Poison

Poison's Drummer Comes Home
An Interview with Rikki Rockett

by Lisa Hummel

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. As stereotypical as it is, the description fits the Poison story to a tee: enough highs, lows, and dramas to fill nearly three hours of tape during the filming of their episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music,” in fact. Over the course of the past two decades, the local rockers have seen it all and now they’re back, crossing the country on what has become a summer tradition of sorts, filling venues night after night with the glam rock that made them famous, complete with the pyro, lighting, and non-stop action that, in the late 1980s, drew comparisons to KISS shows. A lot has happened since Rikki Rockett, Bret Michaels, and Bobby Dall left Harrisburg for Los Angeles in 1984, and with the current resurgence of ’80s rock, Poison is once again bearing the title of the “Glam Slam Kings of Noise.”

Recently, MODE spoke with drummer Rikki Rockett. Though it was early, he was candid and very enthusiastic, especially when it came to sharing stories of life in his hometown.

Originally named Paris, the group — Rockett, front man Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall, and original guitarist Matt Smith — formed in 1982 and spent much of the next two years playing the East Coast. They were young, they were driven, and they had absolutely no idea what laid ahead of them. “I remember playing three sets a night all over Pennsylvania, Baltimore, wherever, and driving home at 4 o’clock in the morning, taking a shower, eating something and going to work and doing the same thing the next day over a whole weekend,” remembered Rockett. “And we were so young at the time that we were barely legal to drink ourselves playing at bars where it depended on how many drinks we sold as to whether we were to get invited back again and we were just trying to entertain the crowd, playing it like it was a concert and the bartenders were like, ‘that’s really not the way to work the crowd,’ but we didn’t know any better, we wanted to be rock stars, we didn’t want to sell Budweisers.”

The band has come a long way since then. Following the move to Los Angeles, the departure of Smith, and the addition of guitarist C.C. DeVille, Poison toiled in poverty, sold out the legendary Troubadour nightclub, signed a record deal, and released their debut effort Look What the Cat Dragged In, selling more than four million copies. The eventual success of that album skyrocketed the band to instant fame and along with the money, women, and fast cars came a fair share of problems. The next decade brought with it four albums, a number of hit singles, flared tempers, drug and alcohol addictions that caused the temporary departure of DeVille, two unsuccessful replacements on guitar, a parting of ways with their record label, a break-up of sorts, and a five-year absence from the road. None of which Rockett regrets. “For whatever reason we’re here now and the timing was right now and there is an interest in our band and the kind of music that we do so I really can’t bitch,” he said. “I really don’t regret the stuff I did back then. I loved the way we looked and what we did. I’m not the least bit embarrassed by any of it.”

“I think we were kind of revolutionary in a lot of ways, and I don’t mean that as an individual statement, because Poison is bigger than the individuals that we are,” continued Rockett. “We happened to, by hook or crook, create something special … combining all of the things that had come before us and blending it in a unique way and it became glam. And I think glam is an important part of music history now.”

More than just a part of history, the band is currently savoring their return to the spotlight, leading a handful of their peers in what seems to be a step back in time. For the third year, Poison is taking to the road, headlining a four-act event that this year will include Warrant, Quiet Riot, and Enuff Z’Nuff. And though he’s lived it, Rockett has no exact explanation for the band’s lasting appeal or why, after everything they’ve been through, Poison has survived intact. “I wish I knew the real answer to that and I don’t. It’s just one of those things, it’s a synergy. Poison is bigger than any of the four of us, I think. There is a certain phenomenon when we work together and we all get along really well. There is something about when we play together and write together that’s different from any other combination of fellas. It just is,” he said, laughing. “And the audience simply wasn’t used to the other line-up or that dynamic of the band. We’ve gotten criticized by people like [critic] Ross Halfin who was saying that we actually thought we were the Beatles and I know why he said that and it was a cheap stab at us. I remember saying in an interview that we were a Beatles concept, where there were four individual guys and I stand by that. I’m not saying I’ve contributed what the Beatles have, that’s not it at all, but what I was saying is that it’s a lot like that in terms of the dynamic of the band and when one guy leaves, it really isn’t the same anymore and that was proven to us but we couldn’t help that, either.”

“It’s not like we wanted C.C. out of the band, it just got impossible to work,” continued Rockett. “But if somebody left the band now I think we would try to continue anyway and try to eclipse that because we’d want Poison to go on, but we certainly don’t want that to happen. So if that ever does happen, it isn’t because we wanted it to.”

And while the band continues to write and record new music — including the current single “Rock Star” — and sell out venues, Rockett admits that there was a time when the future of the band wasn’t so certain. “It’s still a rebuilding process in a lot of ways because we have a second generation of fans, but I was very, very surprised. Bret and I were on the phone the Friday night before our tickets went on sale for the first show in 1999 saying, ‘oh, god, tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. tomorrow, what’s going to happen? Do we have a career or don’t we?’ and the next morning we had sold I think 5,000 in an hour, by 10:15 or something and we were like, ‘holy shit, we’re still there.’”

Though the members of the band currently reside outside the state, Rockett looks back on the area and his life here fondly. “I’m glad I’m from where I’m from and like I said, I don’t regret how any of this stuff happened,” said Rockett. “I think actually coming up in Harrisburg made us a stronger band in a lot of ways, but at the same time, I would have liked our hometown to have embraced us more than they did for a while. I think now we’re being embraced more than we were in 1987, for example.”

“My parents were very supportive but a lot of people I went to school with weren’t,” Rockett added. “But I’m not playing for them, I’m playing for the people who do get it and the fans that always were supportive. Probably the least supportive people were the people that I thought were my friends. Unfortunately, it’s just because Harrisburg’s not an entertainment town, it’s a working town and if you’re at school on career day if you said you wanted to be a rock star you were laughed out of your seat, and I was. Many times. It was like, ‘he’s in fantasy land’ and, yeah, well, I was. Maybe I still am. But I can’t blame anyone for that.”

And whether Rockett has been spending the past two decades in a fantasy land or not, he’s the first to admit that life has been good to him. And the first to admit that he likes coming home and playing Hershey. “I come back and I see the places I grew up, so of course I’ll always have an attachment to that, how could I not,” said Rockett. “I was 21 when we moved out to LA and I’ve been back every year to see my parents and whatnot, so it’s an important place for me, of course.” Then Rockett pauses and adds, almost sheepishly, “I haven’t gone to my class reunion, though. The first one, we played the Spectrum that night.” With that said, he laughs, lowers his voice, and says, “But, you know what? I really didn’t like school anyway…”

Look who’s laughing now.

WTPA-FM will present Poison at Hershey Park’s Star Pavilion on June 10 at 6 p.m.