The original twisted sister returns with his Rock & Roll Christmas Tale

Dee Snider brings merry holiday musical to Toronto's Winter Garden Theatre

Dee Snider, the headbanging, makeup-wearing shrieker of ’80s heavy metal stalwarts Twisted Sister, says, “Being a headbanger is like being a marine. Once a headbanger, always a headbanger.”

Torontonians will have the chance to see Snider in the holiday production Dee Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale at the Winter Garden Theatre from Nov. 17 to Jan. 3.

“It started as a concept album,” says the outgoing Snider, who has a wicked sense of humour. 

“We had done a Christmas album called Twisted Christmas, and it was one of our biggest sellers. Then I was on broadway, in Rock of Ages. I asked the director if he would look at it, and he came back and said, ‘Dude, this is a musical. It should be written as a musical.’ ”

Snider wrote the script and admits his otherworldly fondness for the holiday season.

“I sang in the church choir until I was 19,” he says. “Then I met my wife. She’s Italian, and Christmas became a whole other level of crazy.”

The musical tells the story of Daisy Cutter, a heavy metal bar band looking to make it big, though the ’80s are long over. The band tries to sell their rock solid souls to the devil for a taste of stardom, but instead their headbanging anthems turn into heart-warming carols. How frustrating is that?

“I would go to these Christmas shows, and it always seemed like someone was left out,” says Snider, who has his own podcast as well as the reality show Growing Up Twisted.

“There was nothing with rock ’n’ roll at its heart.”

But how does the theatre compare to a good, old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll show?

“During a rock show, I’m running around a lot and falling down a lot and jumping and leaping,” says Snider. “But I do miss the crazy makeup. I love the eyeshadow, the nail polish.”

It was Snider who taught his daughter how to put on nail polish. “Hey, I did it five nights a week for almost 20 years!”

When asked what he misses most about the glory days, he does not hesitate: “Spandex! They are the greatest freaking things in the world,” he says. “They are form-fitting, they are so comfortable. I often wear them around the house!”

The band Twisted Sister scored a pair of massive hits in the mid-’80s, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.” But the band couldn’t sustain that momentum, and when grunge music came along, Snider says he just ran out of money. 

“I lost everything,” he says. But things changed, thanks to Celine Dion (whom he calls “St. Celine”). A producer called him and said the Canadian singer wanted to cover a Christmas song Snider wrote. “The first thing I said was, ‘Don’t tell her who wrote it!’” 

“The Magic of Christmas Day (God Bless Us Everyone)” went on to sell eight million copies and was on Rosie O’Donnell’s Christmas album, selling another two million.

Snider has moved to Toronto full-time to prepare for the production. He recently celebrated his 34th wedding anniversary in Toronto with his wife (who is also the costume designer for the show) at Buca in the Four Seasons Hotel.

He has the Toronto bug.

“I’m wearing a Blue Jays ball cap now. I watched the election,” he says. “I just know the sort of handsome dude won.”

For more information on the show, visit their website.

Article exclusive to STREETS OF TORONTO