February 2, 2000 / 533 readsIt looks as though the reunion between Poison and C.C. DeVille is off yet again, and L.A. Guns' Tracii Guns has been confirmed as DeVille's replacement.
The split this time around, according to DeVille, was caused by frontman Bret Michaels' refusal to allow DeVille's other band, Samantha 7 (formerly known as The Stepmothers), to open the pending Poison tour this summer.
"Poison does not want C.C. on the summer tour, or Samantha 7 for that matter," Samantha 7's Krys Baratto told MTV News. "That was their decision, not C.C.'s or ours."
According to Baratto, the news came as a shock to DeVille and crew, as Michaels had previously okayed the plan, which would have seen Samantha 7 promoting its debut album on the tour.
Bret Michaels, however, accuses DeVille of trying to start a press war in order to generate publicity for his own band. Michaels puts the blame for the split squarely back on the guitarist, contending that he himself was the one taken by surprise, not DeVille.
"We had a great tour last summer," Michaels told MTV News. "I drove home with C.C., we laughed and hugged, and said, "See you in a couple of weeks." Nothing was wrong. He hasn't called me once since then, and I've left six or seven messages. Then he tells the label that he doesn't want to write and work with Poison.
"C.C. would only play a the material he originally worked on," he continued. "He just wanted to rehash the old Poison stuff and work on his new band. I really wanted to work on new material. I don't want to be rehashing the old catalogue for the rest of my life. I'm too young for that".
"We scheduled rehearsals and writing sessions with Bob Ezrin in December," Michaels explained. "C.C. called Bobby, promised he'd there. Then he didn't show up. So we phoned Tracii and said, ?Why don't you come write with us,' just to see how it worked. And it worked great."
Michaels did admit that he didn't want Samantha 7 on the bill. "I feel when we go out in the summer as Poison, it should be Poison. I've got one solo album and another on the way, but I don't call Poison and threaten that if they don't let me open, I don't do the tour". "I'm not a publicist for C.C. DeVille," he added.
The Poison-DeVille reunion was far from short-lived (after splitting in 1991, the two parties made up in December 1996), but it was also far from productive. The reunited group hadn't done much more than start work on a few new songs and tour last summer.
he latest plan for Poison has been to release a live album recorded during the last tour packaged with five new studio songs, and that will continue with Guns on the five new tracks instead of DeVille.
The group will also continue booking another summer tour, which this time will also feature Cinderella, Dokken, and Slaughter.
Meanwhile, the perennially pending "Crack A Smile," an album recorded five years ago without DeVille and initially shelved by Capitol, is currently on that label's release sheets for March 14, 2000.
Michaels has also been wearing his filmmaker's hat of late, with a new movie in production called "The Last Breath."
