Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider will release his new solo album, We Are the Ones, in October.
The LP includes an acoustic version of Twisted Sister‘s 1984 anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” as a call to action for music industry workers to receive fair compensation. Check out the video, above.
The album’s exact release date, track listing and cover art weren’t revealed. The new acoustic “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” is currently available on iTunes.
“You can’t expect others to embrace what you do if you don’t embrace it yourself,” Snider says of his newly diverse musical direction. “I have to believe it first before I can expect anybody else to believe it. When you’re creating a new record, you want to make a statement, and you want to have music you can stand behind and feel strongly about. So it was a little unnerving when I started heading down this path. After [producer and songwriter] Damon [Ranger] and I cut the first four tracks, I said, ‘Oh yeah, there is a place for me here.’ This is music I feel excited about, and I also look forward to playing it live.”
The album’s newly recorded version of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has been tapped as the official anthem for the Recording Academy’s advocacy efforts on behalf of recording artists, including the “Fair Play Fair Pay” Act. The video details how pre-internet copyright laws limit the royalties collected by today’s creators, how radio corporations don’t pay performers or producers for radio play and how songwriters get below-market rates for their work based on a law from the piano player era.