Dee Snider Says Cancel Culture is “Censorship”
Dee Snider, who famously testified to the U.S. Senate in 1985 against the use of warning stickers on albums for material deemed “offensive,” has spoken up regarding his view that so-called “cancel culture” has gone too far, akin to a kind of “censorship.”
Speaking with Chicago radio station WGN 720, Snider was asked for his thoughts on cancel culture. He replied:
“It’s censorship. And censorship has changed quite a bit. I mean, you go to when I was in Washington testifying. By the way, it was a bipartisan effort — it was the Democrats and Republicans who were joined together in putting a leash on rock and roll. But it was definitely a conservative attitude — it was a more conservative attitude, wanting to censor music. Now censorship still exists, but it’s gone from the right more to the left. We’re in this P.C. world where we have to be careful about what we say and who we offend, and it’s a very odd thing.”
“I’ve been working on lyrics for my new album, ‘Leave A Scar’, which comes out in July, and I found myself questioning the metaphors I was using — metaphors. I mean, where is art without metaphor? Where is lyrics and writing without metaphor? Yet I was going, ‘Can I say this? Can I say this?’ I have a song called ‘In For The Kill’, and it has all these metaphorical [lines], ‘Fire at will, I’m in for the kill.’ And I was talking about going for it — just going for it — yet here I was censoring myself lyrically because of the current state of things.
“What is censorship? What’s not censorship? Boy, I would say, as long as you’re not screaming ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater, you’re cool.”
Snider has not been shy about expressing his political beliefs on social media, typically siding with more progressive values. He recently called for gun control reform following two back-to-back mass shootings in March.
His next solo album, following For the Love of Metal (2018), again finds the Twisted Sister frontman collaborating with Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta.
He also recently filmed an episode of Family Feud that has yet to air.
