Thursday 26 July 2018

Jetboy: A Press Conference Is Held To Announce The Release Of Feel The Shake!

Originally published in Rave-Up #16 (1989)
By Devorah Ostrov (with thanks to Alison for transcribing duties)

Jetboy - Feel the Shake LP cover photo
MCA Records (1988)
Jetboy recently held a press conference at the Stone, in their hometown of San Francisco, to discuss the band's debut album as well as video and tour plans.

On the press side, there were three of us: me (Devorah), Sadie O. (technically a Rave-Up staffer, but she was covering this event for another 'zine), and some guy with a vague connection to MTV (who hadn't seen the video and asked confusing questions; we refer to him as MTVdude because we don't know his name).

On the band side, there was: Mickey Finn (vocals), Billy Rowe (guitarist), Fernie Rod (guitarist), Sami Yaffa (bassist), and Ron Tostenson (drums).

* * *

Jetboy (MCA publicity photo)
L-R: Ron Tostenson, Billy Rowe, Sami Yaffa,
Fernie Rod, and Mickey Finn
Devorah: So, now that the album is out and you're on MTV, can you come home? Or do you have to stay in Los Angeles?

Billy: We don't have any home anymore. We're going on tour!

Devorah: I've heard that you're opening shows for Kix. Is that the story?

Fernie: No, that's half the story. We're going out on our own first.

Billy: Until we meet up with Kix on the East Coast.

MTVdude: In terms of the first music video you guys did ["Feel the Shake," the title track from Jetboy's LP], how was that experience? I mean... you know... you're obviously used to being onstage, but I mean...

Sami: But not for twelve hours solid!

Fernie: We did a twelve-hour show of the same song.

MTVdude: I haven't seen the video. Is there a theme, or is it straight-forward rock 'n' roll?

Jetboy - publicity photo
Fernie: When you look at it, you think that we're really doing it.

Devorah: But you're not?

Fernie: I mean, we are really doing it, but we sound just like the record.

MTVdude: So, when you guys do the next one, is there going to be anything different? I mean, in terms of...

Fernie: I think we're going to do "Make Some Noise" and the band is going to be naked.

Sadie: Yay! Oh, excuse me.

Devorah: How did you guys come up with the concept of a skull for your backdrop? Is this LA trendiness showing through?

All at once: Noooo!!!

(Sami threw whatever was handy in my direction — it happened to be a copy of Rave-Up. I threw it back and kicked him under the table for good measure.)

Ron: That's a kamikaze pilot — a "Jetboy"!

MTVdude: When you talk about attitude... I mean, when she says "Los Angeles"... I mean, there's obviously an attitude difference between North California and South California [his phraseology].

Billy Rowe and Mickey Finn meet Stiv Bators at a Lords of the 
New Church in-store appearance - Rainbow Records, 1985.
Photo: Judy Jansen
Fernie: Well... See, LA needs an attitude adjustment.

Sadie: At least you're closer to the music industry there. At the moment, if you're not thrash, San Francisco is a very bad place to be business-wise.

Fernie: Yeah, it's all relative to time and place. Before we officially moved to "that hellhole down there," we were living here and commuting back and forth. But the labels had their beady little eyes on us all the time.

Fernie Rod in action (probably 1985)
Photo: Devorah Ostrov
MTVdude: So, what kind of logic is it in terms of the record company... Why would they put out funding for a band to put together product, and then not get it off the shelf?

Billy: Are you talking about in our case?

(It's eventually decided that the question is about Jetboy having been dropped by Elektra Records shortly before the release of Feel the Shake, after which the band was promptly signed to MCA.)

Fernie: We call it the ninth wonder of the world. We don't really know what the heck happened. It could have been a multitude of things. There was a personnel change; some political things were going on. It isn't like we told Bob Krasnow [head of Elektra] to rot in Hell. Oh, hi Mick!

(As if on cue, enter Mickey Finn.)

Sadie: But it looks like it might be a positive factor for people to see that you slogged through all this shit, and you're still going.

Mickey: Yeah, I think people know that we're not a fly-by-night band. I mean, we've been through the mill, you know. We basically got all the bad breaks. Now that things are finally going good, I think people can be sure that we're gonna be around for a while.

MCA advert for Jetboy's debut LP
Fernie: It's just like life. There's no guarantees in life; ain't no guarantees in anything you do. Nothing you really want comes easy. You have to earn it.

Sadie: You know, that's probably what separates you from the attitudes in LA. Those bands have this idea that if they do their hair right, everything will fall into their lap.

Fernie: That's true!

Sadie: So, since I'm like hopelessly stupid, what kind of thematic shit do you deal with? I mean, I've seen the one video...

Fernie: Thematic?

Sadie: That's all about making noise and stuff.

Fernie: There is no theme, it's just a matter of your own personal...

Mickey (mumbled under his breath): Zen...

Sadie: Zen? What!?

Mickey: No... I said, "Yeah." We wanted the video to just be live and raw, like when we recorded that record. And I think it does capture that. I mean, halfway through the video, my pants were ripping apart and we were all dripping with sweat, but we didn't say, "Hold everything! We gotta blow-dry our hair and change our clothes." You look at the video, and it looks like a live show.

L-R: Mickey Finn, Billy Rowe, Fernie Rod, and Ron Tostenson
Photos: @scarpatistudio
Fernie: I did have a stand-in on some of the jumps and splits.

Sadie: And you had a harness, so you could...

Fernie: Did you see the strings?

MTVdude: When you guys talk about creative freedom... Like you want to express your attitude being raw on the video... Did you find that anybody wanted to like, shape your attitude in the studio... And when you came to do the video, did they try and like... "Here's some ideas, and you get to pick and choose."

Jetboy is the "Metal Pin-Up"
Mickey: Yeah, they did a little bit.

Fernie: But you know, it's the old "goes in one ear, out the other." We just did our thing. In the studio, it was just us and the producers and the engineer. When it came time to do the video, the suggestion [from MCA] was to just go for it. Just do what we do best — play live! There were really no major conflicts.

Sadie: Did an audience come in and watch you do the same song for twelve hours?

All at once: Yeah!

Sadie: That's devotion.

Fernie: I don't think it was devotion. I think it was the promise of food.

Devorah: How did you guys feel the first time you saw "Feel the Shake" on MTV?

Sami Yaffa onstage with Jetboy
Photo: Devorah Ostrov
Fernie: I thought I looked taller!

Mickey: For me, the first time I saw it... I thought it would be so exciting. Then when it actually came on, I felt self-conscious like, "Oh my God, the whole world is watching this! It's not good enough." But then, after that, it was a good feeling.

Sadie: You guys got any other exciting interests or something? I mean, apart from Jetboy.

Mickey: Skateboarding... motocross… pet iguanas... I've always been into reptiles. In fact, I used to live in this house on 11th Avenue, and we got raided about a year ago. You might have heard about it 'cause it was on the news, in the newspaper. They were all: "Poisonous snakes lurking in San Francisco!"

Fernie: Well, the only thing I've noticed... In certain publicity shots, you're beginning to look like some of those things.

Mickey: Then there's our fascination with the blues... harmonica... slide guitar... On the next album, there'll be a lot more harmonica and slide guitar.

Sadie: Do you have any people that you emulate?

Billy: James Cotton... Johnny Winter... all that stuff. We're crazy about it!

Mickey Finn - Jetboy's 2006 reunion
Photo: Devorah Ostrov
Devorah: Are you looking forward to playing for all your friends in San Francisco again tonight [the second of two SF shows]?

Mickey: It should be fun. We rocked last night! You know, we're starting off the tour in San Francisco, and I said, "I'm gonna take it easy, be mellow, pace myself." But last night it was like, "Aarrgghh!"

MTVdude: As far as your earlier fans and friends... Are they... you know... When a band starts getting capital and cash... It's strange... People are really turned off; it's like they feel deserted.

Mickey: Once a band starts seeing some success, it's real easy for old fans to start cutting us off, "Oh, the record's no good. I like their old stuff." How can you help being a little jealous, or like you said, feeling betrayed by the band? It's like, yeah, we took up and went to LA and now we're doing it. We're doing what we always wanted to do. Some people can't accept that.

Fernie: Yep. I'm doing what I always wanted to do — sitting in the Stone, in the early afternoon, drinking my Beck's beer.

Ron: Out of a can.
* * *

2018 update: Jetboy has completed work on a NEW album, which will be released through Frontiers Music.

Please click on these links to read my other interviews with Jetboy:
devorahostrov.blogspot.com/2018/05/jetboy-sami-yaffa-joins-group
devorahostrov.blogspot.com/2017/10/jetboy-year-into-their-glittering-career

Monday 16 July 2018

Chris Mars: With Horseshoes And Hand Grenades, The Replacements Drummer Releases A Truly Solo LP

Originally published in American Music Press (1992)
By Devorah Ostrov

Chris Mars
Smash Records publicity photo
Towards the end of 1990, following the tense recording sessions for All Shook Down, Chris Mars left the Replacements — the band he'd co-founded with no master plan and little ambition in a Minneapolis basement a decade earlier — under an acrimonious black cloud.

And after a grueling tour to promote the album, what remained of the splintered group CREEM readers once voted almost the best band in the world (only U2 and R.E.M. ranked higher) also called it a day.

With Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (the title comes from Mars' cover painting, which depicts a nightmarish assemblage of figures playing a game of horseshoes; the hand grenades are disguised as pineapples on the back), Mars has become the first of the former 'Mats to release a solo album.

Recorded in the "cheap room" at Prince's Paisley Park studios, the LP is a confident piece of work, filled to the brim with quintessential Midwestern pop sensibilities. And it finds the drummer not only writing and singing lead on all the tracks but also playing guitar and keyboards.

Inevitably though, the first question Mars is going to be asked by every rock journalist is: What broke up the Replacements?

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
Smash Records (1992)
"I don't know," he says vaguely with a barely audible sigh over the phone. "It was just one of those things. We were sick of each other; sick of the Replacements. Everybody wanted to do different things."

Did it start going downhill when the heavy-drinking outfit, famous for its crash-and-burn live shows, was tagged as "important"?

"Yeah... It shouldn't have been that way. We tried to hold true to what we were, and I think we did hold true pretty much through Pleased to Meet Me [Sire 1987]. But right around Don't Tell a Soul [Sire 1989], things started changing. After that, everything was different in the studio — and out of the studio."

Mars is soft-spoken and a genuinely nice guy. He's obviously uncomfortable talking about his last months in the group.

"There were a lot of bands taking off who started around the same time as we did — U2, R.E.M..." he explains. "Not that we were going for that huge success. I was pretty content with things as they were. I never thought it would go as far as it did. But I think Paul [Westerberg, vocalist] wanted a bigger piece of the pie, so I think he started listening to the label more than he should have."

The Replacements
L-R: Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars, 
Tommy Stinson and Bob Stinson
Switching the conversation back to his new album, I marvel that he did everything (except play bass) himself. 

Did he just have a lot of spare time, or did Mars already know he was a talented multi-instrumentalist?

"To tell you truth, I didn't know for sure what I could do," he admits. "I knew I could play rhythm guitar and, of course, drums. But some of the other things were new territory, and I wasn't really sure of my capabilities in those areas. That was one of the things I found out for myself once I got into the studio. And the time allotted in the studio made it easier than I thought it would be."

Mars is an inventive lyricist with a keen understanding of the human psyche, and his voice has a natural charm that imparts a real honesty to the material. Looking back, he realized that one of the things he most missed with the later day Replacements was the opportunity to contribute song ideas.

Chris Mars
Smash Records publicity photo
"We used to write songs together as a band when we'd practice," he says, "but that wasn't happening anymore. So, I got a four-track machine and started messing with that, just to have fun. Four-tracks are good to bounce things off. You can write something and live with it for a while. You think it's really good when you first put it down, but a couple of days later it stinks!"

"It's kinda like bouncing it off a band," he adds.

Several of the tunes on Horseshoes and Hand Grenades wrestle with feelings of loneliness and alienation wrapped within simple pop beats, such as the bittersweet "Last Drop" in which "the jukebox spins a has-been tale" and "nothing changes but the weather, never worse, never better."

Other tracks explode with quirky humor, while "Popular Creeps" (the first CD-single release from the album) seems to take a swipe at his ex-bandmates: "Popular creeps are riding high until the day they get burned/Who's gonna love 'em when they're unknown?"

"Popular Creeps" c/w "Before It Began"
Smash Records CD single
But where does the inspiration for his fabulous surrealist freaks and monsters artwork come from?

"My songs tend to deal more with realistic social commentary-type themes," notes Mars, "but when I paint, I'm somewhere on another..."

Planet?

"Yeah! I like Bosch, and I like Francis Bacon — way, way out there very imaginative stuff!"

Mars remains happily Midwest-based ("I couldn't live in LA," he states) and currently splits his time about fifty-fifty between art and music. At the moment, he's beginning work on a second album and preparing canvases for showings in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

"It keeps me busy!" he laughs. "I don't anticipate any huge success. If it happens, fine, but that's not where my head's at. I didn't think I'd get the opportunity to go into the studio and record again. And now that I have, I'm just enjoying it!"

Is there anything else Mars wants his fans to know about? He mulls over the question for a couple of seconds before declaring: "I just got a new lawnmower. It's a Snapper mulching mower, and it works real fine."

* * *

The Relinquishing
Phipps Center for the Arts — offset lithograph

Since the late '90s, Mars has mainly concentrated on his artwork. These days, he's a celebrated artist, and his paintings have been shown in major exhibitions in the US and Canada. For more info, visit his website:  www.chrismarspublishing.com

Friday 6 July 2018

Dee Snider: Widowmaker, The Demise Of Twisted Sister, And The Prickly Problem Of Voting Democrat In 1992

Originally published in American Music Press (1992)
By Devorah Ostrov

Dee Snider all dolled-up at the height of
Twisted Sister's popularity.
As the garishly made-up frontman for Twisted Sister, Dee Snider stomped his platform boots and shouted about wanting to rock and not taking it anymore till arenas around the world shook.

In fact, the act was so lewd, crude, and downright fun, it was one of the very first to get a P.M.R.C. warning sticker affixed to its output.

In 1987, Twisted Sister took its last breath, but like Halloween's Michael Meyers, Dee is twitching back to life with a new group called Widowmaker (not to be confused with guitarist Ariel Bender's post-Mott The Hoople outfit of the same name).

Blood and Bullets (Esquire Records) is the band's thunderous debut offering, but before we talk about the new stuff, let's catch up on what our hero has been doing for the past few years.
* * *

Poster for Widowmaker's debut album
Photo: Mark Weiss
AMP: I haven't seen you since Twisted Sister broke-up. How have you been?

DEE: On a personal level, my life has been great. On a career level and on a creative level it was a miserable, hellacious purgatory. At the end of Twisted, even though it died a slow death, towards the end it was still sad, and I was still heartbroken. I never thought Twisted would end. I expected that it would go on forever. I expected that it would grow and change and mature with time, but for a variety of reasons that didn't happen.

AMP: I heard that you formed a band called Desperado. What happened with that?

DEE: Desperado got signed to Elektra Records, and they spent half a million dollars — spared no expense — recording us. Then two weeks before the album was supposed to be released, they dropped the project because the A&R man had quit. And since it was his baby, they weren't interested anymore. The president of Elektra — may he rot in hell! — said to me, "Dee, I'm sure your band's great, but personally, I'm not really a fan of this music. If I had my way, I'd get rid of the bands we have now." That's exactly what he said to me. To have the disdain for the music that's paying the mortgage on his house... Metallica and Mötley Crüe are supporting that label, and to have the audacity to talk like that... I was like, "Fuck you! You arrogant piece of shit!"

Blood and Bullets (Esquire Records 1992)
AMP: So, the Desperado album was shelved?

DEE: They not only shelved my project; they wouldn't release my tapes, and they wouldn't release me unless I paid them half a million dollars. Which is essentially blackmail. If I wanted to get out, I had to come up with half a million, which I did not have, or get somebody else to spend half a million.
   Now, half a million for a metal album is an exorbitant amount of money to spend and to get somebody not only to spend it, but to spend it on a band that was dropped by a major... It didn't matter why — industry-wise we were dropped. Blackballed. After a lot of litigation, I finally got out empty-handed. I walked out of three years of my life with no songs, no band, no tapes.
   Actually, I did end up recording three songs from the Desperado album — "Emaheevul," "Gone Bad," and "Calling for You" — on this album. And I had to pay to record those. If I could have, I would've bought everything, but that was the best I could muster with the money I had. They were asking $40,000 a track. It was insane, but I had to have something.

AMP: Bernie Torḿe co-wrote those three songs with you, as well as quite a few others on Blood and Bullets. Was he in Desperado?

Widowmaker promo poster
DEE: Yes, he was, and we're still friends and writing partners. The reason he's not in Widowmaker, quite honestly... Let me back up. When I started Desperado, it was a lucrative deal. I was coming out of Twisted; I was still a celebrity and had a certain stature. There were salaries, and it was a comfortable thing. Widowmaker was ground floor, starting over. I said, "Guys, it's every man for himself. You gotta pay your own way. You're welcome to sleep on my couch. You're welcome to eat at my table." It was really no frills. Marc [Russell, bassist] is the only surviving member of Desperado, essentially because he was 21 — young, dumb and full of cum, as the saying goes. He said, "I'll sleep on your floor, Dee."

AMP: I know [drummer] Joe Franco played on the last Twisted Sister album. Did you also know [guitarist] Al Pitrelli before Widowmaker formed?

Dee wants to be your Twisted Valentine in
this Stay Hungry-era poster
Dee: No. I realized I was one of the only well-known frontmen in the business who didn't have an identifiable guitar-hero partner in crime. It's one of the most classic things in rock 'n' roll: Mick and Keith, Jimmy and Robert, Eddie and David. I needed somebody like that.
   Early on, people told me about Al. Al lived about two miles from where I grew up, in a town called Hicksville. I could not imagine that the guitar hero of my life was going to be found two miles from where I grew up, in a town called Hicksville. Besides, he didn't have a catchy name like Yngwie, so I couldn't possibly work with him. So, I looked and searched... and people kept saying, "Al. Al. Al." Finally, Steve Vai said, "Al!" And I said, "Okay."
   My band is made up of killer musicians! Al is an unbelievable guitarist. Joe is this unbelievable musician. Mark is a devasting bass player — besides the fact that he looks like a member of Guns N' Roses!

AMP: It's interesting that you should say that. Is it because of MTV that you're concerned about how the group looks?

DEE: It's not because of MTV. I've always felt that the look of rock 'n' roll is important. Even though I want this band to be judged on the merits of the music and the quality of the playing, I also want it to be judged on its performance, its attitude, and the look it has. You don't have to be a "pretty boy" — I certainly am not. But I have a look. I'm not wearing costumes or make-up anymore; I'm wearing jeans and boots. And I'm 25 pounds lighter than in Twisted, by the way! But it's important to me that a band look credible as well as play credibly.

Dee Snider on the cover of Hit Parader
March 1986
AMP: Do you see the make-up and costumes as a mistake with Twisted Sister? An obstacle to critics taking the music seriously?

DEE: Absolutely not! But I see it as being one of the things that didn't allow the band to continue as I hoped it would. I did make some mistakes. The biggest one was when the commercial success hit; I did what so many people before me have done — I stopped and analyzed it and tried to recreate it.
   I missed the fact that it was the genuineness and the lack of being contrived that had made it work in the first place. Even if I'd totally figured out the formula, it wouldn't have had the heart that Twisted had on the first three albums, and that's what made it work. But as far as the image, the approach, the attitude... I'd do it all again. I loved it!

AMP: Was it important to you to form another band, as opposed to doing a solo thing? Which, with your reputation, you certainly could have done.

DEE: Oh, I was offered solo deals with a number of companies. And I'll tell you right now, I'm proud to say I didn't consider it for a fucking second. I never wanted to be a solo artist. I love the idea of a band! As a fan, I love the image and romance of a band. There's a camaraderie that exists, or appears to exist, with four or five guys up there going for it. I became the focus of Twisted — not intentionally, it's just the nature of my persona. I am intense, but these guys are great individuals.

AMP: Have you picked a song for the first video off Blood and Bullets?

Widowmaker - publicity pic
Photo: Mark Weiss
DEE: We just shot a video for "The Widowmaker." It's a credible, performance-orientated video with a credible story within it. I know some of my fans will be disappointed that it's not a "Neidermeyer" [the Animal House character reprised by Mark Metcalf in the videos for "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock"] comedic romp, but that was one of the main things that hurt Twisted. Even though it helped make us, it overshadowed us.
   If you're starved for Dee Snider's particular sense of humor, you'll be happy to know that I've gotten into screenplay writing and am close to closing a deal with my first movie — a riotous teensploitation comedy called Party Inc. The catchphrase is: "Boldly going where no party has gone before." Hopefully, you'll be seeing that sometime next summer. In the meantime, I'm writing my second screenplay, which is based on the "Horror-Teria" concept [from Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry LP]. It's the story behind the two songs "Captain Howdy" and "Street Justice." I plan on starring in this movie. I want to play the psychopathic clown, Captain Howdy. I think it's typecasting, actually!

AMP: I want to ask you about a couple of songs I particularly like on Blood and Bullets — "The Lonely Ones"...

The other Widowmaker - featuring Ariel Bender
(Jet Records 1976)
DEE: I think "The Lonely Ones" kills! It's an anthem. It's got attitude. It's got heart. And the message is one that I hold near and dear — being the outcast; being the loner. And there's a hell of a lot of us out there!

AMP: And "Blue for You," which is a beautiful bluesy love song, and something completely unexpected.

DEE: "Blue for You" is one of my proudest moments on the record. I had always wanted to write a blues-based song, and it was a real stretch for me vocally. I did some of my greatest singing on that song. Songs like "Blood and Bullets" or "Emaheevul" or "Snot Nosed Kid" — that's Dee Snider's stride. Riotous, going for the throat vocals. But for me to do "Blue for You" and have it be a credible performance, really makes me feel good.

AMP: The album's closing track, "We Are the Dead," what's that about?

DEE: "We Are the Dead" is the most political song on the record. It's an environmental statement. That's one thing I really feel strongly about. It's just a disgrace what's going on. It's a message to the businessmen and politicians out there, well into their sixties and seventies, who couldn't give a shit about what happens to us, or our children, or our children's children. But the fact of the matter is, they're not gonna die fast enough to get away from the garbage that's piling up at our doorsteps! It's happening so fast that they're going to suffer from it in their own lifetimes.

Dee Snider takes on the P.M.R.C.
Photo from www.deesnider.com
AMP: About the group's name... I'm sure you know that Ariel Bender once had a band called Widowmaker.

DEE: This is how it goes... I'm a Mott The Hoople fan, and I was aware that Ariel had formed a band called Widowmaker. I'm also a fan of the Old West. One day, I was watching a PBS special on the Old West and they were talking about this gun that had killed many men — it was nicknamed "The Widowmaker." I thought, That's a great name! I'm gonna write a song called "The Widowmaker."
   So I wrote it, and the band heard it and flipped! My producer Ric [Wake] said, "Man, you should call the band Widowmaker! That's a great name!" I said, "Yeah... well, there was a band called Widowmaker in the '70s." Then, I was talking to Snake from Skid Row, and I was telling him about my dilemma. He said, "Dee, Skid Row is the name of a band that Gary Moore had three albums with in Ireland. And there was a Trixter before Trixter. And there was another Nirvana..."

"The Widowmaker" - CD single (Esquire Records 1992)
AMP: Really?

DEE: Yeah, that's what I said, "Really?" He said, "Dee, it's not like you're calling it the Beatles!" But the last thing I did... I knew someone who knew Bob Daisley, the bass player. I called him up and said, "Bob, I've got a new band, and I'm thinking of calling it Widowmaker. I'd like to get your blessing." He said, "Who gives a shit?" I took that as a blessing.

AMP: Finally, Twisted Sister was one of the more high-profile groups attacked by Tipper Gore and the P.M.R.C. How do you feel about the very real possibility that she could end up in the White House?

DEE: I think it sucks! But the fact of the matter is, I'm voting Democrat. I'm not voting for Clinton or Gore; I'm voting for the Democratic party — not because I think they're that much better, but because anything is better than what's going on now. Another four years and they're gonna be shooting people like me in the street! They're chipping away at our first amendment rights and our personal rights. Four more years and abortion will be illegal. It kills me that on our side — and I assume that you're on my side — we're talking about the freedom of choice. We're not saying you have to have an abortion; we're saying if you want one. They're saying they want to decide for you, that no one can have one. That pisses me off! The Democrats are more liberal, and they'll help bring things back to the center, which is where I feel things are meant to be. And in a few years, if things go too far the other way, I'll be voting Republican because I think moderation and middle ground is the most intelligent place to be.

* * *

Curious about which five Desert Island Discs Dee Snider would choose? I asked him, and you might be surprised! You can find that article here:  devorahostrov.blogspot.com/2017/07/dee-snider's- desert- island- discs