Dee Snider Didn't Go on 'The Masked Singer' Season 1 Because He Thought the Show Would 'Never Work' (Exclusive)

The Twisted Sister rocker competed as Doll on the Fox singing competition

Dee Snider simply won't take being eliminated from The Masked Singer.

"My wife is really disappointed," the Twisted Sister rocker, who competed as Doll, tells PEOPLE. "She knows that I could have gone the distance. I was a classically trained countertenor, originally. I can sing. I've sung opera. I've sung a wide range of things in my lifetime. But unfortunately, I didn't go."

The father of four entered the competition on '80s Night with "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds and went out Wednesday on Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock." Snider, 68, says that due to the show's rigorous rehearsal process, his voice "was wearing out" by the time he got to his final performance.

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"That was the eighth time I sang 'Jailhouse Rock,'" he said. "I don't sing professionally anymore. So I'm not in fighting shape, so to speak. I was unhappy that by the time I got the sing 'Jailhouse,' it was a little raspier than I wanted it to be."

Snider shares why he likens his Doll costume to "a sensory deprivation chamber," what he considers his greatest career accomplishment and the legacy of "We're Not Gonna Take It."

Your name has been brought up for years on The Masked Singer for years. Why finally do the show?

DEE SNIDER: The truth is, they asked me to be on season 1, and I said, "Oh, this'll never work." Season 9, they asked me back and I go, "Well, I guess it worked." So I was wrong; the show worked. I was wrong about Sharknado as well, by the way. They asked me to be in the first Sharknado, I said, "Oh, that'll never work." So, I'm not always right.

It's not a bad thing to be picky about what you want to do at this point in your career.

Well, I had already been told I was doing too much for reality TV. At a certain point, they had a roast for me, and Zakk Wylde from Ozzy Osbourne's band said, "Dee, this isn't a roast, it's an intervention. You got to stop doing all this reality TV." That was a few years ago, so I've been staying away. I put my toe back in the water this time.

Did anyone reach out to you suspecting you were on the show?

This is the third time that I've gotten these texts, with Johnny Rotten saying, "Is it you, Dee?" I saw that in Vegas I was the odds-on favorite to be the Doll. I didn't realize they placed bets on that. But they also had me as top three to go the distance. Sorry to disappoint you, Vegas. The judges, they got very close, but they didn't mention my name. While on social media, people were lighting up and going, "That's Dee Snider." It was so obvious.

What did you think of the guesses you were getting from the judges? Sebastian Bach and Gene Simmons came up a few times.

These are my peers. I said, well, they're definitely in the ballpark here. David Lee Roth, Axl Rose, it's the world I come from. Gene Simmons, if they thought about it, they'd realize he doesn't have a voice. Well, I don't think people expect me to sing like I sang "Don't You (Forget About Me)."

Did you choose unexpected songs to show people that you have that range?

Very much so. It was deception, trying to throw people off.

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You're known for your big stage presence and energy. Was it challenging to hold back while performing in costume?

It's a very difficult show on so many levels. The costume is very disorienting. It's like a sensory deprivation chamber in there. I used to wear really high heels. I figured, oh, I could do this again. But when I used to wear high heels, I could see my feet. I could see where I was going. I didn't think about that with this big headpiece on. You have a little tiny strip that you're looking out of a screen and you're trying to see the words. I wasn't ready for that. The level of difficulty is really incredible. I would like to go full bore, but wearing those heels and not being able to see where you're going — I could go off the edge of the stage.

Judge Ken Jeong called you a legend when you were unmasked. What are you most proud of at this point in your life?

People are going to say my four children, but setting that aside, setting aside 47 years with the same woman, setting aside coming out of the '80s relatively unscathed and living my dream. All that [aside], I have to say, speaking out for other people's rights. I continue to do that. I did it in '85 when I went to Washington to fight censorship. There was a major thing about me endorsing a fight for gun control as a gun owner and fighting for gun control. There's a lot of important causes out there, women's right to choose. I'm most proud that I've become a voice for the people that need someone to speak on their behalf. I'll continue to do that.

How are your kids doing? Your daughter had gotten stuck in Peru at the beginning of COVID.

Everybody is doing great. They're all in the entertainment business. My wife and I are both creatives and we both encourage them to explore their creativity, but it's often a difficult path. There's a lot of luck and timing that goes into it. I was blessed to have had the success I've had. So many people dream of it and don't get there. My daughter is in fashion. My daughter, we got her out of Peru with her total snotty attitude intact. She has no idea how close she came to very awful things possibly happening down there. But she's as smug as ever. I love her.

What are you envisioning for the next phase of your career?

When everybody was out partying for the last 30 years, I was in my dressing room and my hotel room working on writing screenplays and books. Now I've been writing for over 30 something years and I'm going to direct my first feature film coming up this year called My Enemy's Enemy, [out] on May 22. My first fictional novel, it's called Frats is being published on May 22. In June, a graphic novel called He's Not Going To Take It, which is not just about the Senate hearings in the '80s, but also why me? I'm really looking to get more behind the camera, a lot of writing, things like that. That's where I love being right now.

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When you released "We're Not Gonna Take It," did you imagine that it would become an anthem that is still relevant nearly 40 years later?

I knew it was a hit when I wrote it, but I never imagined. I didn't have a lot of hits, but they have a life of their own. It's taken almost a folk song status now. The whole world knows this song and many don't know who sang it in the first place. It's just a song that everybody knows at this point. It's also people using it for all sorts of causes, which is my intention. I was an angry young man writing about teachers, and bosses, and parents, and I'm not going to take it anymore. Now it goes from women's right to choose, to QAnon, to gun control, to Republican rallies, and some things I stand with, like gun control and women's rights and gay rights. But when QAnon is using it as their song on all their videos, I can't say "you can't use it" because that's censorship. I'm the fight censorship guy. I can't be censoring. But I will speak out and say, "I do not stand with these people" and I want that to be clear. But I will not try and stop them from using the song.

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The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

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