THE BEAST

"I don't know if you know, but I invented stage diving," Snider tells us, although surely many punk rockers would take exception to this claim. Dee recalls his stage dive came about because of an incident with a bottle-throwing audience member at an early Twisted Sister show.

"This one night I'm onstage and it's packed, about 1000 people in a club that holds 500. And some guy throws a bottle at me," says Snider, who was incensed and tried to find the culprit in the crowd. After taunting the tosser, Snider decided he was ready to go after the guy and "stage diving" was born.

"I decided I'm going to swan dive off a six-foot-high stage into the crowd and the audience will catch me. I mean it's 1000 people in a 500 person room, how could they possibly not catch me?" ponders Snider, who adds, "What I did not account for, as the first stage diver, is that it is human nature that when you see approximately 185 pounds of silver Lamé, which is what I was wearing that night, flying your way, the human instinct is [to] get out of the way."

To say the least, Snider's stage dive did not go as expected, with the musician banging up his leg pretty significantly, and then still having to square off with the bottle-tosser, but that, too, went awry.

"The dude who threw the bottle is now in full kung-fu stance. I'm like, 'Oh damn, I'm not ready for this. I'm wearing Lamé.' So I look around quickly for my loyal minions who are going to get my back and there they are making room for the fight."

With a smile, Snider says, "If I could do it over, I think I'd explain to the audience, 'Listen, I'm going to jump into the crowd. Catch me and lower me safely to the ground. You, over there, if I get into trouble, bail me out.'" Watch Snider's hilarious recounting of the story in the player below. Via Loudwire