In a behind-the-scenes clip from his recent appearance on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider ranted to host Eddie Trunk about the term “hair metal” and the categorization of music in general.
Dee Snider wanted to point out the thing with a ”hair metal” tag.
Here’ what the singer said:
“The term ‘heavy metal’ — I was there, dude — was a derogatory title, assigned to hard rock of a certain type by arrogant, condescending writers and critics. Calling a band heavy metal was originally meant to be a putdown. The bands hated it. The same goes for punk, grunge…
The grunge bands hated — Soundgarden hated to be called grunge. They’d get violent, Pearl Jam. This was a snotty — sort of saying, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s grunge’ — dismissive critics’ nickname for stuff. And ‘hair metal’ was that too. None of these names were ever meant to be complementary, all the bands hated it, but the fans, on the receiving end, we kind of connect with it. But Black Sabbath hated being called heavy metal. So did Led Zeppelin It’s the writers dismissing you.
Dee Snider also addressed Sebastian Bach‘s recent Twitter tirade where he took the issue with being called “hair metal”.
Dee said:
“[I’ve been doing my radio show] ‘House Of Hair’ [for] 22 years, and it resonates with people,
For the fans, they don’t find it offensive. Whatever it is, it’s just a term.
I didn’t name ‘House Of Hair’. I got sh*t about it. But to me, I just say, you know what? You’re fighting a losing battle. Sebastian‘s losing sh*t. Life’s too short.
“I’m the original hair farmer. Whatever. As long as they remember me.”