THE DICTATORS...Manitoba started out his music career as a roadie for The Dictators. He became their lead singer. A true American success story!

He made his "official stage debut" with The Dictators at Popeye's Spinach Factory in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, 1975. The drunk roadie brought the house down with his rousing version of "Wild Thing".

On their first major-label album, The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! (Epic Records, 1975), Manitoba was listed as "The Secret Weapon". This is because he sang some lead and some background, but was still considered a "mascot" of the band. He sang more lead on The Dictators' second offering, Manifest Destiny, a 1977 release on the Asylum label. On Bloodbrothers, the third and final Dictators studio recording from the 1970s (also on Asylum, 1978), Manitoba sang lead on almost all the tunesThe Dictators disbanded in late 1978, and played reunion gigs occasionally until 1996, when they started to play again regularly.

In 1989, Manitoba — along with Andy Shernoff (bass, songwriter), JP "Thunderbolt" Patterson (drums) and a man known as the "fifth Ramone", Daniel Rey (guitar)—released an album under the name Manitoba's Wild Kingdom, on MCA Records. Ross the Boss, the original lead guitarist for The Dictators, eventually replaced Rey.In 2001, The Dictators released their first studio album in twenty-three years, D.F.F.D, on their own label, The Dictators Multimedia. A live album, Viva! Dictators, was released on the Escapi Music label in 2005.

The Dictators played on the last Friday and Saturday night ever at CBGB, October, 2006.

A "new" Dictators record, Everyday Is Saturday, came out in 2007 on the Norton record label. It is a collection of demos, B-sides, out-takes, and old radio commercials for the band. The band and crew contributed the liner notes for the record.