Signals From Mars – Send Out The Clowns

So once again, explain why Twisted Sister will not record new music? Oh because Dee has to work on another project outside of the band, a Christmas project to be exact. Seriously, a Christmas project? The excuse a lot of bands use is fans won’t care, but in all truth, a lot of bands are lazy, a lot of bands are greedy, and it is easier to make a quick buck acting like a clown on TV than it is rehearsing, or working on new material. In other words, what people actually want from you. This is similar to Metallica doing Lulu, yet another stab at having the indie market stand up and give the band a golf clap. Dee is consistently pandering to TV execs to get on reality shows and try and achieve the mass recognition others have. But what he isn’t realizing is the fans that have backed him since the beginning will begin to tire, and age, and will ultimately invest their disposable income elsewhere. Chances are they’d rather take their grandkids to Ringling Brothers to see clowns, over seeing one of their heroes act like one on TV. Has the back lash of the Osbournes not taught these rock stars anything? The show was popular why? Because people checked in to see what the clown was going to do. It’s sad, most of us do not want to remember Ozzy this way, and a lot of us tuned out of both his show and career as a result. At the end of the day there is very little separating them from Honey Boo Boo.

Then you have the flip side, Kanye West, one of the most despised artists in music today. He recently did an interview where he was asked if the way he acted was going to affect his legacy, and his response was something to the effect of in a hundred years no one is going to know who I am. That is a great point that a lot of fans, bands, and artists do not realize may actually be true. Let’s be honest how many classical conductors do you know? Bach, Beethoven, Straus, Vivaldi, these are the first to pop into my mind, but there are thousands, if not millions more. Let’s apply that to hard rock and metal, just a quick glance over, people will probably remember Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Kiss, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Guns N Roses, Nirvana and that’s not only generous, but about it. How many other big name bands does that leave out, but let’s realistically evaluate how many bands we’ve loved over the years not on that list that aren’t remembered now, how are they going to be remember a hundred years from now.

So maybe Kanye is right with that comment, maybe Dee is right with his actions, perhaps the only thing that matters is making money anyway you can and providing for your family, regardless of what legacy you leave behind.

Too many bands lose sight of what got them to the dance. When I interviewed back in the early 90s he was scorn over the fact that Desperado did not get signed or take off. After releasing two Widowmaker albums that rivaled his work in Twisted Sister, Dee threw in the towel on making new music. Bad record deals, bad record sales, all lead him to start touring with the SMFs, doing TS covers. So Dee understandably so did not want to make more music. He even copped to the fact that by the time Love Is For Suckers came out the fire was gone, he couldn’t sing about rebelling, or crying out against the system because he was filthy rich, had a wonderful family, cars, houses, etc. But these Widowmaker albums came out during a time of despair, while he was clawing and scratching and going against the grain. Something a lot of people had been identifying with since he first started releasing music in the 80s. So he’s back on top again after a bunch of reality shows, cameos in videos, books Broadway plays, plays off Broadway, Broadway themed albums, Christmas plays in Chicago, now Toronto, but no new Twisted Sister music. Time for everything else, but new Twisted Sister. It really is unfortunate, but we will more than likely never hear another new Twisted Sister song, something die-hards have been clamoring to hear for years. Hey but you can always look forward to his next reality show appearance, I’m sure that will hold you over.

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