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July 13, 2023 • 19 mins
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(00:00):
Yeah, Hi, there to Detroit'sWheels. Get in, sit down,
shut up, and start banging.It's Designer d How the heck are you.
It's Doug Podell. It's good totalk to you again. Good to
talk to you too, brother.How are you? Yeah, it's been
a while, but I'm doing good. We're rocking here at the Detroit's Wheels
and we've got a big event comingup with you in Livonia at the Rock

(00:24):
City Music Company. I can't believeyou just wrote a novel. This is
incredible, you know what. I'ma little disappointed, Doc said, you
are you are shocked that I wrotea novel. Of all people. I
like to think that I've kept surprisingpeople, though there's still people that are
shocked. I'm still alive, andyou know I've been writing. I started

(00:45):
writing after I created the Twister Sistericonic videos. We're not gonna take it.
I want to rock. They askedme what I want to do a
video, and I just told himverbally, well, father joan at the
kid, and the kid turns intome and he's blow the dad out the
window. And it was all broughtto life, and I became very,
very enamored with the idea of writingand creating like that. So I've been

(01:07):
writing ever since, and I justreleased my first novel, Frats. Right,
and you you've done a couple ofbooks, so I know that you
know, you're you're, you know, a good writer and certainly someone who
knows how to put the pen tothe paper. But a novel, and
it's kind of a crazy story.Uh, and from what I understand,
it's like partially true. So canyou fill us in a little bit without

(01:32):
giving away the story of Frats?Okay, well you know what, thanks
for now, Okay, thank youfor acknowledging that I've got a brain.
People that in eighty five when Iwent and testified, you know, before
send it on the PMRC censorship thingand people, that was the first time
people start going to, wait aminute, there's more to this guy with
the bar. Oh yeah, no, you knew what the bone you know,

(01:56):
you knew what you were doing backthen, no question, and you
and you helped a lot, awhole lot. Yeah. Well, I've
written a couple of books. Yet. There was a teenage Survival Guide in
the eighties which I co wrote,and then my memoirs I wrote myself Shut
up and give me the mic.But this is a novel. It's not
about it's not about me, it'snot about rock and roll, but as

(02:16):
a period piece set in the seventies, involved in Long Island, where I
grew up, and it's based onactual events. There was a gang system
back then that was called they werecalled fraternities. They had Greek letters,
and they had jackets and t shirtsand they seemed all legit. Except the
difference between a college fraternity and ahigh schoolternity is college fraternities played beer pong.

(02:39):
High school fraternities rumble, and thesewere just legalized gangs walking around the
hallway and people like me spend ordays trying not to get beat up.
And when I discovered this was aunique situation where I decided to tell the
story about these high school fraternities usingfictional characters. But all of the the

(03:00):
things that happened our true story,okay, and just keep them. It's
kind of like compared to the Outsiders, you remember that book in that movie,
it's kind of like that vibe,you know, they're d I don't
know if you read the news hererecently in Michigan, but there was a
pretty crazy fraternity hazing incident at NorthwesternCollege here in Michigan. That stuff still

(03:24):
continues to go on today. Soit's kind of a timely book to tell
you the truth. It does well, you know, and it talks about
you know, we like to thinkthat we're elevating ourselves, but not really,
not so much. And the highschool hazing practices of the of the
early seventies, these these high schoolattornies were eventually banned by the eighties because

(03:47):
as I don't want to give awaytoo much in the book, but but
people were nearly dying in these crazyrumbles and uh and someone almost died,
well it died, but they broughtthem back to life. Um now like
frankensteiner R, I think, justrevived, you know. But the but
you know, it was it's veryterrifying, the stupe level of stupidity that

(04:12):
men can get up to when they'reyou know, when they're they're just getting
crazy, you know. And thishazing thing is off the chain. So
is it just a story or isthere sort of a moral to the story
at the end of the book onyour part? Well, you know,
no wonder, you no wonder you'rea doctor by the way, By the

(04:34):
way, Doug, I saw yourdaughter filling in for you. Congratulations on
raising such a cool kid and asuccessful kid. But you're very proud man,
She's I watched that thing on YouTube. Um, But you know,
I was wondering. I grew upin this town from the time I was
in elementary school. It was thelay of the land. You knew.

(04:55):
Oh, stay away from this street, stay away from that street. Avoid
these guys. These are the landand minds in your town. Like I
said, you know, I wasthis big, weird dude just trying to
not to get my ass kicked.And I said, what if you will
just dropped into that situation? Whatif you just arrived as as my main
character Bobby Kovacs does, transfers thereand his senior year of high school walks

(05:18):
in, not knowing it's a mindfield, not knowing the lay of the
land, and an effort to helpa friend who is being beaten up by
these guys. He steps in,but then draws the ire. There's a
word for you of this very evilfraternity who now out for his blood,
and it changes his wife, andagain I get thought moral. It was

(05:41):
like the moral is be careful.One moment in your life can change your
it can change you can change everythingfor better or for worse, but forever.
And this guy tries to do something, you know, the decent thing,
and winds up at a downward spiralthat well, I don't want to
say it doesn't have a happy ending. There is a mile at the end,
but but it does ruin his lifefor quite a while. Okay,

(06:02):
Well, we don't want to giveaway too much, and we will have
a Q and a session at RockCity Music Company and Lavonia when you come
in, and they'll be guests thereand they can, you know, kind
of drill a little deeper down intothe book. But um, you know,
everything that you've touched in that regardhas all been successful. D So,

(06:23):
but do you like envision this couldbe a movie at some points like
The Outsiders? You know, Iwhen I was I've written many screenplays,
I had some produce, I've soldsome. You know. I've got a
children's animated series called Monsters Rock that'sin development over a Peacock right now.
So I've done a lot of thesethings. And this originally I was going

(06:44):
to write a stuff, a screenplay, but it was dree Covid and I
had some time on my hands,and I decided, you know, I
said, you know, I've alwaysthought about writing a novel, and this
could make a really good book.So I decided again, I like to
challenge myself. You know, I'veso many different things, as you know.
I mean, god, I wason Broadway in Rock of Ages,

(07:04):
and I remember when I got thatgig. I was like, you know,
they asked if I would be interested. I said sure. Then I
got a call from my manager andhe says, you're in. I'm like,
I'm in. Watch he know,You're in Rock of Ages in two
weeks. And I've never done anythinglike that in my life. Yeah,
and there I was on Broadway singing, dancing, acting. But the novel

(07:25):
idea originally was The Frats was goingto be a movie, but I decided
to make a novel out of it. I would love for somebody to pick
it up because it's got It reallydoes have potential. It's very action packed,
it's a real page turner. It'sonly a little over two hundred pages.
It's a great summer read. It'ssummer read. And uh, people
say that, you know, theycan't put the book down, And I

(07:45):
promise you people. I am literateyou he will. He'll not be writing
the reading the inarticulate ranting of someeighties rock star. No. No,
that's great. Uh. And it'scalled frats once again. So people should
get out there and pick it upand check it out. And and of
course we'll have them at the eventwhen you when you're out there, and

(08:05):
you'll be signing books and taking pictures, signing a few other pieces when I'm
there, go up to three otherpieces that you bring. Record a lot
of people. Have you seen thefunk Go pop of me? Yes?
I have people showing up in rowswith the funk Oh. I love that
sign. I might have to getone of those. And I've got you.
I'll definitely sign a couple more thingsfor people besides the book. If

(08:26):
you get a book, you know, signs of albums or funk oh,
whatever you got and you know,And like I said, I don't,
I don't get out there too muchanymore. So be a good chance for
me to see my my peeps.Yeah, and the d Twist, it's
just a house of hair, DougTell, remember that? Remember the hr
Wage Man? Oh? Hell yeah? Now are you still doing that show?
Twenty seven? Years. Who inthe House of Hair. Yeah,

(08:50):
so you were, and we werein the first play it, I think,
yeah, one of the first.Yeah, we absolutely were the first.
You kidding many first, my friend. So I'm still doing that show.
So it'll be good to see myfriends and fans and followers in the
Detroit area. So please come outand check out my book, Frats,
I promise you love it. So, you know, when we announced this

(09:13):
thing, I got a couple ofcalls, people said, why is d
Snyder do eat a book and notan album? So what do you say
to that? D? You know, I've actually was looking and I've done
more albums post Twisted Sister than Idid with Twisted Sister. Not as successful,
not as successful, but I've doneand after Twisted broke up, I

(09:37):
did three solo albums and the lastI was really happy with. The last
album I did leave a Score,and before that one For the Love of
Metal to Powerhouse Records, and Ijust got to the point where I said,
you know what, I never plannedon being that guy that was on
tour forever, on the road,forever, recording forever. In my mind,

(10:00):
I was always well, first ofall, I was going to be
dead at thirty five, so,uh, you know, everything, But
I just planned. I just alwayswanted to be a person to challenge myself
to try new and different things.And you know, so you know,
I've written stage plays and I've donemovies and acting. I mean, you
know, I said, Broadway andvoiceover and radio. So I'm just all
about challenging myself to do things.And you know what, I think some

(10:22):
of these things we're better with age, so to speak. I don't want
to watch pat my audience coming towatch me get old on stage. You
know, it's you know, Ididn't as long as I could and do
a good job, but I reallyfelt like I was not delivering the d
Snyder intensity that people came to knowand a couple of years ago and I

(10:45):
said, you know what, Ithink it's better if I, you know,
I leave the stage now with mydignity intact. Well, I don't
know. I mean, you couldlook at it either way. But you
still have your health. You lookfantastic, your your body is in great
shape. And uh, you know, and the and the music of Twisted
Sister, you know, bizarrely enough, is the classic rock of today,

(11:11):
and people want to get out thereand see this band. I mean,
we play you so much that youknow, people still think you're a current
band. A lot of people,you know, but you know what,
I appreciate that, you know.But you know, back in the day,
the girls that came to see you, they were thirty eight seas.
Now they're thirty eight long. Notthe same. Yeah, and you know

(11:33):
what we're the men aren't doing muchbetter. People keep complaining that their concert
teas are shrinking. They ain't shrinking. You're growing. You're growing, all
right. So I'm sure I readthis article though, that there is gonna
be a re release of one ofyour rare I guess the your rarest album,

(11:56):
the first album that has a bunchof cover songs design it is?
Is that true? Do you?What do you know about that? You
know? JJ French guitar player TwistSister Short Nair. He is the manager
of the band. And when Isay the band, the corporation that is
Twisted Sister, because we don't performanymore and he's trying to turn us into

(12:20):
the tupoxer core of heavy metal.I mean he's releasing anything and everything he
can find, and so you know, I mean, I don't know that's
like, but if you say so, it doesn't surprise me. I'm mortified
as some of the things that arebeing released. You know, I wrote
all the songs, and Twisted tooka long time to get a deal.
When he's released some of these earlydemos. When I listened to him song

(12:41):
as I wrote, I go,no wonder when you get a record deal.
Oh my god, they're awful,you know, so you know,
I mean so, the fact isit's the hardcore fan is all out there.
The thing I'm really hoping that hegets too, sooner or later,
is when we did in twenty sixteenor Farewell tour. We've brought a film
prow that film. We only didabout twenty five Farewell shows and they filmed

(13:05):
them all, and I would loveto see if we talk about the supposed
to be in the works a Farewelllive record from it, and these a
big show's all over the world.So I really hope that that sees the
light of day. All right.So I also saw here recently that there's
going to be a Rock Island Festcoming back to Key West twenty twenty four,

(13:26):
and they've got you on there withLou Graham, and Brett Michaels and
it looks like a huge classic rockfestival, so you're definitely coming back out
to do some music, right Yeah. And people say, well, didn't
you just say you stopped. Igo out and I do these all star
things where I do two or threesongs, you know. I do Kings

(13:50):
of Chaos Matt Sorum's all star band. And it's great. It's fun,
you know, when out with BillyGibbons and and Wilson and you know,
and and and you know somebody amazingplayers. Uh and we you know,
ro Robin Zander was out there withme and uh, you know, you
got you got Warren D. Martinion guitar, and you know, and
you just got these great players anduh, we go out and I can

(14:13):
do a few songs with jam.You know. That's I'd still do that,
you know. And it gives mejust as fun to get out to
with friends. It's not as intenseas doing a two hours set, which
to me was a lot of pressurebecause I've been seeing twenty five songs and
you know, and it's just andand you know, and carrying the weight
of the band on my shoulders,rocking out on that stage, so you
know, to go out, togo down to the rock island, fast

(14:35):
to a few songs, hang out, my friends, have a good time.
I and I do a bunch ofthose things. I know, we
got one come up in Wyoming andthey are popping up all over the place,
but it's it's always like two orthree songs. So I'm listening to
you right now, and I justhear a ball of energy out there,
and I'm trying to figure out howyou power yourself down to concentrate and put

(14:58):
out a novel, not just amemoir, which you've already done, but
uh, you know, a novel, And are you thinking about doing another
one? Now? No, I'vegot nothing. Next thing I've got on
my horizons is directing my first moviecalled My Enemy's Enemy, But right now
we dealing with a couple of prettybig strikes. They may have heard of

(15:20):
it. Yeah, yeah, sothat's delayed. But you know, when
I have another idea, I definitelywould write another one, but I tune.
I turned that same energy into whateverI'm doing, so when it comes
time to start writing. And mykids they're all grown now, but they'll
marvel how I change hats. Yousee me? In my office and I'll
go from working on my book toworking on a you know, on the

(15:41):
radio show, to working on doingsome voice over day back in the day
writing music songs. And I justhave the ability to refocus. So I'll
use that same intensity, by theway, fueled by caffeine. Baby,
And I got my own coffee forthe love of Coffee available on dead sled
Coffee dot com The Siders for theLove of Coffee. It's my own brew

(16:03):
anyway. But I use that sameenergy and what every I do. But
I am able to focus. Andmy wife often marvels at that. How
I can just look at the youknow, to computer and just start typing
away. You do have a lotof hats, no question. And you
have a great family. How's thefamily doing. I know you've got kids
and grandkids do right, you know, family's doing great? Um where you

(16:26):
know how great? I mean?Look, I'm blessed, Doug, you
know I really am. I meanforty seven years was the same woman,
uh you know the man we managedthat keep holding together. And I say
that is mostly thanks to who's thatpatience, understanding and forgiveness Quite honestly,
Yes, you know I came ina very world, from a very wild

(16:47):
world. You know, she's anamazing woman. But we've got to We
raised a family and we're really tired. A matter of fact, we're right
now. We all live out onthe West coast now, but we're all
looking at property. We're planning onbuilding family compound. And I know I'm
not a survivalist, just that ideaof the whole family being in, you
know, in one place together,your own little village. So I'm really

(17:11):
blessed to I love that family thatlove each other and are healthy and happy
and and uh, you know,and you are too. Man Like I
said, I saw your daughter doinga thing very impressive. Yeah. No,
yeah, she just had a littlegirl herself. So I'm a grandfather
now, which is grass dude.How does that feel? Yeah, it
feels pretty good, you know.I said, Hey, you know,

(17:32):
everybody said, oh, Doug,it's going to change your life. I
go, come on, I'm thedoctor rock. How can my life be
changed? And uh, it certainlyhas. It has absolutely changed my life,
you know, I said. Oneof the first one. I said,
it's surreal. Don't think like,oh damn, I'm that granddad now,
you know. But it felt rightlike you're at a point in your

(17:52):
life where you're going, Yeah,this is this is the right thing right
now, you know, and uhand I'm sure And a great part you
know, you've hurted a million timeslisteners out there as well. Yeah.
The great thing is at the endof the day you give them back.
Oh that's so wonderful. They're typer. Do you want to take this there?
There is truth to that, deepit is. It is. Uh,

(18:15):
it's great talking to you. It'sgonna be great to see you out
there at Rock City Music Company inLivonia. That's going to be coming up
and uh, I definitely want touh, you know, drilled down into
the book. But that's coming upon July nineteenth. Those tickets are still
I guess there's some standing room availableat rock City musicco dot com. So

(18:37):
you gotta say something there, Yeah, something. I don't know about the
Q and A air. It's apart of it. But as far as
I'm coming to town, I'm therefor one reason to meet people in sign
books. I gotta know where Igotta go. I got I got no
appointments, you know, I don'tparty, so I will be there if
people are there. I will sign. Okay, to the bitter end,

(18:57):
all of his books are signed,his people meet, I will be there.
So if they tell you, oh, well, you know, we're
only a few thickets left, whatever, should come on down. I'm looking
up forward to seeing everybody. Allright, all right, Well, there
you go. So from from Dee'slips to the rest of the world,
there you go. And h DSnyder dot com for information on what's going
on in Dee's life, and there'sa lot. Thank you, my brother.

(19:18):
All right, Dee, we'll seeyou here. And thanks for rocking
with Detroit's wheels today. Brother.I can't wait to see you always,
always a pleasure today all right,by bye, buddy,
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