Last month Dee Snider caused quite a stir when he tweeted that Robert Plant and Ronnie James Dio were “great singers” but not “great frontman.” While he stands by his comments, he’s now saying they were a bit misinterpreted.
“When I said they weren’t great frontman, everybody said, ‘Here’s Dee shooting his mouth off again.’ But I’m not just shooting my mouth off,” the Twisted Sister frontman says in a new interview with Ultimate Guitar. “I’ve actually taken a lot of time to think about and consider it. I didn’t just make an arbitrary statement. I’ve thought about it. I got on my computer, and I studied and researched it.”
Snider considers himself a great frontman, so what does he see as the difference? “Now, a frontman doesn’t have to sing well but needs to be a guy who can engage the audience and entertain the people who stand there,” he says. “A frontman that can wow the crowd with their incredible voice, yeah, that’s entertaining on a different level, but it’s not the same as a full-scale performance.”
Snider says he “absolutely” thinks his original comments were misinterpreted, particularly when it comes to Robert Plant. “I am not saying I’m Robert Plant, nor am I saying I’m even in his league,” he says. “Having said that, I do something at a level that he doesn’t do, and that is I engage the crowd.”
Snider added, “He’s an incredible singer, but showmanship, that’s what I do well.”
Snider says Dio used to compliment him on his antics onstage and he would compliment Dio on his singing, telling him, “I can’t do what you do, but I can hold an audience in the palm of my hand.”
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