing ain't half bad, so this gets full marks from me. In fact, the writing is so unguarded that I wonder if some reveals were perhaps unintentional:

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• Snider spends a cumulative 50-or-so pages talking in circles about how he met his wife, and he's clearly grown a little sheepish about it, because he began courting her when she was only 15 years old. You can almost hear him nervously tittering about it through the text, looking back now and recognizing that a 22-year-old hitting on someone seven years younger who sneaked out to his concert isn't exactly an endearing meet-cute. He also mentions little jokes she used to slip in about how she only agreed to date him because she was scared of him, that she wasn't attracted to him, and that she had constant plans to break up with him. (Cue that nervous titter again.) Honestly, I'm just happy it worked out — they've been married for more than 40 years, with four kids, and Suzette stuck by him through the thinnest of soap-sliver thins; their love is obvious and heartwarming — but there are some seriously awkward passages where Snider appears to be asking for the reader's blessing. He boasts that he wrote this book himself, without any help from a ghost writer, but in this particular subject, he probably could have used someone to tell him to wrap it up and move on to the next bit.

• Snider makes no bones about his temper. He is severely mercurial, and to this day holds onto many grudges. (There's one band in particular that he can't even bring himself to name, so this then-57-year-old man puts a childish spin on the band's name that involves the word "crap.") He's quick to boast about his thick skin (as he tells it, you kind of have to learn to live with insults and heckling when you're dancing around in women's clothes and makeup), but all his beef appears to be the result of the teeniest, tiniest perceived slights. A couple of bands from Europe made some vague jokes about TS and wet t-shirt contests, and Snider flew to Europe and challenged them all to fist fights (they declined). If I recall correctly, he still hates them. One band allegedly (and vaguely) threatened his wife over a costume commission gone bad, and Snider got so mad about it that he never even spoke to any of them again — despite the fact he was touring with them! Snider points out that they and their manager made multiple attempts to reach out, to bury the hatchet, or even just to find out what the problem was, and he flatly refused to engage. I'm not saying his wife is a liar, but this means that he never even bothered to hear their side of it! I looked it up; that band's frontman was baffled by the whole thing and apparently didn't understand what the issue was until this book came out 30 years later. As he tells it, their manager was unsatisfied with some costumes she made and said he didn't want to pay for them (they ended up discarding them). What Snider believes in his heart to be true, implausible as it is, is that the band's manager happily took the costumes, refused to pay for them, and then threatened to kill her if she made a stink about it. Is it inconceivable that these musicians, from overseas, with their own colloquialisms, might have meant something nonthreatening when he told Suzette he’d “take care of her?”

(Also, sheesh, this last bit made me feel terrible because it reminded me of myself when I was a teenager. I recall how quick I was to decide that a given person was now my enemy, and how I go out of my way to make sure they knew it. Most of them never knew what the hell I was upset about, or that I even had an axe to grind. I was so quick to snub people for the most cryptic reasons, you'd think I was picking them at random. I have to admit that this might be coloring some of my opinions about Snider's one-sided feuds.)

---

Okay, this really has gone on too long. It's a good book. Dee Snider's a weird guy, but mostly in a good way.

* When I was a young teenager, I bought most rock music in secret and typically had to rely on album art (because I'd never heard most of them nor had any way to reliably identify them on the radio). Further, with my meager pocket money, I was usually buying singles (CDs with a single song on them; they usually went for $1-2) or bargain bin cassette tapes stores were desperate to get rid of. I sometimes bought a piece of music just based on whether I recognized the logo from an older kid's shirt. For every Black Sabbath and Joshua Tree I discovered, I cracked open duds like dance music I’d hoped would be rock, late-stage INXS or, of course, Twisted Sister's Come Out and Play (thinking, oh hey, I saw one of their videos once). If the music didn't grab in a few minutes, I would take the loss and chuck the tape or CD in the trash. Because I'd never seen The Warriors, I didn't at all understand the bizarre extended homage in the first track.

** I grew up in the 90s, when grunge became the next big thing — folks wearing plain clothes, compositions where incidental noise what treated as a feature, guitar solos were a brief sometimes-treat, and everything was dour or serious or whiny or sometimes all three at once. I loved it from the second I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. Grunge is my era. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, STP, etc. I love it all.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What you'd expect from Dee Snider. An interesting, well-written look at Twisted Sister's rise and fall. Dee Snider is an engaging narrator, and he does a good job of being self-reflective and self-deprecating, taking blame where he has fallen short and dishing out blame when deserving to others. I was never a huge Twisted Sister fan - I considered picking up their album several times in high school, but there was always another album that I wanted more. But I've always been a fan of Snider when I've seen him through the years, and this book does him justice.

I appreciated that although Snider laid some of the blame for Twisted Sister's decline and fall on record label decisions, he took his fair share of the blame. He talks about mistakes and bad decisions he made, and talks about how his ego got in the way. It's easier to be sympathetic when someone is willing to share the blame for how things went. I can't help but compare it to Anthrax's Scott Ian's autobiography, where he blames everything on record label decisions. Or Sammy Hagar, who's autobiography left me thinking "what a jerk." Snider comes off like a nice, self-reflective guy with his head screwed on right and his priorities straight.

[Lucy Batson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though Dee Snider is certainly not immune to believing his own hype, he is refreshing forthcoming about his limitations and past mistakes, and he is a good storyteller. It's also nice to read a rock biography where stories of debauchery take a back seat, or don't really appear at all.

[Mikael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sjov, skarp og skamløst selvindsigtsfuld bog fra en af metalscenens helt store stjerner. Én som rent faktisk kan huske en god del af, hvad der skete, fordi han var både ren og ædru hele vejen igennem ... men indimellem gentager han sig selv lige lovlig meget i hvert fald til min smag. Jeg glæder mig til del to, som må være undervejs. Det er jo mere end 10 år siden, at denne udkom.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got Shut Up and Give Me the Mic because I like a few Twisted Sister songs and I like Dee Snider's movie Strangeland. The fact that I found it at the Dollar Tree didn't hurt. I wanted to learn more about how Twisted Sister got their start, which I did, but parts of the book were kinda really boring. I had to make myself keep reading at some points. It's refreshing to read about a rocker who didn't do crack, didn't drink a bottle of gin every night or sleep with every groupie available. That part was cool, but he had/has a huge ego (which he'll mention repeatedly). It also ends sort of abruptly.

The book covers Dee's career with local New York bands until he eventually ends up in Twisted Sister and everything took off from there. He met his wife, TS got a following and they got a record deal. Dee explains how things like royalties, making/promoting albums and tours really work and how much money the band actually gets, which is good information for anyone in a band. He also mentions all of the milestones he missed with his first son: most of his wife's pregnancy, his son's first steps, his first words, etc, because he was out on the road. You can tell how much he really loves his family and I liked that part.

After living the high life for so many years and then having the last Twisted Sister album and tour fail miserably and making some less than wise business decisions, Dee had to file for bankruptcy two different times. He lost just about everything except for his family and his wife's hot pink jeep. Trying to pull himself back out of the hole was a humbling experience and it seemed to really open his eyes. Then the book just ended! He mentions that to learn about what it was like for him to make Strangeland you'll have to read his next book, but I don't want to!

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dee Snider, former lead singer of 80's juggernaut rock band Twisted Sister, has written one of the better rock bio's I have read since The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star.

Dee covers everything from his early years and bands, getting the gig with TS and the eventual demise of the band. He speaks about the hardships getting to where he truly believes he belongs and the terrible failure that followed the bands' successes. He is brutally honest about those people who were around him: band members, managers, record label, distributors...you name it - Dee was angry!

The one thing that stood about it all was Dee's love of "it" - his family. His wife, Suzette, who went through it all and supported him deserves a similar medal to that of Sharon Osbourne: while Sharon had to deal with Ozzy's drugs and alcohol binging, Suzette Snider had to deal with a man in denial, depression and failure. Dee's love for her - and the support she gave him - shines through this whole book.

Loved nearly every page of it!


Paul
ARH

[wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

he would've gotten 5 stars but he pretty much stopped at widowmaker! he's done A LOT in the past 20 years that should have been included here. i had a feeling he was going to say we would have to wait for part 2 and sure enough...he did.

[Teressa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! As a child of the 80s, I loved Twisted Sister. This bio was interesting and entertaining. Dee Snider and Twisted Sister worked so hard and never seemed to get the breaks to make it really big.

[Jeff McCormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. I have loved the band Twisted Sister since Discovering them around 1982 - I used to listen to their "You Can't Stop Rock N Roll" album to death in the day, before they were MTV monsters, before the huge hits of 1983. I have loved them ever since, including Dee's other musical ventures. I saw Dee and the SMF band live on Long Island while living there, back in the mid-90s.

It took me a while to get around to reading this book, and I had help fund and have watching the recent documentary on the band, so decided it was time to read this. It fills in lots of gaps from the documentary, of course more from Dee's side of things, but connecting many dots, which is nice.

I found it an easy read, very well written, and if you are a fan of the band, it becomes a real page turner. Lots of details, and lots of self-inflicted pain is seen, which made me feel bad for the band and Dee specifically, and a few stabs at other band members as expected. I couldn't help but wonder how the other band members took what he said at time, especially given the fact the band continued to tour for a few years after the book came out.

The early struggles of the band, and the over and over again bad timing and bad circumstances they ran into have to touch you. The struggles just seemed unbelievable at times, and at times made me want to track Dee down and give him a big hug of encouragement. And now knowing the circumstances behind the scenes of each album gives me an added appreciation of music I already was fond of, and I have been spinning their music a lot during this reading process.

The band is over now after the death of drummer A.J. Pero, so reading this book was like closer of the story of a great band, one that (according to the book) was very instrumental in what later became known (or rudely called) the "hair" band era of the 80's.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shut Up and Give Me the Mic: A Twisted Memoir is everything a rock-n-roll memoir should be. It's a fast-paced,  grandiose, detail-packed tell-all; in every possible way, ripped with a level of testosterone-injected, larger-than-life might that can only be delivered from one of the top showmen from 1980's "decade of decadence". And after that? It's so much more!

Once Dee starts, he doesn't stop. Not one to beat around the bush, he gets right to the heart of every chapter, every life experience, and tackles it with the same ferocity he unleashed upon legions of heavy metal fans during Twisted Sister's early years through to their breakthrough superstardom with 1984's Stay Hungry.

Dee recounts his childhood as an unpopular kid, his relationship with his overworked dad (inspiration for "Neidermeyer's" role in the Twisted videos We're Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock), his blind ambition (fueled by PMA--Positive Mental Attitude), and the long pot-holed road to international stardom. Along the way he lists his "Dee's Life Lessons" and sets himself apart from other rockers by noting that he didn't drink or do drugs, and conducted his on-the-road life hermit-like to preserve his energy and voice for the "Demolition Squad" shows Twisted Sister performed nightly on the East Coast--years before they finally struck commercial gold.

Dee writes,

"As for drugs, I've always known I have an obsessive personality, and if I started doing drugs, I wouldn't be able to control myself. Besides, I've never had a problem "letting myself go." I was always a crazy kid, and at first the people I knew who partied would say, "Snider, we want to see what you're like high." Then after spending a bit more time with me, they would say "On second thought, we don't."

Am I anti-drugs-and-alcohol? Not really. I'm just anti-asshole. If you can party and remain who you are or become a looser, more fun version of who you are, God bless you. But if when you party, you become some shape-shifting, obnoxious asshole who doesn't know when to quit...you, I can live without."

If you are at all familiar with how Dee Snider talks, there's no doubting whether or not it's his voice. It's DS through and through.

"People often ask me what I think of current music, and for the past twenty-five years or so I've said the same thing: "Not enough middle finger." Since my heyday, I've liked lots of contemporary heavy music. I even liked grunge--the hair-metal slayer--but in the 1990s and 2000s--and even still today--there's just too much whining and complaining about how life sucks, and not enough middle finger."

Beyond just being a good, straightforward storyteller with amazing tempo and charming self-deprecation, in Shut Up and Give Me the Mic Dee offers us a history lesson: 80's rock-n-roll 101.

The amount of information stuffed in this book is staggering. Contained within are in-depth excerpts about record deal pitfalls, clashing personalities and jaw-dropping scenarios with label execs. With thousands of live shows under TS's belt there's plenty of stage hijinx and humor; like getting banned from all outdoor venues in NYC because poor New Jersey families were forced to listen to a long chorus of crowd-orchestrated "Fuck you's!" on a warm summer night ('unbeknownst to us sound carries really well over water'). In the process of asking his neighbor if he'll perform on the Come Out and Play album, Dee gets berated by Billy Joel for suggesting that metal is not really his thing; "I was playing heavy metal when you were in fucking diapers!" Who knew?

In a chapter that had me in stitches, Dee admits to torturing a much hated Tom Werman--producer on the Stay Hungry album--by shaking Werman's Porsche in the parking lot, thereby forcing Werman to run to the parking lot cursing, go about the arduous and methodical process of de-locking the car at its base, uncovering the car, opening the car, resetting the car alarm; just to hide in the alley and do it again once he knew Werman was comfortable in the studio. Sage relationship wisdom? Not a problem. Footnote: "Hey, if you have to be whipped, let it be by pussy." The book is full of gems and wonderful, unexpected laugh out loud moments. I could actually describe far more without spoiling the book one bit.

I've been a Twisted Sister fan since I saw the video You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll on MTV in the early 80's. And I used to play Stay Hungry in awe of the non-radio-play songs. Like Sabbath, their music was dark, yet had a positive message at its core; and the songs were as strong and solid as any AC/DC number. They were a good, hardworking rock band. Watching Dee speak at the PMRC Senate hearings against censorship only further cemented my admiration and fandom.

Unapologetic in his criticisms of his peers at the time and those who sought to sabotage his work, yet completely grateful for all the good people in his life--first and foremost, his cherished family--Dee combines all the elements of hindsight, hope, humor, regret and deep gratitude to pen an enjoyable read. He's succeeded at a music career, scriptwriting, becoming a t.v. personality, and he wrote a book--praised as one of the best books about growing up--that became a college textbook in then-Soviet Union entitled, Dee Snider's Teenage Survival Guide. I'm telling you, I could go on and on and still not spoil this story!

A true professional, Dee doesn't disappoint with this enlightening and inspiring memoir. Thank you for being a true professional and properly conveying the spirit of a colorful era through your written word. Thank you for your empowering and unwavering commitment to rock-n-roll. - SMFF

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book mostly chronicles the rise and fall of Twisted Sister from Dee Snider's perspective and gives very little beyond that. Maybe there will be a sequel to the book (Mr. Snider hints at it).

Similar to Gene Simmons of KISS, Mr. Snider takes a lot (and I mean a lot) of credit for starting trends in the music and music video industries in addition to hard rock and metal fashions of the 1980s-90s, among many other things. At least he does so with a little bit of humility as he looks back upon his life.

Overall, an interesting read for those of us who grew up during the reign of Twisted Sister and the radio and cultural domination of hard rock and heavy metal. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, though.

[Kaye Bleek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had this book in my collection for a while and finally picked it up a few days ago.
I was a huge Twisted in the 1980’s, I still am, so to read all about how Dee Schneider went from nothing to everything and back again, was extremely interesting.
His honesty and humour in writing the book are refreshing, with none of the “this is how people told me I was as I took drugs or drank too much to remember “ because he is a straight guy who never did these things, worshipped his family and looked out for those who needed help starting up in the industry. He never forgot any of the help anyone gave him, and even now, years later, he’s still going.
If you want an insight into how 80’s metal really started, with hard work and tenacity, read this book

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book on Dee's life. The wins and losses and growing pains of both

I am not much of a reader but have been a TS fan since I was in grade school and a serious fan of Dee himself. I bought his movie and his albums that came out in the 90's... I loved reading this and found it hard to put down. He writes like he talks so I was entertained from the first line. He is honest about everything including about his own character flaws...but if your a true fan you will love his flaws...as it's Dee ,...it's who he is... and he is a solid man, a warrior to be able to survive all the wins and losses in his music career. I never knew. How could we know.. Thanks for sharing your journey to the world.. Your so inspirational and a huge motivator... Sher

[Kramer Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging and funny autobiography, particularly focusing on Dee's time in Twisted Sister. Dee is a good writer, not shying away from giving his personal opinion on much of what went on in Twisted Sister. The one major complaint I have coming out of it is that I don't understand how or if Dee really did win over Suzette. He regularly mentions that their relationship is the highlight of his life, but that in the beginning she had no interest in him and he just managed to win her over, and that now they have an amazing relationship. Well it isn't clear at all that they do have such a relationship. All we hear is that she doesn't want to date him or marry him or move in with him etc. So that was a bit weird. But I'll take Dee's word for it, I guess.

Overall, a fun read!

[Jennifer Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book and a very interesting read. Some may say it is kind of a cautionary tale for people who want to enter the music business. Dee tells it like it is from the beginning starting with his childhood through the long road to success with Twisted Sister to the fall of his career and right to what he did after his last try with Widowmaker.It was kind of his rise and fall and back up again.He goes to show you that life is never easy,but it is good to have loved ones by your side as you go through it.His wife,family,and friends were and are his key support system.He learned from his mistakes and came out of it having learned alot.It was very interesting to see how people in the music industry really act around each other.All in all this was a good book.

[Dwightfryed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had already seen the "We Are Twisted..." Netflix documentary, but this book adds a lot more to that long and inspiring tale of the band slugging it out in the club days from Dee's perspective. He's very driven, descriptive and self-depreciating. The making of the "Come Out and Play" record and ensuing megalomania that Dee found himself gripped in was the high point of the book.

It's a long read, and it doesn't really cover the whole story, ending sort of with Dee down and out, Twisted having broken up, and his couple of post-TS side projects at a standstill. First book of this length that doesn't tell the whole story - otherwise a good read.

[Giles Guest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb.

Started at page 160 because I'd just watched the film about the early years (which is superb BTW).

From there it was brilliant. Self deprecating, self aware, humorous whilst still talking through the lens of a rock star with megalomania. I devoured the book and enjoyed the fact that he was open about the spectacular cliff his career fell off.

Things like The Dirt by Crue or Slash's book are great because they are drug-adled stories. This it totally different and better; he is sober and opinionated so this is far more of an amusing rant for 200 pages. Highly highly recommended.

[Adam Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy is the Forest Gump of hard rock (I tweeted that to him and it made him laugh, so bonus!). He was there at the early days of MTV and testified before Congress about whether the government could regulate musical content. If it happened in the 80s, he was there.

But more than that, the story of Twisted Sister is fascinating. Snider has no shortage of "behind the scenes" stories and his honesty regarding the implosion of his band is refreshing. I wasn't a huge fan of Twisted Sister, but I *loved* this book. Recommended to anyone who enjoys an interesting bio.

[Michael Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic story of a rise and fall and rise again of a true Metal Icon! \m/

Fantastic book, I love how Dee never gave up, no matter what! Twisted Sister was always more than a one hit wonder IMHO, those first 3 albums are stone cold classics! This is a story of positivity and perseverance!

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snider's considerable ego, which drove the rise and fall of Twisted Sister, is on full display in this autobiography. Mostly for better, but sometimes for worse. He admits to a lot of the hubris and that makes the book work, despite it a permeating the writing and informing some cringeworthy passages. Still, would have been amazing to see them in early 80s in Long Island...

[Matteo Zurli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting if you are a fan of 80's hard rock bands.

[Kelly Smith Smart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put this book down!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

About his rise to fame, his future wife made his costumes & designed the Twisted Sister logo. His #1 priority is family...... as it should be. A really good book.

[Chris Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In typical Dee fashion all the straight up honesty you can handle and then some.