Dee Snider tells Rebublican Paul Ryan that he's not going to take it
He might have appalling hair, questionable taste in makeup, and zero idea how to dress himself tastefully, but Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider still gets a big thumbs up around the Straight water cooler.
Why, you might rightfully ask? Well, even though he’s always made music geared to the kind of loogans who majored in parking lot when they weren’t building bongs out of Bic pens and plastic 7-Up bottles, Snider has always stood up to America’s more intolerant right-wingers. Remember the ’80s, when he proved a surprisingly eloquent free-speech advocate who fought the good fight against Tipper Gore and the PMRC? Well, probably not, but that’s not the point.
What’s important is that Snider probably spent the ’00s every bit as disgusted by George W. Bush as the rest of us. So it was perhaps to be expected that the veteran metal singer would be outraged by the way right-wing Republican vice-president hopeful Paul Ryan has been running his campaign. More specifically, he’s pissed that Ryan has been using Twisted Sister’s ’80s anthem “We’re Not Going to Take It” at his campaign stops.
In a statement, Snider said “I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan’s use of my song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as recorded by my band Twisted Sister. There is almost nothing on which I agree with Paul Ryan, except perhaps the use of the P90X.”
The P90X is a workout plan that promises to get you in some semblance of shape in an eight-week time period.
Other acts who’ve been upset with their songs being used at Ryan rallies includes the Silversun Pickups, who requested that he stop playing their “Panic Switch”. Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello also expressed incredulity that the Republican candidate is on record as being a fan of his band. In a Rolling Stone op-ed, Morello wrote: “I wonder what Ryan’s favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of “Fuck the Police”? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!”
As for Ryan, he might want to expand his musical horizons if he needs soundtrack music for his next public appearance. Hasn’t he heard of Hank Williams Jr. or Toby Keith, both of whom are not only flamingly intolerant assholes, but damn fucking proud of it?
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