Twisted Sister vocalist Dee Snider recently took to Twitter to argue that Robert Plant and the late Ronnie James Dio were not great frontmen.

Snider said he admires the rock legends as singers, but added that they lacked excitement onstage as performers.

The argument about the issue started when Snider praised late drummer Cozy Powell, who was a bandmate with Dio in Rainbow and played on select tracks on Plant’s debut solo album, Pictures at Eleven.

After a fan tweeted that Dio was the second best frontman after Freddie Mercury, Snider responded, “You are confusing singing with performing. There is a huge difference between a great frontman & a great singer. Ronnie was one of the greatest singers of all time, but as a frontman, he pretty much just stood on stage & sang. Freddie was an amazing singer AND frontman.”

Then, after another fan mentioned Plant, Snider wrote, “I’m a HUGE Plant fan vocally…but he showed me nothing as a performer. Looked amazing, great hair…stood on stage with one hand raised and sang his ass off. Not a frontman in my opinion. And FYI many great frontmen are not great singers.”

After someone tweeted, calling Snider’s thoughts on Dio an “absurd take,” Snider replied, “I toured with him. … He is one of my vocal heroes, but… My frontmen are all over the stage and interact with the crowd. Showmen. Think David Lee Roth, Paul Stanley, Mick Jagger, Freddy Mercury, Axl Rose…the list goes on.”

Making a distinction between performing and “stage presence,” Snider commented, “I knew this would upset people. I am NOT saying that Dio, Plant etc, don’t have stage presence. They have it in SPADES! But they are not performers.”

(Photo: Alfred Nitsch)

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