Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister was an American heavy metal band originally from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based in Long Island, New York. Twisted Sister’s best-known hits include “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock”, which had music videos noted for their sense of slapstick humor. Many of the band’s songs explore themes of parent vs. child conflicts and criticisms of the educational system.
Although the band is often considered glam metal for its image, frontman Dee Snider considers the term to be inappropriate. Twisted Sister are also ranked No. 73 in VH1’s 100 greatest artists of hard rock.
In 1998, the band recorded a song for the soundtrack of Snider’s movie Strangeland. In 1999, Spitfire Records re-issued the group’s back catalog, supplemented with previously unreleased tracks. This was followed by Club Daze Volume 1: The Studio Sessions, an album containing demo recordings from the pre-Under the Blade era, which has three songs that were written by French, this was the first time someone other than Snider was writing songs, and Club Daze Volume 2: Live In The Bars, a live counterpart.
In 2001, Koch Records released a tribute album under the name Twisted Forever: A Tribute To The Legendary Twisted Sister. The album featured a wide range of artists and bands who had been influenced by Twisted Sister, including Lit, Motörhead, Chuck D, Anthrax, Overkill, Cradle of Filth, Joan Jett, Sebastian Bach, and HammerFall. Oddly for a tribute album, Twisted Sister was also present with a cover of AC/DC’s “Sin city”.
In November 2001, the reunited Twisted Sister joined fellow New York metal artists Anthrax, Overkill, Sebastian Bach, and Ace Frehley to headline a benefit concert for NYPD and FDNY Widows and Orphans Fund in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. New York Steel raised over $100,000 for the charity, and the reaction to the first Twisted Sister set in 14 years was overwhelming. The demand for more live dates was immediate, and the band took the first steps toward returning to the concert stage.
In 2002, a remastered “best of” compilation named Essentials was released. Fans generally consider this to be a better compilation than the one previously issued by Atlantic.
2002 also saw the featuring of “I Wanna Rock” as one of the gameplay radio songs on the videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The song features in the playlist of the fictional radio station “V Rock”.
Twisted Sister, this time including Mark Mendoza, reunited again for the Sweden Rock Festival in June 2003. The band also appeared in August of that same year at the Wacken Open Air festival. Footage from that show was filmed for a DVD release, which featured former Violent Apathy and Spite member, Tom Fuller.
In March 2004, the band entered the studio to completely re-record the group’s Stay Hungry album for Demolition Records. The band members reported that they were not happy with the original album’s production, so this time they produced it themselves. The re-recording was released under the name Still Hungry and contained seven bonus tracks.
In July 2005, the group played a free concert in Edmonton for the Klondike Days festival. In late 2005, Snider appeared on Numbers from the Beast: An All-Star Tribute to Iron Maiden, performing vocals for the Iron Maiden classic “Wasted Years”. Snider was joined by his contemporaries and peers George Lynch, formerly of Dokken, and Bob Kulick. Also in 2005, the band released the 2003 Wacken show on CD and DVD simply titled Live at Wacken. It also went on tour with Alice Cooper, acting as the support band but delivering a set similar to a headliner’s.
In 2006, Snider and French worked with Lordi to produce and play on a few tracks on their new album The Arockalypse. Snider was featured on the first track, “SCG3 Special Report”, as the voice of Lordi warning of the upcoming Arockalypse. French guest starred on the song “Chainsaw Buffet”. In June 2006, the band announced that it had signed with the American record label Razor and Tie to release a final CD, of heavy metal Christmas music called A Twisted Christmas. The CD was released on October 17, 2006, and was a commercial success. On July 8, 2006, Twisted Sister played in front of 80,000 people in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The show featured Scorpions as the headliner. It also played a small concert at the Wolverhampton Civic Center.
The group is still together and occasionally makes small tours around the world, in full makeup. Before each of these mini-tours, they perform as Bent Brother, practicing their set and appearing without makeup, usually at reduced ticket prices.
Twisted Sister was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006. On December 13, 2006, Twisted Sister made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The group performed its rock version of “O Come All Ye Faithful”, is arranged in the style of “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. On December 22, 2006, Twisted Sister appeared on CBS’s The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, performing their rock version of “O Come All Ye Faithful”. On an episode of Snider’s syndicated radio program “The House of Hair”, he stated that due to the success of the Christmas album, and also due to the response to the tour promoting the album, that Twisted Sister might not retire, and the band’s future was being discussed.
On July 15, 2007, Twisted Sister performed at glam metal festival Rocklahoma.
Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock” was featured in the game Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s as a playable song (instead of being a cover like several songs featured in the game, it was the version from the 2004 remake of the group’s classic album Stay Hungry, titled Still Hungry).
In 2008, Snider appeared on the CMT television show Gone Country. On February 25, 2008, Twisted Sister performed at “Aftermath – The Station Fire 5 years later” in Providence, Rhode Island. On May 10, 2008, Twisted Sister performed a free concert at the Bulgarian town Lovech. On July 13, 2008, Twisted Sister performed at Snatch Rock n Roll Lounge, in Calgary, Alberta. On September 1, 2008, Twisted Sister performed at the Rock The Bayou Festival in Houston, Texas.
On June 4, 2009, Twisted Sister performed Stay Hungry in its entirety for the first time at the Sweden Rock Festival. This included never before played songs such as “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Horror-Teria: Street Justice”.
On July 16, 2009, in an interview on Live with Regis and Kelly, Snider said that 2009 was the last year that the band would perform with makeup and costumes.
On February 16, 2010, Twisted Sister were confirmed to play at Bloodstock Open Air 2010. On July 15, 2011, Twisted Sister were confirmed to play at Masters of Rock.
Twisted Sister performed at Copenhell 2014 in Denmark to an audience of 20,000 as part of the group’s Stay Hungry 30th Anniversary World Tour. This was the group’s first show in Denmark in 30 years. The Twisted Sister show was praised as one of the best concert performances. The band was “..As Sharp, Crazy and Witty as 30 years ago” according to the Danish press.[citation needed]
On October 13, 2011, the band announced a five-disk DVD set of live performances over the group’s entire career entitled From the Bars to the Stars, with a release date of November 8.
Former Twisted Sister drummer Richard Teeter, who had played with the band in 1980 and 1981, died from complications due to esophageal cancer on April 10, 2012.
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