For the second consecutive summer, arenas, concert bowls and stadiums across North America will be the centre of a massive rock and roll party as legendary rockers Poison will be headlining a triple bill of rock and roll awesomeness during their Nothin’ But a Good Time 2018 tour.
Also featuring Cheap Trick and Pop Evil, the jaunt begins in Irvine, California on May 18 and runs for a total of 25 shows, ending in Allentown, Pennsylvania on June 24. The only Canadian stop on the tour is June 19 in Toronto.
A stellar 1986 debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, launched Poison from local Sunset Strip success in Los Angeles, to international stardom, a ride that would see the band reach the heights of the music industry. With an impressive repertoire of power ballads, high energy rock anthems and sexually charged party tunes, Poison helped solidify the so-called hair metal revolution, which saw hard rock music become as popular with females as with males.
Original compositions such as Something to Believe In, Talk Dirty to Me, Fallen Angel, Stand, Unskinny Bop and Ride the Wind, as well as emphatic covers of Your Mama Don’t Dance and Rock and Roll All Nite, propelled the band into the mainstream, with many of these songs still garnering considerable airplay to this day.
Formed originally by vocalist Bret Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall and drummer Rikki Rockett in 1983, the lineup was solidified with the addition of six string wizard C.C. Deville on lead guitar in 1985. Throughout the band’s occasionally tumultuous history, Deville has been the only member of the band to depart, leaving for a short five year stretch from 1991 before rejoining in 1996.
Dall, a long-time resident of Florida, told Music Life Magazine that having such a significant and lengthy musical pedigree means set list construction can be a touchy matter.
“It’s a little tough because we have so many hits. We released about 15 singles overall and most people expect us to play as many of them as possible. It is a delicate balance as to how much you can put into the set that’s new or a deeper cut. But even some of our deeper cuts are almost quasi-hits. A song like Look What the Cat Dragged in was never released as a single, but if we didn’t play it live I am sure there would be a backlash. You can’t always please every fan 100 per cent. There is a limited amount of time that you can play, so we have to pick and choose to the best of our abilities to please as many fans as we can, but still leave a little wiggle room to throw in a few tricks and surprises,” he said.
“Part of it too has to do with the audience. We base the setlist sometimes on how they respond. We will go out and have one set list one night and if we feel that there is less of a response to a certain song on that specific night, we will take it out the next night and put in a different song. And that’s going back to the fact that we have such a depth of hits that we have the ability to do that and not miss a beat.
“And between playing all the songs and the different solos that are being done by a couple different members of the band, there is a limit on the amount of time to play. But you know what, I think the songs themselves are the most important factor. Because that’s what we always were – a song-based band. So, I will never be bored of playing the songs that we have written. It just doesn’t happen.”
Dall believes that a significant reason for the band’s ability to still draw large crowds 32 years after their debut album and more than a decade since their last studio album is because the songs, the atmosphere and the entire tone of Poison’s ‘brand’ is about having fun. The title of the tour, and one of the band’s biggest hits Nothin’ But a Good Time, really does say it all.
“We originally put this band together in 1983 so I have been involved with Poison now for 35 years. The fact that we continue to do this is one of the blessings of life. I always say that the day the fans don’t come is the day that I’ll cry. And if you understand that we had 10 or 11 top 40 hits, when you have that many, that’s what’s really powering your legacy and your longevity. We were a band where a show wasn’t just fun, it was a lot of fun,” Dall said.
“Most of our songs are really about a lot of fun, although there are more serious songs, the ballads like Something to Believe In and Every Rose Has Its Thorn, but most of it is just a celebration of life and joy and that’s one of the reason I think we continue to get fans that are younger and younger as well as holding onto our older fans.
“Most of the music in the 1980s was about fun. I do think we’re a band of escapism. It’s about being able to have a good time and fun. One of the things I have always believed is that if you leave a Poison concert and you don’t have a smile on your face, you need therapy. And I can tell you from my perspective, and I know it’s the same for the other guys in this band, being on stage and playing is what I have done my entire life. And it’s better than sex. It’s very difficult to formulate the words to describe the euphoria and adrenaline that you have; you really do feed off the audience. That’s always been the relationship.”
Cheap Trick is one of the most popular bands on the touring circuit, not only with fans, but with fellow bands. It’s not the first time Dall and his bandmates in Poison have criss-crossed the continent with these venerable rockers, and it probably won’t be the last.
“Cheap Trick is one of my favourite bands of all time. They were actually a part of the first concert I went to see. It was the Florida Jam in 1979, and I was probably 15 years old. The bill was Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, Brownsville Station, Blackfoot and so many others. It was one hell of a show. I loved all the bands, but as far as the live performances, I felt that Cheap Trick was one of the best sets I had ever seen. The showmanship that they had, and still have, is amazing,” Dall said.
“Touring with them is a bit melancholy, to tell you the truth. You’re a teenager growing up on Cheap Trick one day and they are like these huge stars to you and not long after they are opening up for you. Even our first big tour with Ratt and it was actually the first time we played with Cheap Trick. It was our first record and the bill was Ratt, Cheap Trick and Poison headlining on the first leg. That’s when our record took off and they ended up keeping us and Ratt and Cheap Trick went off to do their own tour. It’s just the way it happened. And it can be somewhat off, really do have your heroes open for you I have so much respect for those guys. I know Rick [Nielsen], I know Robin [Zander] and I know Tom [Petersson] and we have played with them many times since that first tour.
“But it’s going to be a lot of fun for everybody on this tour. We all known that Cheap Trick has a lot of amazing songs and the Pop Evil guys are also a lot of fun, so it’s going to be a fantastic show. It’s three band’s worth of hits, what else can you ask for?”
Actually, some might be asking if there is ever going to be new Poison studio material. The last outing was the 2007 release Poison’d, which features covers, original material and some unreleased tracks. It was the band’s seventh studio album.
“Yes, we do have discussions about new music. Is there a current project in the works? No. If there was, I would let you know,” said Dall, who unlike many of his contemporaries, isn’t working on multiple musical projects or playing in other bands.
“Poison has always been enough for me musically. I happen to be that one in a million whose first band went all the way to the top. I have been blessed and I don’t really crave to play with other people, in reality. There is nothing wrong with all the guys who want to do multiple projects, it just isn’t me. I play with the guitar player, the drummer and the lead singer I have always wanted to play with.”
And to use an oft used cliché that a rock band is very much a unique type of relationship, whatever metaphor you want to use be it a sports team, army squadron, marriage or brotherhood, it’s apt for Poison. Over the intervening three decades there have been blow-ups, arguments, trial separations and everything in between. But Dall said he Michaels, Deville and Rockett are as close as they’ve ever been.
“We’re friends. We’re like brothers. Although I would say it’s more like marriage and brothers. That’s what a band is, and that’s really what the trick and the magic is in keeping the original members together. But for each of us, it’s kind of like having three wives, and I don’t mean that in a weird way. But being in a band is almost like being in a marriage. There’s a lot of laughing, but there’s pain sometimes. And you don’t always agree, and you don’t always get along, but we’ve always got each other’s backs after the fact, when all is said and done. Sometimes things do get a little heated, but one of the secrets of the longevity, like in a marriage, is to work through all that, keep the group together and always keep it moving forward,” Dall said.
The Poison…Nothin’ But a Good Time 2018 tour comes to The Budweiser Stage in Toronto on Tuesday, June 19. For more information on the band, or the tour, visit www.poisonofficial.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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