I have had a super hard time getting back into the blogging routine after vacation. Isn’t that how it always is? You need a vacation to recover from your vacation, and I’ve certainly acted like I was still on vacation this week, despite having a few long days at work.

Anyway, back to interview week(s), where the next question comes from Mickey, who is off roaming in the mountains of Wyoming somewhere: If you could have been in one 80’s metal band, which would you choose? And what instrument would you play? Or would you sing?

Wow, that is such a good question, and I think it was the one I struggled most with because I obviously take my ’80s music seriously and it was hard to narrow the field.

KISS sings a song that I completely identify with (though I cannot reveal which song here on the blog), but that particular song was released in the ’70s, so I guess that puts them off the table. I think I’d get sick of doing the makeup anyway. Poison sings my favorite ’80s power ballad (Every Rose Has Its Thorn), and Guns N’ Roses is my absolute favorite ’80s metal band of all time, and the one I feel has withstood the test of time.

The only thing about those three bands is I actually discovered them all in the ’90s after I discovered there was a world of music out there beyond the oldies and easy listening stations my parents listened to on the radio. BUT, there is one metal band I formed a connection with in the ’80s: Twisted Sister.

Now for story time in which the Modern Gal really reveals how much of a dork she is. (I know it’s long, but stick with me. I PROMISE it’s worth it.)

How did I form a connection with Twisted Sister in the ’80s? Does anyone remember the Flight of the Navigator? If you do, then you probably get the Twisted Sister reference. If not, read on.

Flight of the Navigator was this Disney movie, which in retrospect was incredibly lame, but to a budding young nerd in the late ’80s it was AWESOME. So awesome that my best friend and I would watch it every time we spent the night at one another’s houses. The premise is that this kid falls into a ravine in the late ’70s and wakes up in the mid ’80s without having aged. NASA wants to study him to see why. The key to getting him back to the ’70s where he belongs is this robot named Max (voiced by Pee Wee Herman) and his flying saucer which can zip him back through time. There’s more to the plot than that, but it’s been so danged long since I’ve actually seen it, I really don’t remember.

ANYWAY, there’s a scene while he’s at NASA where, OMG, SARAH JESSICA PARKER! … (those reading through your blogreader should click through now to see awesome SJP video)

After he points out her purple hair, she goes on to say she had gone to a Twisted Sister concert the night before, and he’s like who are those girls? And she’s all, ‘they’re not girls.’ Yadda, yadda, yadda.

So at the tender young age of 8, I had no clue of any of the music Twisted Sister sang (We’re Not Gonna Take It would eventually work itself into my ’80s music rotation), but any group of male musicians who called themselves Twisted Sisters and compelled someone like SJP to turn her hair purple was a band that rocked my tiny little world. The name Twisted Sister would stick with me forever.

Now, here’s where the story comes full circle: Fast forward to February 2008, when I find out that I’m getting the job that’s going to officially transfer me from Nashville to Knoxville. My boss calls me into his office to tell me the news and then shares the news with the rest of my co-workers, who clap and congratulate me. One co-worker, whose job description has him interacting with famous people day in and day out, was on the phone at the time. He got off the phone and said he had been talking to someone famous who asked what the commotion was. Co-worker told the famous person about my new job and that everyone was clapping for me, and then famous person told co-worker to tell me congratulations.

The famous person? Dee Snider.

So Mickey, if I could be in an ’80s metal band, it would be Twisted Sister, really just because I wanted to tell that ridiculous (yet completely true) story about how Dee Snider and I are already BFF. Well, I’d enjoy the awful permed hair too. I totally went through a permed hair stage. Twice. Ok, three times. And I’d probably play bass, because it just seems hot for a Modern Gal to play bass, right? And ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ has a sweet bass line.