Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider is often outspoken and is also into a variety of charitable causes. Notably he helped raise awareness and money for the Station Family Fund, which was started to benefit the victims of the tragic 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island.
Snider recently told “Side Jams with Bryan Reesman” that his charitable outreach was inspired by wresting legend and WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley.
“Mick Foley, the wrestler — Mankind, Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and all those characters — he and I became very good friends,” Snider told “Side Jams.” “We lived near each other on Long Island, and we met and connected. Mick does insane amount of charity, and without making a big deal about it. Amazing. Put it this way — the man’s married and he’s got three or four kids.”
“Mick would just in his spare time, go and knock on doors and show up at kids houses that he knew had were dying of cancer and were fans of his, and hang out and watch TV with them. And he called me one day and says, ‘Listen, I’m visiting a kid in the hospital. He’s got leukemia, he’s a big fan of yours. Would you come with me?’ So I went to the hospital and met this kid and saw what the kid got out of it, out of just that moment.”
Snider continued: “When Mick drove me home, I said, ‘Mick, you made me a better man today.’ I’m getting a little choked up because I was so shaken. I said to myself, ‘Look at what Mick does, and look at what you don’t do.’ At the point, it was in the early 2000s, where I said, ‘I need to do more. I need to give back. I need to say yes.’ And not just send a guitar. By the way, all celebrities get these invitations, these opportunities to do more, and most of us just blow it off or send them an autographed picture or something. Thank you, Mick Foley, for waking me up and showing me that we can help. And there’s something more that we need to do.”
Snider has been involved with the March Of Dimes, Bikers For Babies, the Gibson Girl Foundation and the aforementioned Station Family Fund.
Talking about the victims and those affected by The Station fire Snider said: “Fortunately, with the help of some friends, we were able to do something significant eventually and help those people out. But not after years and years of being ignored and suffering — it was just awful what happened to those people up there. No money came at all to help these people. You were dealing with insane medical bills — thousands of dollars a day in the burn wards. It was crazy. Sixty kids were orphaned at that event.”
Snider eventually staged a benefit concert with Twisted Sister, Tesla, Winger, Aaron Lewis and others to raise nearly a half a million dollars. The bigger benefit, however, was that the awareness the show brought led to the victims families receiving much needed and overdue financial help.
“We couldn’t do anything huge, but the event reawakened the awareness,” Snider said. “And the lawyers and the insurance companies and the judges, all who were deadlocked about paying out, broke their freeze and paid out over $75 million to the fun. When I say people were made whole, of course they weren’t made whole, but at least they got the insurance money, and they were no longer living on couches, having lost their homes because they couldn’t work.”
“And that’s what I always tell people,” he continued. “Charity work isn’t just about what you do on the day of the event — how many people show up, how much money you raise that day — it’s about the awareness you raise for the cause while promoting it. Those people who hear about it because you were talking about it — maybe not now, but maybe the next time they’ll write a check, or they’ll throw some money in the bucket or whatever. These events are not just about raising money, it’s raising awareness that the need is out there.”
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