Archives: Twisted Sister's Dee Snider remembers his challenging Long Island upbringing

Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider was born Daniel Snider in Astoria, Queens, on March 15, 1955. Snider, who turns 61 today, spent his formative years in Baldwin. These days he's largely known for his charitable work on Long Island, including his annual motorcycle ride to benefit the Harry Chapin Food Bank. But in this May 31, 1996, Newsday article, Snider looks back on his struggles embracing Long Island life.

In Baldwin High's Class of '73, Danny Snider was the quiet, skinny guy with the goofy face. The one who was shunned equally by the rebels and the frat boys. When he asked a pretty girl out, she'd laugh at him, right to his face.

The only times Snider didn't, as he put it, "melt into the background" were when he did things like decline to smoke pot, prompting classmates to jeer: "Danny Snider, he's high on life."

Three years after graduation, Snider fought back. He morphed into Dee Snider, the outrageously garish, cross-dressing lead singer for the hugely successful heavy metal band Twisted Sister.

"I went for an outrageous form of expressing myself," recalled Snider. "It seemed to be a way that I could make my name and show that I was somebody."

Snider wasn't only rebelling against his high school. His headbanging music with Twisted Sister also was, he said, a way to vent his frustration over his home life.

Danny's father, Bob Snider, was a Korean War vet who worked as an insurance salesman and part-time New York State trooper. He loved his six children but ran the house tightly. When Danny's room was messy, his dad would storm in and clear clutter from the shelves with a sweep of the hand. One day, his father marched him into a barbershop and forced him to get a crew cut, razing the long locks that he considered his lone positive physical attribute.

SEE PHOTOSDid you know these notable people are from LI?

Snider also was rebelling against growing up in what he still refers to as a "suburban wasteland" -- even though he continues to live on Long Island, albeit in swankier North Shore digs.

"There is a facelessness to Long Island, especially on the South Shore, with the huge developments, the tract housing, the two cars in the garage and the one tree," he said. "I mean, I clearly remember literally just sitting on my porch as a teenager and wanting to scream, thinking, God, there's got to be more than this.' "

Snider did scream, with a voice that was good enough to land him a spot in the All-State Chorus in high school (he auditioned with Henry Purcell's "Strike the Viol") and the lead role in Baldwin High's production of "Godspell." By 15, he'd dropped out of Little League to spend more time playing guitar and practicing rock-star gestures in his room.

"Out of this frustrated blue-collar hell, a lot of great music has grown," Snider said of Twisted Sister and other Long Island bands.

If Snider's stage persona avenged his father's strictness, it never quite earned him the recognition he'd sought from his classmates.

He didn't go to his 10th high school reunion — Twisted Sister was touring at the time — but one of his few school pals did. The friend reported back that "Everybody knows Twisted Sister, but they didn't remember you were in their school," Snider recalled.

"Can you believe it?" Snider asked, his voice still incredulous. "Here I was trying to show everybody in school that I was somebody, and they didn't even remember who I was!"