Twister Sister frontman Dee Snider thinks 80s metal was ruined and two things caused its death.
The rocker took to X to respond to a user’s comment about him.
“According to Dee Snider, it was Tesla and the acoustic movement that killed 80s metal,” the user wrote.
In response, the frontman said it was true and that it was more like the ‘final nail in the coffin.’ “When you’re no longer playing electric instruments and only playing ballads can you really call that ‘metal’? (For the record I love and am friends with Tesla.)”
The user was referring to an interview from over ten years ago.
“Record companies, they do that all the time,” Snider says in the interview. “One is good, a hundred is better. You had the W bands, The White Lions, Whitesnake, The Wingers, Warrant. It got so processed and so refined that it became pablum. Then it got even worse because then it was, ‘I got an idea, let’s unplug.’ Thanks Tesla. What’s metal about that? So now all the metal bands are playing acoustic songs.”
Snider also said in a different interview that there was a race among people to see who would unplug and pick up an acoustic guitar instead. However, in his words, it wasn’t metal anymore if a musician played a ballad on acoustic guitar. And this was what ruined metal in the 80s.
Really more of the final nail in the coffin. When you’re no longer playing electric instruments and only playing ballads can you really call that “metal”? (For the record I love and am friends with @TeslaBand)
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) August 10, 2024