By Jonann Brady
On Sunday, Snider, who grew up in Baldwin and skyrocketed to fame with the band Twisted Sister, received an honorary doctorate from the New York College of Health Professionals in Syosset.
"I'm pleasantly surprised. Everything after 1990 has been a surprise," joked Snider, who lives in Stony Brook with his wife and four kids.
Snider was honored not for penning teen rebel anthems like "We're Not Gonna Take It," but for fighting against music censorship in the 1980s.
Students at the College of Health Professionals, which awards degrees in holistic medicine, accupuncture and massage therapy, feel a special kinship with the maverick rocker.
"People who used to go to this college were thought of as out of the mainstream. Dee's testifying against censorship set him out of the mainstream and he suffered for it," said Barbara Carver, a school spokesperson.
Alternative medicine, like Snider, has "come into its own" over the past two decades, said Carver.
Snider has his plate full these days, hosting a morning radio show in Hartford, dee-jaying the syndicated "House of Hair" radio show and being the voice of MSNBC. He also plays a convincing Dee Snider in the recent VH-1 movie "Warning: Parental Advisory" about his battle against music labeling.
Growing up, Snider said he was an "outcast" at Baldwin High School who sang in the choir and wore a top hat to school. In the mid-1970s, he had hooked up with the other members of Twisted Sister and the group made a living as a touring bar band on Long Island.
In the mid-80s heavy metal glam bands reared their hairy heads again and Twister Sister rode the wave to stardom on Snider's angry anthems and outrageous get-ups.
Also at that time, the Parents' Music Resource Council, led by Tipper Gore, lobbied Congress to force record companies to label records with "controversial" lyrics dealing with sex, drugs, violence or the occult.
Sporting long, frizzy locks, slashes of blush and eyeshadow and a big mouth, Snider became the face of all that was wrong with heavy metal music to many parents. As such, Snider was asked to testify to Congress on behalf of artists, and he became one of the most identifiable, and articulate, voices against record labeling.
"They thought they had me figured out. They thought they would get me up there and make a fool out of me," said Snider, who shattered the public's perception of him by turning out to be "clean, sober and pretty...smart."
For his part, Snider says he "played it up to the hilt," but many of his young fans, learning that their rebel icon had a wife and two kids and didn't guzzle Jack Daniels or shoot heroin, became disenchanted.
Snider, too, eventually became disillusioned with his persona.
"I remember sitting poolside near the million dollar house, five cars, two boats and trying to write the latest song on teen angst, and I thought, 'I just don't feel it anymore.'," he said.
Now Snider plays the role of suburban dad. With four kids ages 19 to 5, he is a visible presence at high school football games and track meets, but his rocking past still turns up for guest appearances. Recently, he was at a daughter's softball game, and the opposing team started singing "We're Not Gonna Take It."
"You can't use my song against my team!" laughed Snider.
Snider says he was also ahead of the curve when it comes to rocker-as-suburban-dad reality TV. Six years before "The Osbournes" put Ozzy Osbourne's riotous clan under the microscope, Snider said he was developing a show with MTM Productions called "The Sniders of Great Neck."
"It would be like 'Everybody Loves Raymond' with me as the star," said Snider.
When asked how he handles it when his own kids listen to music with violent or offensive lyrics, he said he uses it as a forum to discuss current issues.
"As long as they understand what's wrong with a song, I'm comfortable with them listening to anything," he said.
But even Snider can't help taking a little jab at the heir apparent to the most-hated-musician-in-America throne. Recently, as he was listening to Marilyn Manson with one of his teenagers, the new doctor made his own diagnosis: "Cheer up. You're a millionare. What are you so pissed off about?"
