Oli Coleman of the Page Six of the NY Post reports:
…Poison shelved its much anticipated 40th anniversary tour — because lead singer Bret Michaels reportedly wants to earn $6 for every dollar his bandmates earn from the dates…
…“We had a great offer, I thought. But we left the table,” drummer Rikki Rockett told us, “It didn’t work.”
“Really what it came to was [guitarist] C.C. [DeVille], [bass player] Bobby [Dall] and I were all in, and I thought Bret was, but he wanted the lion’s share of the money, to the point where it makes it not possible to even do it. It’s like $6 to every one of our dollars. You just can’t work that way.”
He added, “I don’t do this just for the money. I do have a love for this, absolutely. But at the same time, you don’t want to go out and work really hard just to make somebody else a bunch of money…”
..Rockett says he’s not angry with his pal of many years.
“Every member of this band has given me so much privilege in life,” he said, “It’s like hating your parents.”
To celebrate the anniversary, Rockett plans to tour with his side band, Rockett Mafia, and perform the whole Look What The Cat Dragged In album at each show.
And he’s hopeful that Poison can iron out their money issue by next year.
He joked that it that it would be “a perfect Poison folly to do a 41st anniversary tour.”
But when asked if he’d consider finding a replacement for Michaels and doing the tour with a new singer, he said, “It’s not out of the question. But doing that is like surgery: it’s the last resort.”
He added, “I don’t want to do that. I’m not quarreling with Bret… We just didn’t come to agreement. I don’t like it, and I’ll say that, but it’s not like, ‘Let’s put up our dukes.’ I don’t think there’s a better frontman for Poison.”
Rockett is set to be inducted into the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame next week, and he plans to have a memoir, Ghost Notes, out early this year.
Read more at Page Six.
Formed in Pennsylvania in the early 1980s and had a surprise hit with its first album, Look What The Cat Dragged In, and another smash with follow-up Open Up and Say… Ahhh!, which produced number one single Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Their third album, Flesh And Blood, became their best-selling album, with hits songs such as Unskinny Bop, Something to Believe In, and Ride the Wind.
11 Responses
If this is true, I am very disappointed in Brett. Very sad and disgusting.
If true, I would like to know Bret’s reasoning for wanting a majority of the money. Is it selfishness or something noble not being mentioned?
Yep, read my comments on the Rockett Mafia, ^ there’s always 2 sides to the story, but I can’t imagine Rikki is exaggerating the truth, thanks to Bret’s greediness there will be no Poison 40th Anniversary tour! To quote a Poison song, Bret, I “Blame It On You!”
Who does Brett think he is – Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons?
Sheer greed – too bad Brett cannot be grateful the original band hit it off so well they became famous.
Hello Gene’s Raccoon Wig! Actually, being serious, yes, I do believe that Brett thinks he is the equivalent of those greed whores Paul and Gene. Poison tried to be just like Kiss from the get go. Kiss was their model home so to speak that they used as a blueprint to launch their career. It worked. They wore makeup, wrote cheesy lyrics with catchy hooks and riffs. They even ripped off Kiss’ riff from “Deuce” on their smash hit Nothing But A Good Time and they did an awful cover of rock n roll all nite! Also, as Poison gained popularity, they used similar sound bites to tell their story of how they went from some bar band in PA to a big time band. Well most of these sound bites were from Brett. The band openly have expressed their love of Kiss so it wasn’t as if they were trying to hide it. At the end of the day, Brett is the main attraction for Poison. Women love his looks and he’s had multiple “reality” shows over the years. However, when it comes to Poison, asking $6 to every dollar for everyone else is just flat out disrespect to his bandmates and greed. Eventually one of them will die before Brett and then like everyone else, he will express his regret when it’s too late. Nobody ever learns.
As one of those women, who loves Michaels, and had pictures of him on my wall, I was disappointed to report on this story.
I met him once, he was lovely, he supports many vet charities, and on the surface, seems to have great qualities, so I am just so perplexed by this?
It seems the money issue, is the biggest wedge, with most bands: Black Sabbath, KISS, Ratt, Dokken, L.A. Guns, etc.. etc.
True RPS, but it makes no sense as Dana pointed out, Brett does a lot of the charity work and seemed down to earth (at least for a celebrity)
And lets face it, Brett is the face of the band.
Speaking of faces – the picture above is kind of hilarious.
Bobby – One Thing Doesn’t Look Like the Other
Rikki – going for that boy band look
CC – going for that Billy Ray Cyrus look
Brett – photo looks 10 years old
Brett absolutely deserves SIX times as much money. I mean, look at the MASSIVE career he has. When you’re so big that you’re only rival is Taylor Swift, you should definitely make six times more than that high school band you played with 40 years ago….Right?….Right?….