Dee Snider Opens Up About an Emotional Mushroom Ceremony Experience

Dee Snider, the outspoken frontman of Twisted Sister, has shed light on the deeply personal health struggles that recently led him to step away from the band and cancel their planned 50th-anniversary shows. In a candid revelation shared via social media and an accompanying video, Snider detailed both the physical and emotional toll he has been facing — and an unconventional path he chose in search of healing.

Health Battles Behind the Scenes

In a post on X, Snider thanked fans for their concern and encouraged them to watch a video explaining what he has been experiencing. The clip, originally shared as an Instagram reel by the podcast Acid For Squares, features Snider speaking openly about his health and a recent experience he describes as a “mushroom ceremony.”

In the longer version of the video, Snider reveals that he is dealing with degenerative arthritis in his shoulders, hypertension, and high blood pressure, and has already undergone hip replacement surgery. The accumulation of these issues, he explains, has forced him to confront both his physical limitations and his own mortality.

Encouragement from Family and Friends

Acid For Squares is co-hosted by Snider’s son, filmmaker Cody Blue Snider, who provides additional context in the video. Blue explains that watching his father navigate serious medical conditions while also witnessing the deaths of longtime peers has been emotionally overwhelming.

“I feel like it’s been very challenging for my father to be facing these health complications, facing his own mortality, while simultaneously having his peers pass away all around him,” Blue says. “Hulk Hogan has passed, Ozzy Osborne has passed, Ace Frehley, many others.”

Blue describes the situation as “an eerie environment” for his father, adding that the idea of the mushroom ceremony gained momentum after a conversation with Jack Osbourne, son of the late Ozzy Osbourne.

“When we told Jack what was happening with my father and that we were thinking of giving him mushrooms to see if it would help with his heart, Jack looked at us and said, ‘You have to do this,’” Blue recalls. “‘Mushrooms have saved my life. They healed me of addiction. Healed me in so many ways. And it was my dream to get my father Ozzy to do mushrooms to see if it would help with his Parkinson’s. And we never got to do it.’”

A Profound and Emotional Experience

Despite a lifetime of sobriety, Snider says the ceremony itself was transformative. “It was very psychedelic, for lack of a better word, very organic, moving,” he explains. He also recalls hearing ominous music during the experience, describing it as sounding like “the best Black Sabbath album ever.”

Visibly emotional, Snider goes on to describe encountering a presence he refers to as “It,” a telepathic guide that helped him gain clarity about his relationships with his wife, daughter, and father.

Cody Blue closes the video with an emotional tribute to his father’s courage. “Let me tell you, I have never been more proud of this man in my entire life,” he says. “He’s done so many great things. He’s an amazing person. He’s an amazing father. And I have never been more proud sitting there and watching him face his trauma, face his pain, face his shadow, and move through it in the name of healing for himself, for his family, being brave and courageous, facing the darkness.”

For Snider, the experience represents not just an attempt at physical relief but a rare moment of introspection during a career defined by volume, defiance, and survival.