During a recent interview with Speak & Destroy, TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider spoke about early days of METALLICA and how his band influenced a lot of thrash metal bands of that era.
Dee said about METALLICA: “Watching them in Holland, turning to my bass player, I went, ‘You know, these guys got a lot of heart, but they’re never going to go anywhere.’
“I couldn’t imagine that something so heavy could cross over and become accepted, and they did it on their own terms. I told them, I have nothing but respect for METALLICA, they didn’t give an inch along the way, very impressive.”
After interviewer pointed out that “they didn’t go to the mainstream, the mainstream came to them,” Snider said: “Very much so, I remember looking at our albums, we were touring together, and it was distributed by WEA, their distribution block was about this thick and blocked out Lars’ face… I mean, they had individual deals with every different distribution company of the world, and I remember going, ‘These guys, they’ve not budged.’ ‘You want our record? It’s on our own terms.’”
“That scene was happening out there in the Bay Area while we had our own scene happening in the Northeast, with TWISTED, BON JOVI coming in, CINDERELLA, POISON, that takes all those bands that were inspired by Twisted,” he continued. “But also OVERKILL, ANTHRAX, those bands, they’ll tell you straight out, Twisted Sister fans to the core, and vast inspiration to play fast.”
Speaking if James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine invented a style of guitar playing that has continued, Snider said: “Probably more Mustaine. I mean, James couldn’t even play guitar in the beginning. He fronted the band. And, I mean, really, credit where credit’s due, I’m not taking anything away from James, and the ground he’s broken and the band has broken — but I would say it was more from Mustaine even – because James was learning guitar.”
When asked if Mustaine did all the talking at the early METALLICA shows, Dee responded: “Yeah, and until I went back and listened to the EP that one of James‘s major influences was Vince Neil from MÖTLEY CRÜE — did you know that? Well, now you’ve heard that. Listen, they’re from LA, listen to his vocal style on that first EP, it was way more — little more Neils-ily, little less, ‘Yeah!’ A little less down there, little more up there, and hey, everybody’s got their influences.”
