Shut Up and Give Me the Mic (75 page)

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Photos 1–4: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photo 1: © Sal Di Bennetto

Photo 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection.

Photo credit: Laurie Palahnek

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Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

Photo 3: © Sal Di Bennetto

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Photo 1: © Sal Di Bennetto

Photo 3: © Chip Rock

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Photos 1–4: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photo 1: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

Photo 2: © Mark Weiss

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Photos 1–3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photo 1: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

Photo 2: © Mark Weiss

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Photo 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photo 1: © Mark Weiss

Photo 2 and 3: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

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Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

Photo 3: © Bruce Dworkin

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Photos 1 and 2: Courtesy of the author’s personal collection

Photo 3: © Jeff Katz, Los Angeles Studio

Chapter 1

1
. He was the host of a Saturday-morning kids’ show that had up-and-coming rock bands on from time to time.

Chapter 3

1
. For those wondering, after a television-less year, my father finally had enough “puzzle making” and one night stormed out of the house with a simple “That’s it!” He came home a short time later carrying two new televisions. We were reconnected!

2
. Paul Revere and the Raiders are one of the original “garage rock” bands out of Portland, Oregon, and the first to record the federal-government-investigated “Louie, Louie.”

3
. Sue turned me on to Deep Purple’s
Machine Head
—an early metal album—and was into Alice Cooper before I was.

Chapter 4

1
. Oddly, I believe it’s that undefinable quality that has allowed me to appeal to so many different types of people over the years. Even my religion and politics are blurred. Go online and you will find I’m Jewish, Christian, a satanist, a Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, and Independent, heralded and reviled at the same time by supporting and opposing groups! I love it!

2
. Mannello went on to become Don Fury, legendary New York City hardcore-music producer. I’m proud of you, Don!

3
. I ultimately finished high school a classically trained countertenor, making All County, All State, and All Eastern Seaboard Choirs (making me one of the three hundred top high school voices on the East Coast), and received a 6A rating, the highest rating from the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA). The only negative on my rating card was the comment “Moves too much.”

4
. Randy Jackson, guitarist/lead singer of Zebra, told Atlantic record company mogul Jason in 1982, “Twisted Sister is the best live performing band in the world. We can’t touch ’em and neither can anyone else.” After seeing the band that night, Jason said, “The band (Twisted Sister) . . . put on one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen (and I’ve pretty much seen them all).”

5
. As much as they used to beg, they eventually grew to love metal. My brother Mark became the producer and writer of the legendary, hugely popular eighties syndicated-radio metal show
Metal Shop
. I was so proud.

Chapter 5

1
. Phil was called Wha because every time someone talked to him, he responded, “Wha?” (Get it?)

Chapter 7

1
. Credit to Alice Cooper for the T-shirt idea. It was a play on an old airline commercial where stewardesses—that’s what they called them back then—looked into camera and said, “I’m Cindy . . . fly me.”

2
. Leslie West, a childhood hero of mine, has since become a dear friend.

3
. Back then, your record company would often pay for you to be on a tour, and those costs were billed against your account.

4
. To Twisted Sister’s credit, we chose the latter and chose it early.

5
. I used to get upset when people called me a fag, homo, or gay, getting into confrontations and fights. Considering how I used to dress and what I looked like, what did I expect them to call me, “Macho”?

Chapter 8

1
. Hey, if you have to be whipped, let it be by pussy.

2
. It’s been said if you want to know what the girl you’re with is going to look like when she’s older, take a look at her mom. Suzette’s mom was a thirty-eight-year-old knockout.
Check!

Chapter 9

1
. Discussing with Suzette the insanity of what I got away with, she is quick to point out that her mother trusted me and knew I was a good guy. Jeanette was right on both accounts, but still . . .

2
. To this day, after all the songs I’ve written and the millions of albums I’ve sold, I still feel great discomfort showing a new song idea to anybody. Not as bad as that day with Jay Jay, but I still feel very vulnerable having to do it.

Chapter 10

1
. My father was a yeller. I hated the way he would talk to my mom, and I used to pray as kid that I wouldn’t grow up to be like him. In spite of that, as I got older, I fell into the same pattern with my girlfriends, screaming at them just as my old man did to my mom. It took a fifteen-year-old Suzette all of one almost-leap from my car and the words “If you ever talk to me like that again, I’m out of here!” to cure me of that. Oddly, my prayers were answered.

2
. I only recently found out that my wife never liked my voice. When I expressed shock at this, Suzette responded, “You know my favorite singer is Steve Perry from Journey. What about that would make you think I would like your singing?”
Ouch.

3
. Twisted always made a point of taking off most holidays so we could enjoy the day and spend time with our families. We still do. We were to have the part of the “house band” in Rodney Dangerfield’s movie
Back to School
, but passed because it meant being away from home at Christmas. Apparently Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo didn’t care about things like that.
Heathens.

Chapter 11

1
. Though never released on an official Twisted Sister major label LP, “Pay the Price” can be found on Twisted’s
Club Daze Volume 1: The Studio Sessions
CD in its demo form. Though not the sound we ultimately became known for, it’s still a good song. Especially for my first.

Chapter 12

1
. Formerly going under the names The Rock Pile and The Action House. Some of the most legendary bands in rock history had played there, including Jimi Hendrix and Cream.

Chapter 14

1
. You can see Twisted Sister’s name on the marquee of the Calderone for the convention on the DVD extra “History of the
Rocky Horror Show
.”

Chapter 15

1
. Years later, Twisted Sister would forbid Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker from using “I Wanna Rock” as his intro music after a particularly scathing racist tirade of his was published in
Sports Illustrated
.

2
. I didn’t remember them opening or even seeing them that night, as I was always backstage getting ready for our show. When we toured together years later, they told me about their opening. Someone eventually sent me the ad from the local paper a few years ago.
Amazing.

3
. From this point forward, Joe Gerber’s name will be popping up frequently. So frequently in fact that my editors decided there would be no need to continually reintroduce him every time he is mentioned. That’s just as well, given how many titles he held. Joe began as our Road Manager (Joe essentially functioning as our day-to-day manager). He eventually earned Co-Manager status. At various points along the way, Joe also served as Tour Manager, Stage Manager, Production Manager, Monitor Engineer, Lighting Designer/Board Operator, Advance Man, Security Director, Video Liaison/Supervisor, Executive Tour Manager, Travel Agent, Truck Driver, Bus Driver, Indie Record Company President/Field Rep/Distributor, Merchandise Salesman, Enforcer, Bookkeeper, Bouncer, Bail Bondsman, Consigliere, Confidant, Father Confessor, and Designated Scapegoat. You get the idea. Whatever needed to be done, he did it . . .
he’s my dear friend and will be a great supporting role for some actor in the film adaptation of this book.

Chapter 16

1
. The only song I ever wrote on the guitar is “Destroyer” on Twisted Sister’s first album. Though a longtime fan favorite, it does underline my limitations as a player.

2
. I feel the best stuff I’ve ever done was with a band called Desperado. The project was shelved in 1989 by our label (more on that later) at the eleventh hour and didn’t see the light of day until recently, on a small indie label. Seek out “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

3
. The club Detroit has often been confused with the city. It’s not. It was named after a great Good Rats song called “Takin’ It to Detroit” (which is about the great rock city of Detroit), used as the club’s theme song on commercials. Confusing, I know. New York club-goers referred to it as “Detroits,” as in “Hey, youse goin’ tuh Detroit’s tonight tuh see Twisted?” Adorable.

4
. Detroit was one of the growing “megaclubs” built to handle the massive, young audiences turning out to see the bigger area bands such as Twisted Sister. It was cavernous and held close to fifteen hundred people.

Chapter 17

1
. We hired a top Manhattan ad agency, at great expense, to produce the definitive Twisted Sister logo. When they asked me to tell them about the band and to give them a feel for what we needed, I said something like “We’re metal, but we’re glamorous. Think black and pink, leather and satin.” Weeks later we received their best effort: the block letters
T
and
S
in black leather with studs, on a pink satin background.
Thanks.

2
. Years later, when I started acting, one of the most difficult emotions for me to portray was embarrassed. After all the years of looking the way I have, that feeling has become completely disconnected!

3
. When the band starting performing together again in the early 2000s, I had forgotten about the ban (it had been over twenty years since it had been instituted) and got into an exchange with Eddie. It ended with Eddie on the verge of quitting the band and calling me a “white supremacist” (which I most certainly am not). I have since gone back into self-imposed “insult exile.” I can’t take me anywhere!

4
. Roger Offner remains my best friend to this day. He is godfather to my son Shane and I to his son Roger Jr.

Chapter 18

1
. For the record, Suzette wants it known that she didn’t want to get engaged or married. Are any of you buying that this strong-willed young woman had absolutely no say in the course her life was taking? Our kids don’t.

2
. Carmine Appice is a legendary drummer who has played with the likes of the Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Rod Stewart, and Beck, Bogart & Appice, to name just a few. His incredible style helped to define heavy metal drumming.

Chapter 19

1
. As of this writing, Twisted Sister is still reunited, but our original recording days are far behind us. Hence the “postmortem.”

2
. Contrary to popular belief, the nickname Fingers was not given to Eddie because of his guitar-playing prowess. It comes from a joke I made about Eddie after he had cut his fingers repeatedly and, temporarily, screwed up his ability to play guitar.

Chapter 20

1
. This can be found on Twisted Sister’s
You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll
album.

Chapter 21

1
. My dentist had a state-of-the-art . . .
Walkman cassette player!
What better to listen to while you’re getting your teeth drilled than blasting heavy metal? The opening, whining guitar lick in “Under the Blade” was inspired by a dentist’s drill. I told Jay Jay, “Play something that sounds like you’re getting your teeth drilled,” and that’s what he came up with.