Twisted Sister
Good Day Metal Dogs! After making our mandatory time lurch this past weekend, I think I am finally back on track. Daylight savings time can be eliminated anytime and I would be okay with that.
Has BRIAN JOHNSON been ‘kicked to the curb’ by AC/DC? That’s the claim by comedian and friend of the AC/DC singer, Jim Breuer, who says that Johnson spoke to AC/DC management and Angus Young to explain the situation with his hearing loss, that he didn’t think it’s as bad as the doctor said it is, but “literally the next day in the press, it was ‘Brian Johnson, tour canceled, he’s losing his hearing.'”
Breuer added that despite Johnson being in the band for 36 years, he still felt like a hired gun. Johnson also believes that Young, who is seven years his junior, wants to keep AC/DC going for another decade. “[Brian] explained how Angus is the youngest guy in the band,” Breuer said. “He’s convinced Angus wants to continue the next ten years whether it’s him or not. [Angus] wants to write another album and do one more tour. Who’s filling those shoes? How do you do that after forty years? It’s just really weird.”
CINDERELLA bassist Eric Brittingham doesn’t think Tom Keifer is coming back to the band, saying in a recent interview, “That is the big question. It’s, like, what are we doing? It’s been four years now that Tom’s been on his own. We’re not making any new music [and] he is, so I guess that’s probably the answer right there.”
Happy Birthday to TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider. He turns 61 today. Did you know that during the mid-80’s, before the premiere of Headbangers Ball, the first MTV program to consist entirely of heavy metal videos was ‘Heavy Metal Mania’ and was hosted by Dee Snider? Check out a short video promo of the show from 1985 below and note the cameo of a recently deceased metal legend at the :16 mark.
Occasionally you may hear a voice on METAL SHOP saying things like “That metal music is good for the soul and colon” or “Let’s put the fun back in funeral my friend.” That voice belongs to my longtime friend, Dan Jungle Rooster McCutcheon, who is celebrating another year above ground today. Happy Birthday Dan F!
Happy Birthday to Radovan Jakovljevic listening to METAL SHOP in New York.
That’s the latest in the world of 80’s metal and hard rock for now. Thanks to everyone for participating, liking, or lurking. Have a kick ass Tuesday!
Hello 80’s metalheads, lurkers, and surfers! There is word again of a possible DOKKEN reunion, this time from former bassist, Jeff Pilson, who says “we’re actually working really hard to try and pull something together right now. It has to fall in spaces where there is time off [from my gig with Foreigner], so I don’t know for sure whether it’s gonna happen. So let’s just say we’re all friendly now, we’re all past all the decades-old crap, and we all talk and everything’s great. Now it really is just down to scheduling and trying to figure it out. Because, you know, you’ve gotta do it right, if you’re gonna do it. We all feel that way. Pilson continued; “We shared something very special together. I think we’re all at the point in life where we kind of appreciate it now. And if we ever get a chance to do some more with it, I think… It would be very interesting, because we’ve never been in a situation where there wasn’t animosity, so I don’t know. [Laughs] Maybe it won’t work. I don’t know. [Laughs]”
In case you missed it, Sammy Hagar (The Red Rocker) made some interesting claims in this Dan Rather interview clip released over the weekend, saying “I was really as big as VAN HALEN.” Click Here to watch the video.
Man, I love the rockumentaries coming out now on some of the 80’s metal and hard rocks bands and how they really capture the hunger of the early days. The QUIET RIOT one was really good and now TWISTED SISTER is out today. Check out a clip of ‘We Are Twisted F***ing Sister’ at this location – Click Here.
Happy Birthday to QUEENSRŸCHE Guitarist Michael Wilton. He turns 54 today. Did you know he is also known as ‘The Whip,’ for how fast his fingers “whip” around the guitar fretboard? After original Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo left the band in 1998, Wilton gradually began performing most of the songs that previously featured DeGarmo doing the main solo live, including “Silent Lucidity”, “The Mission”, “En Force”, “I Am I”, “Take Hold of the Flame”, “Best I Can”, “The Killing Words”, “Bridge”, “The Lady Wore Black” and “Anybody Listening?”, amongst others.
Happy Birthday to Andres Moreno listening to METAL SHOP in Bogotá, Colombia and Jacob Kulhanek listening in Houston, Texas.
Have a terrific Tuesday and never stop rockin’!
We lost some hair along the way, gained a couple of pounds, got no retirement plans because we didn’t plan on living this long, but we can still rock hard and if you look at it sideways we can still kick your ass like it ain’t no thing, so let’s toast the weekend about to start.
Happy Birthday to BLACK SABBATH Guitarist Tony Iommi. He turns 68 today. Did you know Iommi briefly played in Jethro Tull? Yes, for one performance, before returning to his bandmates (Ozzy, Geezer and Ward), who were known as ‘Earth’ back then before changing their name to Black Sabbath. Sabbath’s “The End” tour stops in Detroit, Michigan tonight.
I just don’t think TWISTED SISTER’s Dee Snider can help himself. Right or wrong, he doesn’t beat around the bush, this time saying he doesn’t ‘get’ how ‘murderer’ Vince Neil ‘didn’t do any serious jail time’ when his drunk-driving car crash killed HANOI ROCKS drummer Razzle in 1984. Snider continued: “And people are cool with that. They’re like, ‘Yeah, all right! Rock ‘n’ roll!!’ And the guy didn’t do any serious jail time. I’m, like, ‘Really? Really? He’s a murderer.’ I don’t get that at all.”
Vivian Campbell was asked if he and Ronnie James DIO ever got to mend fences prior to the singer’s 2010 death. He responded: “No. I never got to talk to Ronnie again afterwards, unfortunately. Actually, we only talked to each other through the press, which is never, ever, ever a good idea. We were both guilty of saying really stupid and hurtful things. I’d like to think that we would have made up. I think if Ronnie and I had bumped into each other on the street, I think after a couple of minutes, we might have agreed to go to the pub for a pint and we could have probably worked things out.”
From one split-up to another, Sammy Hagar explained yesterday that he reached out to Eddie Van Halen on Twitter last month on Eddie’s birthday because of the recent deaths of David Bowie and Glenn Frey, saying “It just makes you stop and think that, you know, with my relationship with Eddie Van Halen and stuff that’s always been in the toilet, it makes you say, ‘I don’t want to be buried with any regrets or bad vibes like that.’ It makes you want to be just friends with everybody and say, ‘Hey, look, forget it.’ Even if you don’t want to be in a band together, just let’s be friends. No more enemies for me. You don’t want to go to your grave with enemies. So that’s what it’s done for me. It woke me up and said, ‘no more enemies.’ And before I die, I won’t have any, if I have my way.”
Speaking of Sammy Hagar, it was yesterday in 1977 when he was booed off the stage while opening for KISS. Hagar responded to the crowd with “F— you,” and then proceeded to drop his pants and pull out his wang before smashing his ’61 Stratocaster guitar to pieces and walking offstage. Check out the whole story – Click Here
On this date in 1980, AC/DC singer Bon Scott died after a night of heavy drinking. Left to sleep it off in a friend’s car, he was found dead in the car the next morning. The official coroner’s report labeled his demise as “death by misadventure” and “acute alcohol poisoning. He was 33 years old. R.I.P.
Today in 1982, Ozzy Osbourne was arrested in San Antonio, Texas for urinating on the Alamo. He was wearing a dress at the time of his arrest (his wife Sharon had hid all his clothes so he couldn’t go outside). Ozzy apparently thought he was relieving himself on a pile of rubble and was subsequently banned from ever playing in San Antonio, Texas again, (the ban was lifted in 1992).
On this date in 1992, GUNS N’ ROSES played the first of three nights at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan as part of the ‘Use Your Illusion’ Tour and today in 1995, MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee married Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson, who was wearing a white bikini, on a beach in Cancun, Mexico. They married only four days after meeting and had videotaped their sexual activities while on vacation, which was later stolen and released on the Internet. The couple divorced in 1998.
Tomorrow (Feb. 20, 2003), marks 13 years since the Station Nightclub Fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island. GREAT WHITE was performing that night, where 99 people died in the fire sparked by pyrotechnics.
Former WHITESNAKE and DIO guitarist Doug Aldrich is celebrating a birthday today. He turns 52.
Happy Birthday to Jessica McNear listening to METAL SHOP in Tennessee and Siva Prasad listening in India.
Don’t forget METAL SHOP is on 24/7…. that means weekends too, so listen on the website, find us on TuneIn, or download the app to listen on your phone. Great thing to have. If you like more Hair in your metal, you can also check out our sister station HAIR BAND RADIO.
Welcome to a Wednesday 80’s Metal Dogs! Sometimes I do miss my mullet. I started growing it around 1985 and now I can’t grow anything, but bald is beautiful too 🙂
The term “supergroup” gets thrown around on a regular basis these days, however, a new tour featuring some of the greatest guitarists of all time is about to truly give the term a whole new meaning. It’s called “Generation Axe” and features Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi. There will be 26 performances in North America, beginning April 5th in Seattle.
Next week, the new documentary, We Are Twisted F***ing Sister!, which focuses on the 10 years the group spent playing as a full-time bar band before finally making it big, will be released on DVD, VOD and digital download (Feb. 23). Dee Snider recently discussed the movie saying, “If you’re from the Northeast, there’s a reference and understanding of the importance of Twisted Sister. That’s why you’ll see bands like Cinderella and Bon Jovi, Kix and Poison, Anthrax and Overkill. When they talk about Twisted, it’s like they’re talking about somebody that’s in their band. People from the West Coast, and overseas and South America, they get confused — ‘this is the band with two songs?’ The bands I mentioned, growing up in the Northeast, they were aware of the Twisted presence and the Twisted influence over these bands. So many of them would get in line with thousands of others to see Twisted Sister in a bar or a club, packed to the rafters to see this band. It’s great for that story to finally be made available.”
AC/DC released their debut album (only in Australia) ‘High Voltage’ today in 1975. The album featured ‘She’s Got Balls’ which was written about singer Bon Scott’s ex-wife Irene. At some point, she had complained he had never written a song about her; lead guitarist Angus Young said: “So he wrote She’s Got Balls and she left him!”
KING DIAMOND also released their debut album “Fatal Portrait” in 1986 and today in 1984, MEGADETH played their first-ever show at Ruthie’s Inn in Berkeley, California. The line-up consisted of Dave Mustaine on guitar, David Ellefson on bass, Kerry King on guitar and Lee Rausch on drums. Check out the original flyer below.
At the peak of the hair band run, David Coverdale married actress Tawny Kitaen (known for her provocative appearances in Whitesnake’s music videos ‘Here I Go Again, ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Still of the Night’) today in 1989. The couple divorced in 1991.
Finally, here’s a fun time suck – 100 Metal Facts You Might Not Know, including Rob Halford worked at a porno movie theatre before he joined JUDAS PRIEST and early era IRON MAIDEN singer Dennis Wilcock quitting the band because the other members wouldn’t follow his lead and don KISS-inspired makeup, and this one… Between his stints in METALLICA and MEGADETH, Dave Mustaine worked as a telemarketer… “Hello me, meet the real me and will Tuesday at 4pm work for me to come by and demonstrate our new vacuum cleaner?” Click Here for more.
If you are on twitter, be sure to follow METAL SHOP there for songs now playing and ALL the latest 80’s Metal/Hair Band News – Click Here.
Now go rock the day and thanks for listening!
Blabbermouth.net: In his new autobiography, “Shut Up And Give Me The Mic”, Dee Snider of TWISTED SISTER has nothing nice to say about KROKUS, the veteran hard rockers from Switzerland. For an entire chapter, he rages about KROKUS, calls the band “Crapus” and states: “You have no idea how close you came landing on the bottom of a lake.”
The reason for his outburst: KROKUS commissioned Snider’s wife Suzette in 1982 to sew stage outfits for the band’s U.S. tour, but the former KROKUS manager refused to pay her for her services.
“These guys ripped off my wife and threatened her,” says Snider, who points out that his wife’s mother emigrated from Switzerland.
“I was proud of this rock band from the home country of my mother,” says Suzette. But the pride has turned into rage.
KROKUS bassist/producer Chris Von Rohr recalls: “The clothes did not match at all our expectations. Too much harlequin style. So we made a bonfire of it.”
Many years have passed and KROKUS are older and wiser. “If we have not treated his wife with due respect, we are sorry,” Von Rohr says
Von Rohr proposes to Dee and his wife to bury the hatchet and drink a beer or two together at a festival this year where both bands will perform in reconciliation of an event that happened over 30 years ago.
Swiss newspaper Blick reached Snider by phone and submitted KROKUS’ peace offer. “If they are serious, I think it’s a nice gesture,” says Snider. “But I have to ask my wife first if she is ready to forgive KROKUS.”
KROKUS Vocalist Calls DEE SNIDER Feud ‘Childish’ And ‘Ridiculous’
Blabbermouth.net: In a recent interview with “The Metal Voice” (see video below), KROKUS vocalist Marc Storace responded to Snider’s comments, saying: “This is so childish. We gave her a chance. I mean, how do you do?! Before you buy a truckload of wine, you wanna taste a bottle. SO we just wanted to have samples… to see some clothes. And our tour manager, L.D., he sent off the sizes and… I can’t even remember the details; it’s ridiculous. In the end, she came with the stuff, we tried it on, and it looked horrible. I’m sorry. I mean, I’m sorry. And they got so offended, and it was such a great insult to them. And they wanted their money. And L.D. said, ‘Hey, we’re not buying. Keep the clothes. Sorry. No deal.'”
KROKUS bassist/producer Chris Von Rohr recently recalled: “The clothes did not match at all our expectations. Too much harlequin style. So we made a bonfire of it.”
Many years have passed and KROKUS are older and wiser. “If we have not treated his wife with due respect, we are sorry,” Von Rohr said.
Von Rohr proposed to Dee and his wife to bury the hatchet and drink a beer or two together at a festival this year where both bands will perform in reconciliation of an event that happened over 30 years ago.
Swiss newspaper Blick reached Snider by phone and submitted KROKUS’ peace offer. “If they are serious, I think it’s a nice gesture,” said Snider. “But I have to ask my wife first if she is ready to forgive KROKUS.”
Blabbermouth.net: (TWISTED SISTER guitarist Jay Jay French) “While most of the world thinks that TWISTED SISTER started in 1984, there are those who know a much different story.”
“Within the next year, a documentary about the history of the first 10 years of TWISTED SISTER will finally be exhibited from the [German] filmmaker Andy Horn.”
“Because of the sheer number of super-sized night clubs that started operating in the tri-state area around 1976, there exists a fan base that only knew us with me, Dee [Snider, vocals], Eddie [Ojeda, guitar] and, for a short time, bassist Ken Neill (with an assortment of changing drummers).”
“However, before that, TWISTED SISTER played hundreds of shows at places like the Mad Hatter in East Quouge, Mr. T’s & Maxis in Wantagh, in Long Island, The Satellite Lounge, The Wreck Room, Dodd’s, The Colony III, The Joker II, The Searchlite, Spruce Goose, The Capricorn and the George Inn in NJ and the Sahara located in Adams, Massachusetts.
“It was clear to me early on that the first version of the band was never going to make it. None of the members, except Kenny, had what it takes. The lack of focus, professionalism and raw talent of the fist version became obvious and the proof is that of all the original five members, I alone remain standing.
“In those days, you played in one club for three-six nights in a row. In the case of the Mad Hatter in East Quouge, we played 78 nights between May and September.
“So here then, for the first time, is the show schedule of TWISTED SISTER’s first year. While rehearsals were well under way in February, the first dates began 40 years ago in March, 1973.
“Have fun. Maybe some of you remember!”