TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider has opened up about why he decided to return to the stage with the band, nearly a decade after the group’s “40 And F**k It!” farewell tour, despite his past criticisms of KISS and MÖTLEY CRÜE reunions as cash grabs.
In a new interview with Steve And Rik’s POTcast, hosted by Steve Whiteman of KIX and his friend Rik Parks, Snider explained that the reunion was sparked by personal circumstances. He said (via Blabbermouth): “Why am I doing a reunion with TWISTED SISTER? [Sighs] I’ll say that it was my idea. The [other] guys [in the band] couldn’t even believe I was making the call. And it had to do with — I said this publicly already — I had a little bit of a health scare. It was okay, and it was okay, but it was enough to make me say, ‘Wow, that was weird.’ I never had to think about those things before. And I’m 70 years old, and I’m, like, ‘Do I wanna go out like that, go silently, or do I wanna go kicking and screaming?’ And I picked up the phone and I called up John [TWISTED SISTER’s founding guitarist Jay Jay French] and Eddie [Ojeda, TWISTED SISTER‘s longtime guitarist], Jay Jay and Eddie, and said, ‘What do you think about getting together?’ And they couldn’t believe I was suggesting it, ’cause I told ’em,'[It’s] not happening. [It will] never happen.’ But circumstances, particularly [since] this was emotional circumstances, made me change my mind. Am I regretting it? A little bit right now, sorry to say. [Laughs]”
Snider also spoke candidly about his current vocal abilities and the challenges of performing a full-length TWISTED SISTER set. He admitted: “I know that I’ve lost a note. My voice is powerful as f**k. But I’m missing my top notes, and I hate that. I hate that because I know where they were… So I don’t like that fact that I’ve lost a note or two on the top. And damn if I’m not aching. I was always aching back in the day, but it’s a different kind of aching. And I don’t like that either.”
He added further context about performing shorter sets versus full shows: “People go, ‘Damn, dude.’ I go out there [and make guest appearances] with [POISON frontman] Bret Michaels or Lita Ford or whoever, and people go, ‘Holy crap, man. Your voice sounds as strong as ever. And you haven’t missed a step.’ I go, ‘For four songs. Yeah, I’m great for four songs. But 90 minutes, 75 minutes, 60 minutes. That’s a lot.’ But, yeah, it’s a lot to carry. So, I’m gonna start. I’ve got like a local band. I moved to North Carolina now. I built a family compound. So I’ve got everybody here. But I’m gonna start weekly rehearsing the set with a local band, just to get going.”
When Whiteman called Snider “brave” for returning to the stage after nearly a decade, the singer reflected on the physical and emotional aspects of performing TWISTED SISTER at their peak: “I’m [either] brave or stupid. Up till TWISTED‘s retirement, and we did that in 2016 — I mean, first of all, I was 175 pounds, and I was shredded. I had a 29-inch waist. I was 62 years old, and people were going, ‘What the actual f**k is going on there?’ And I’d take my shirt off at every show and people would go, ‘Damn, look at that guy.’ I saw wives hitting their husbands, going, ‘Why don’t you look like that?’ But what I really loved is the smiles, man. When you hit start singing and you are on and you’re still delivering, the audience would just light up. And I’d see fathers doing like this to their sons, going, ‘That’s Dee f**king Snider.’ They were being transported back to their youth through the performance. And it was the way they remembered it and I looked the way they remembered. And I loved that. And I walked away and said, ‘Okay, I don’t wanna ever see a look of dissatisfaction.'”
“Somebody was reviewing our show and said, ‘When a reunion is good, it makes you feel young again,” he continued. “When it’s bad, it makes you realize how old you’ve gotten.’ And I wanna be the first part. And the review was, like, ‘TWISTED SISTER made me feel I was 19.’ But I never wanna be that guy where people go, ‘Yeah, time’s passed,’ and make people feel old, just looking at me on stage.”
Snider concluded by stressing the responsibility he feels to fans: “But, yeah, I feel a great weight to make sure I’m in shape, to make sure my voice in shape and start rehearsing those three, four, five, 10 songs, to get there and not let people down. I don’t wanna do it.”
TWISTED SISTER recently announced its first reunion concerts as part of the band’s 50th-anniversary tour, including appearances at major European festivals such as Sweden Rock, Copenhell, and Graspop Metal Meeting in 2026.
The reunion lineup will feature the band’s three core members: Snider, Jay Jay French, and Eddie Ojeda. Bassist Mark “The Animal” Mendoza will not participate, with Russell Pzütto, a longtime member of Snider’s solo projects, filling in on bass. Drummer Joe Franco, who briefly played with the band in the mid-1980s, will step in for A.J. Pero, who passed away in 2015 at age 55.
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