EXCLUSIVE: Having rallied in recent months against censorship-advocating Republican politicians and the loss of abortion rights in America, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider is going back to the past to spotlight our potential future.The heavy metal lead singer has teamed with Magilla Entertainment for a documentary series about the efforts of Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center 37 years ago to excise so-called obscene music.
Confounding all expectations, Snider appeared with Frank Zappa and John Denver before a Senate committee in 1985 and proved a compelling and insightful advocate for freedom of expression and creative license.“To be in the crosshairs of this bipartisan attack on free speech caught me completely off guard,” Snider told Deadline. “All of my rock and roll dreams were finally coming true, and the PMRC was trying to shut me up,” the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” singer added of the heyday of hair metal. “Some of my peers thought we should just ignore them, but I couldn’t.
To quote a brilliant man, ‘This is our life, this is our song!’ Someone had to fight back… and I fought hard!”Seeking to shock the nation with a self-described “Filthy Fifteen” list that included Twisted Sister’s chart-topping anthem, Prince’s “Darling Nikki,” Judas Priest’s “Eat Me Alive,” Madonna’s “Dress You Up” and W.A.S.P.’s “Animal (F*ck Like a Beast),” future Second Lady Gore and then-Treasury Secretary James Baker’s spouse Susan and a bipartisan Beltway troop sought to cut off kids’ access to the raunchy rock ’n’ roll that was all over the radio and MTV.Although tripped up by Snider and others on live TV for its authoritarian tendencies and ill-considered solutions, the PMRC was successful in getting parental-advisory
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