Veteran hard rock producer Tom Werman has once again fired back at Dee Snider over the TWISTED SISTER singer’s comments regarding their collaboration on the triple-platinum “Stay Hungry” album.
During a recent appearance on “The Jasta Show”, the Internet program hosted by HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta, Snider said: “Tom Werman, who produced ‘Stay Hungry’, he produced [MÖTLEY] CRÜE, he produced [Ted] Nugent, he produced CHEAP TRICK, MOLLY HATCHET, POISON… He produced so many bands. He’s got, like, 15 platinum albums to his credit. He walked into the studio and he says, ‘I don’t touch the board. I don’t write. I don’t create. I’ll just tell you if I like it or not.’ [And he was taking] eight points — eight freakin’ points,” referring to producer royalties which are a percentage of revenues earned by the work.
“Not only was he considered a producer, people were hiring him,” Dee continued. “And I’ve had a long-standing war with Tom Werman, ’cause I begged him to put ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ on the album, and ‘I Wanna Rock’. He didn’t want those two tracks on the record. I was on my knees in front of him… I wasn’t begging on my knees, but because he was sitting and there was noise going on… And he’s going, ‘Eh, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’, it’s a little [hums melody mockingly]’ I go, ‘Trust me. It’s gonna be edgier when we do it. That’s the thing. It’s catchy.’ And his answer was, ‘All right, if you really want it.’ Okay, that was ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’. And ‘I Wanna Rock’, he goes, ‘Eh, I’ve done that thing already with MOLLY HATCHET. [hums galloping rhythm]’ He was mocking my song. He actually presented me with SAXON songs to put on the ‘Stay Hungry’ album from [SAXON‘s] ‘Strong Arm of The Law’. He goes, ‘Check this out.’ I go, ‘Yeah, it’s SAXON.’ He goes, ‘It’s really good.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s SAXON.’ He goes, ‘Nobody really knows them.’ I said, ‘We’ve toured with them. It’s SAXON.’ … He wanted us to cover SAXON songs. And I love SAXON, but in my community, it was current. It was their album that came out last. And he had this attitude, like, they were European, they weren’t really big.”
After Snider‘s comments were published on BLABBERMOUTH.NET over the weekend, Werman released a statement to this site disputing several of Dee‘s assertions, including that he was receiving “eight points” for his contributions to the record.
Werman‘s full statement reads as follows: “Seriously? Again it’s time for Dee to flog the dead horse he hasn’t flogged for at least a few months — over 30 years later… I guess I should be flattered that I’m on his mind for so much time.
“It remains amusing that he trash-talks me for producing the one album that made him a multi-millionaire for life.
“His recollections of the ‘Stay Hungry’ sessions are as accurate as the recollections of Donald Trump.
“He got down on his knees? Please.
“Here’s a self-congratulating recording artist who ridicules a producer for suggesting, God forbid, that he might consider recording a song that he didn’t actually write all by himself. Such is his delicate ego, which apparently can’t accommodate sharing credit for any of his success, and which compels him to insult others because he’s insecure about himself.
“Does this remind us of anyone?
“He goes out of his way to insult me for three decades, but never managed to respond to my two polite, reasonable emailed requests to have me on his fair and balanced radio show so I could respond. It seems he’s incapable of leaving this alone.
“Check out the huge sales figures on the re-recorded, Snider-produced ‘Stay Hungry’ compared to the sales on the original, which by now must be over seven million. Then check out the number of times Snider has thanked his bandmates for their contributions to the success of that album.
“And yes, the eight-point royalty thing is simply a lie. Period. No producer in the history of recorded music got eight points. A good producer got four tops. I suppose the president of Atlantic Records called me to do their record because he knew I was an incompetent producer.
“Dee, give yourself a gift — you’d obviously be a happier guy if you could stop obsessing about me. Give it a rest, bud. Save your breath, save some time, try to forget me, and go enjoy your privileged life. You’re welcome.”
In a 2004 press release announcing the release of the re-recorded and expanded version of the classic 1984 album — under the new title “Still Hungry” — guitarist Jay Jay French said, “‘Still Hungry’ is ‘Stay Hungry – The Way It Ought to Be’. It has an ultra-heavy sound, which is the way we wanted ‘Stay Hungry’ in the first place. But at that time rock records had a thin, very midrange kind of sound and so ‘Stay Hungry’ was recorded very lightly. We battled Atlantic Records and producer Tom Werman about it, but we lost. These re-recordings are faithful to the original arrangements but they sound much heavier.”
