Dee Snider talks about when he met Ritchie Blackmore and Billy Joel

Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider revealed that the first two first celebrities he ever met were Billy Joel and Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple). The musician shared the story in an interview with KNAC and said his first impression of Blackmore wasn’t very good.

When asked who was the first celebrity he ever met, Dee Snider said:

“Wow! What an interesting question. It had a massive effect on me, just massive. Billy Joel. It was before Twisted made it, we were this local phenomenon, but Billy Joel was Billy Joel.”

“It was at a party, I remember [classic Deep Purple guitarist] Ritchie Blackmore was there too. Ritchie Blackmore was so weird, standoffish, odd – he wouldn’t look you in the eye, he was mumbly, he shook your hand like it was a wet fish! I wasn’t famous then.”

“Billy Joel was gracious, self-deprecating, and open. I remember there was one of the radio stations in New York City that was having a subway campaign. So I took one of the posters and brought it to the party because I knew he would be there.”

“I presented it to him to sign, he looked at it and said, ‘I’m surprised somebody didn’t draw a mustache on this’? [Laughs] I said, ‘What?!’ He said, ‘Oh, I would have definitely have drawn a mustache on this!’ [Laughs]”

“He changed me that day. I said to myself, ‘This is how I want to be around fans.’ When he walked away the general consensus was, ‘Wow! What a cool guy!’ It was a huge contrast from when Blackmore walked away and everyone was like, ‘Wow! What a diiiiiiiiick!’ I knew what I wanted people to say when I walked away: ‘What a cool guy.’ That experience changed me forever.”