He had a successful TV show and a movie career he was the clean-cut and mom’s-apple-pie John Denver. Frank and me were both concerned about how Denver would handle it. I appeared before the US Senate – along with Frank Zappa and John Denver. Do you want me to hang up?” That was when I got the idea that we weren’t going to be best buddies.īack in 1985 I was fiercely opposed to the idea of placing warning labels on records. Then he said, angrily: “How the hell did you get this number?!” I replied: “You gave it to me. A few months later, I decided to give Simmons a call. It’s surely no coincidence that we’re three of the most rational, intelligent people you’ll ever meet, and still with ongoing careers of some sort beyond music.
Gene, along with Ted Nugent and myself, is one of the few rock stars to go: “No drugs, no alcohol, ever.” Give me a call some time.” I’m not a Kiss fanatic but certainly I bought my fair share of their early records. He gave me his card and said: “Dee, here’s my phone number. I host a radio show in America, and Simmons was my guest. Later, Hanoi Rocks sent a letter to the press: “Peace, we meant no offence, we apologise, we are the flower children and we don’t want a problem with Twisted Sister.” I also got a private letter from Ross The Boss. I was an angry young man back then, ha-ha! After Manowar’s no-show we decided to go to one of their concerts, pull them off stage and give them a beating in front of their fans. In the next edition, Sounds renamed Manowar ‘Manowimp’. A couple of hundred punters showed up and we had fun with it. I prowled the streets with a baseball bat while Garry Bushell followed me with a loud hailer. We publicised the challenge in Sounds, whose offices were in London’s Covent Garden. Hanoi Rocks had referred to us as “ugly”. They said we were just a bar band who played wet-T-shirt contests. Manowar told the media they couldn’t understand what all the hoopla was about Twisted Sister. I got into a disagreement with both bands in the early 1980s. The Hanoi Rocks guys are actually quite tall, but reed-like. Contrary to their oiled-up bodies, they are a tad slight.
I was surprised when I first met Manowar. I wailed ‘ lonely, lonely, lonely’ and Robert sang the final word, ‘ time’. Towards the end, Robert snaked his way through the crowd and sat on the side of the stage, tapping his feet. People didn’t believe I had the sack – the bollocks, as you might say – to sing a Zeppelin track.