Dee Snider recently attended Metal Godz Radio and talked about touring back in the ’80s. He compared touring with Iron Maiden to Dio and confessed that while working with Iron Maiden was great, they didn’t feel important with Dio.

Twisted Sister’s frontman is a personality that disagrees with the labeling of bands. TW was considered a glam metal band because of their makeup and looks, yet Snider admitted he didn’t want to be called that because he thought it was inappropriate. He also stated recently that metal bands don’t like being labeled as sub-genres either.

It is safe to say that Snider is in the industry due to his passion for metal music, and that is why he had a great time touring with Iron Maiden in ’84 because the metal genre wasn’t separated into categories. Twisted Sister was the opening band, but because people loved metal, they came earlier than the main act to enjoy the music.

Here is how he felt about Iron Maiden:

“That’s when tours were tours and men were men. There was no ‘hair metal’ — it was just ‘metal.’ In ’84 when we toured with Maiden, it had not been branded ‘hair metal.’ So, Mötley Crüe toured with Ozzy, and that tour [with Maiden] was one of the great tours. Five nights sold out at the Long Beach Arena.

We were the opening band, and it was packed. When we hit the stage, it was packed. Usually, in the opening band, people show up late. No, everybody was there to see Twisted, they were there to see Maiden.”

Touring with Dio, on the other hand, was not a great experience. Unlike the tour with Iron Maiden, the band didn’t attract attention, mainly because the stage’s layout was uncomfortable as Dio’s equipment was everywhere and they didn’t have enough space to perform.

Here is how he felt about Dio:

“Dio — and I love Dio, and I love Ronnie, but when we toured with Dio, they wouldn’t move any of their equipment, so we were forced onto the lip of the stage in front of the lights so you couldn’t see us. We got no spotlights. They reduced the P.A. That’s the way a lot of those old bands did it.”

You can watch the full interview below.