DEE SNIDER Explains His Comments About ROBERT PLANT: ‘You Can’t Put Me And Him In The Same Category’

Dee Snider, the outspoken frontman for TWISTED SISTER, was asked in a new interview with the “Sally Steele Rocks!” show if he ever regrets some of the “spur-of-the-moment” comments he has made about various other celebrities and public figures on social media. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No, because [those comments are] usually pretty thought out in my head. I don’t really sort of just blurt things out; I process ’em and I’m kind of deliberate. I say it and it comes out like it’s blurted. But I’ve got strong opinions.

“People get very upset sometimes when me or a lot of celebrities express our feelings, like we’re not allowed to have an opinion,” he continued. “I always say ‘in my humble opinion’, but trust me, that’s the first thing they cut off when they repost it. ‘In my humble opinion’ — that’s gone.”

Snider also touched upon the debate he ignited late last month on Twitter about what makes great “frontmen” in rock. The debate began after a fan’s reply to a tweet that praised Ronnie James Dio as the second-greatest frontman in rock following Freddie Mercury.

“How do you differentiate a Dee Snider or an Alice Cooper or a Robert Plant or a Bon Scott… Or a Chris Cornell, who just stood there, but he sang perfectly every night,” Snider explained to “Sally Steele Rocks!” “So I was just trying, in a social media Twitter discussion, to explain the differences. And people were up in arms: ‘How can you possibly say that Robert Plant isn’t a great frontman?’ And I love Robert. And I was just trying to… You can’t put me and Robert Plant in the same category. So how would you explain what Dee Snider does on stage and what Robert Plant does on stage. And I was trying to do that. But people got upset.”

Asked if he ever feels uncomfortable when he eventually meets in person some of the people whom he criticizes in social media posts or in interviews, Dee said: “You know me, I’m kind of a formidable presence. And I’ll give you a perfect example of someone confronting me. I have a radio show called ‘House Of Hair’; [I’ve been doing it] 26 years; 250 stations [carry it] nationally. It’s been on for a very long time. And I had said something about [WINGER frontman] Kip Winger — joking. I make fun of myself all the time; I’m very self-deprecating…

“So, we’re at an event, and Kip was across the room,” he continued. “And he sees me, and I can see his face. And he goes, ‘Listen…’ And he comes walking across the room. And as he gets closer, ‘I wanna talk to you about something.’ And when he got up to me, he realized his face was level with my chest. And he actually was poking me in my chest. And he actually went, ‘You’re in really good shape.’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘What’s going on, Kip?’ He goes, ‘Listen, man. You know, could you just go easier on me on the show?’ So it went from being, ‘I’m gonna give Dee a piece of my mind’ to ‘Would you mind going easier…?'”

In his Twitter discussion about what makes great “frontmen” in rock, Snider wrote in response to a fan: “You are confusing singing with performing. There is a huge difference between a great frontman & a great singer. Ronnie was one of the greatest singers of all time, but as a frontman, he pretty much just stood on stage & sang. Freddie was an amazing singer AND frontman.”

Snider expressed similar sentiments about Plant, saying: “I’m a HUGE Plant fan vocally…but he showed me nothing as a performer. Looked amazing, great hair…stood on stage with one hand raised and sang his ass off. Not a frontman in my opinion. And FYI many great frontmen are not great singers.”

Snider later doubled down on his opinion of Dio, referencing his first-hand experiences with the legendary heavy metal singer. He explained: “I toured with him. … He is one of my vocal heroes, but… My frontmen are all over the stage and interact with the crowd. Showmen. Think David Lee Roth, Paul Stanley, Mick Jagger, Freddy Mercury, Axl Rose…the list goes on.”

Snider then supported his position by making the distinction between performance and “stage presence”. He said: “I knew this would upset people. I am NOT saying that Dio, Plant etc, don’t have stage presence. They have it in SPADES! But they are not performers.”

Snider also mentioned other singers he calls great frontmen, including IRON MAIDEN‘s Bruce Dickinson, Bono, JUDAS PRIEST‘s Rob Halford and James Brown. He also included Kid Rock in his list, explaining: “Love him or hate him, @KidRock is one of the best I’ve ever seen. … Facts are facts. The guy is a killer in concert. Period. (and I am REALLY critical).”