Dee Snider has spent the week aiming at two targets, and neither of them is new to him.
The first is the farewell tour that isn't. "Farewell tours that never end or that end and then the artist comes out of retirement a couple of short years later and starts touring again are complete and utter dogshit," he said in a video posted to his Facebook page. "I'm not gonna name names. We all know who the scumbags are."
His objection is not that anyone keeps playing. "Listen, you don't gotta stop playing. I'm not telling you to go away. Stay forever. We don't want you to leave. Just don't announce a farewell tour, sell us the whole bullshit farewell package, 'No More Tours' t-shirt, and a program and the ticket prices, sign it in blood, and then come back a couple years later to just milk us dry again."
The second video went after legacy acts touring with nobody left from the original or classic lineup. "Somebody asked me what my feelings were about bands that are out there playing under a big band's name with no original members, and I said, 'Hard no.' I think it's completely fucked up, it's deceptive, it's misrepresentative."
He drew the line at one. "If you don't have any members from the classic lineup — with at least one you can say, 'Well…' Like Rudy Sarzo. Rudy's been through it all. If he wants to go out there, I am certainly not gonna criticize him. But the day Rudy leaves, stay the fuck off the road and keep that band's name outta your mouth."
Then came the pushback, and then came a third video. On the argument that a band can inherit a name: "That doesn't make you a bandmember. My kids are gonna inherit the name TWISTED SISTER, and if they put together a band to go out as TWISTED SISTER with nobody from the original band, I will come back from the dead and haunt their sorry asses." On the comparison to sports franchises: "It's not a baseball team. It's a fucking rock and roll band, baby, and original people from the classic lineup have to be in there."
He has been consistent about this for years. In July 2020 he made the same argument about MÖTLEY CRÜE and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, and named the shirt he owns: "'No More Tours' — thank you very much, Ozzy, I bought one of those."
The awkward part is close to home. Snider resigned from TWISTED SISTER in February on health grounds, cancelling the band's 2026 reunion run. TWISTED SISTER played on anyway: on August 28, founding guitarist Jay Jay French and longtime lead guitarist Eddie Ojeda took the stage with ex-SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach out front, Russell Pzütto on bass and Joey Cassata on drums. Eleven more shows follow this autumn. By Snider's own standard the band clears the bar — two members of the classic lineup are still in it — but only just.