Twisted Sister To Reunite For One-Off Performance

12 January 2023 | 11:21 am | Mary Varvaris
Originally Appeared In

"Looking forward to playing together for the first time since 2016…"

Dee Snider/Twisted Sister

Dee Snider/Twisted Sister (Source: Supplied)

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Twisted Sister will reunite and perform together for the first time since 2016 when they get inducted into the Metal Hall Of Fame on 26 January at The Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California. 

The group's classic lineup of Dee Snider (vocals), guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda, bassist Mark Mendoza, and late drummer A.J Pero will receive the honour. Guitar hero Steve Vai and freak-of-nature drummer Mark Portnoy will handle the inducting proceedings.

Eddie Trunk and Cathy Rankin will host the sixth annual event, with proceedings going to D.A.D. (Drums And Disabilities). 

Sharing their excitement about the one-off reunion, Ojeda tweeted, "Looking forward to our induction into the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame," and Snider added, "Looking forward to playing together for the first time since 2016...especially the rehearsal!"

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Artists getting inducted into the Metal Hall Of Fame alongside Twisted Sister are former Foreigner vocalist Lou Gramm, guitarist Chris Impellitteri and metal band Raven.

The singer tweeted, "I absolutely approve of Ukrainians using We’re Not Gonna Take It as their battle cry. My grandfather was Ukrainian before it was swallowed up by the USSR after WW2. This can’t happen to these people again!"

Snider has pushed back against trolls suggesting the Russian side has been misunderstood, taking a strong stand and receiving overwhelming support. 

"My grandmother was Transylvanian when the Russians took over and occupied the Carpathian Mountains. Who do you think were carrying those Russian guns, driving the tanks and flying those planes? Canadians?"

Snider famously won his case against the United Australia Party's Clive Palmer, who used a bastardised version of the song for his election campaign and was ordered to pay $1.5 million in April 2021.

In 2019, Twisted Sister demanded Palmer stop using a re-written version of their 1984 hit We're Not Gonna Take It in a TV campaign for the United Australia Party. Palmer responded by threatening a lawsuit against the rockers.

As ABC reported, Justice Anna Katzmann ruled that Palmer had infringed the copyright, writing, 

"Mr Palmer's use of [the song] was opportunistic.

"He saw political and personal advantage in both its notoriety or popularity and the message it conveyed, and he thought that he could get away with using it merely by altering some of the words.

"He was wrong."