May 23, 2011 / 1518 reads
Rikki Rockett recently spoke with JAM Magazine, a few excerpts from the chat below.
JAM: You are on a very interesting bill with Motley Crue and the New York Dolls. Can you break down how this came about?
I know. Bret mentioned something about the two of us touring together late last year, and it just blew up from there. Fans got excited by the thought, but I don?t think Motley was that in to it. All the sudden, earlier this year, we have a real offer on the table. I thought this would be a great bill, and it was Nikki Sixx?s idea to bring on the New York Dolls. I?m a big fan of that particular era of music the Dolls came out of, the glam punk scene. For this to all come together has been really exciting.
JAM: Opening for Motley has Poison in a very challenging position. Has the band considered maybe playing one complete album, then coming back with hits from your other discs to complete the set?
Personally, I would love to do the entire Look What the Cat Dragged In album, and follow that with some other hits as the encore. I like doing that kind of stuff. I know it has a nostalgia feel to it, and that may turn some people off, but I don?t care.
JAM: Poison has not released a new album in almost ten years. Is this band afraid to tinker with its legacy by releasing a new album that may not go over well with the public?
We should be recording a new album right now! That?s exactly what we should be touring on for the 25th Anniversary. I don?t care if one of our guys does solo stuff here and there. As much as I wish Bret would do more with the band, at the same time, a lot of the things he does keeps Poison in the press. Younger people who weren?t familiar with Poison back in the day are now in the loop. That?s not a problem, but again, I do feel Bret spends too much time doing other things. He needs to concentrate his activities more on this band than his own projects. That?s how I feel and he knows it. I?m saying this to you; I will say it to his face. I don?t mind Bret doing a gig here and there with someone else. That?s fine, they are fun. But damn it, Poison needs a new record.
JAM: You haven?t released a new album since 2002's Hollyweird. That album was heavily criticized by journalists and fans for poor production quality and an unimpressive new sound. If the stage is the only place you four can get together, a recording studio would be out of the question.
No, you don?t understand. The members of Poison, as strange as this is going to sound, literally have a problem working together. We are an extremely volatile band ? way more than people realize. It feels like we could implode at any minute. Even in the beginning, we were explosive with one another. None of us were singing kumbaya with one another after each successful album. We lived together and fought constantly. The thing is, that tension always fueled a lot of very interesting songs in our past. If you got a therapist, and sat us all down in a room, he would say we are all co-dependent on one another and that?s the source of our problems. The four of us would agree, tell the therapist we need each other and move on. I swear that?s what it is. There?s every reason in the world we should have broken up a long time ago, and we don?t. We just keep on keeping on.
