Dee Snider, the 70-year-old frontman who became the voice and face of Twisted Sister for half a century, has resigned from the band. The remaining dates on Twisted Sister's 50th anniversary concert tour are canceled.
The announcement came via a statement on the band's website this week, and it paints a picture that fans never saw coming — though Snider, apparently, has been fighting through it for years.
Snider's representative laid it out plainly:
"A lifetime of legendarily aggressive performing has taken its toll on Dee Snider's body and soul. Unbeknownst to the public (until now) Snider (70) suffers from degenerative arthritis and has had several surgeries over the years just to keep going, able to only perform a few songs at a time in pain."
Several surgeries. Pain through every set. And nobody knew.
But it's not just the joints. The statement revealed that Snider recently learned his heart has also paid the price for decades of full-throttle performing:
"Adding insult to injury, Dee has recently found out the level of intensity he has dedicated to his life's work has taken its toll on his heart as well. He can no longer push the boundaries of rock 'n' roll fury like he has done for decades."
Degenerative arthritis and a compromised heart — either one alone could end a career. Together, they ended Snider's on his own terms, as Breitbart reports.
What stands out here isn't the diagnosis. It's the decision. Snider didn't fade. He didn't limp through a farewell tour on a stool with an acoustic guitar and a teleprompter. He chose the door.
"I don't know of any other way to rock. The idea of slowing down is unacceptable to me. I'd rather walk away than be a shadow of my former self."
There's something deeply respectable about a man who refuses to dilute what he built. In a culture that rewards the endless grift — the reunion cash grab, the nostalgia circuit, the half-speed legacy act — Snider did the harder thing. He stopped.
His representative closed with a borrowed line that landed perfectly:
"In the immortal words of Dirty Harry, 'A man's got to know his limitations.' Sadly, Dee Snider now knows his."
Not everyone saw this coming. Bandmates Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda issued their own statement, calling Snider's exit "sudden and unexpected." They said the fate of Twisted Sister will be determined in the coming weeks.
That's a telling detail. Whatever conversations led to Snider's decision, they apparently didn't include the rest of the band until the end. Whether that reflects the severity of his condition, his personality, or both, the result is the same — Twisted Sister's 50th anniversary celebration is over before it finishes.
There's a cultural thread worth pulling here. Snider performed through degenerative arthritis for years. Multiple surgeries. Pain every night. He told no one. He didn't post about it. He didn't launch a GoFundMe or turn his condition into a brand. He just kept showing up until his body wouldn't let him anymore.
That ethos — quiet endurance, work as identity, refusal to be pitied — is increasingly countercultural. We live in an era that rewards vulnerability as performance, where broadcasting your suffering is a form of social currency. Snider did the opposite. He hid the suffering and delivered the work.
You don't have to be a Twisted Sister fan to recognize what that costs a man, or to respect the kind of stubbornness it requires.
At 70, after five decades of performing at an intensity that wrecked his body and strained his heart, Dee Snider refused to give anyone a lesser version of himself. He gave them nothing instead — and somehow, that's the most rock 'n' roll exit imaginable.
