Poison has been in the rock headlines recently for claims made by drummer Rikki Rockett. The band’s 40th anniversary is this year, and Rockett was asked about a potential tour to mark the occasion. He said that it wasn’t happening, and that it was down to singer Bret Michaels allegedly asking for six times the amount of money that was going to be paid to his bandmates.
In a new interview with “Chaz & AJ In The Morning” via 99.1 WPLR, Michaels explained that this wasn’t the case, and that a tour for 2027 could still be on the table.
“We’re just gonna call it hopefully ’40 Plus One’,” he said. “But I can tell you this — as this thing got further down the road … Remember, when you’re booking stuff, we’re already booking stuff solo into ’27. So this just got backed up. And I’m hoping that, as a founding member, obviously that would be a great day, and I’m positive we can make that happen in ’27.”
In regards to Rockett’s pay claim, Michaels said: “Well, I’m gonna answer that honestly. It never happened. We never got to that part of negotiations. What happens — when you start this, they ask me to put together solo numbers and an average, and that’s the first part we turn in. We ask what the stage is gonna look like, where do we start the tour? I even got into where we’re starting the dates, and then all of a sudden, ’26, the shows in ’26 wanted solo answers, so we moved this to ’27 back last summer. The reason it’s come up for the third time — no one, even the other members haven’t commented. They’re, like, ‘I thought this is going in ’27 now.'”
He continued: “We’re all friends. And if you wanna discuss something, we have each other’s phone number for the last 45 years. Just call me. No offense. I love Rikki. I love Bobby. I love C.C. Don’t negotiate on the air. Just call me on the phone, and we’ll work out whatever. We’ve worked it out for 40 other years. Let’s work out what we need to work out.”
“It’s hard to explain to everybody how much goes into making a show great,” he added. “And with me, when I’m solo. I could make this decision on the bum runners. If I’m out with Poison, we’re four founding members. And rightfully so for that situation. So I wanna make sure the fans hear the truth. It should be a four-way discussion. That’s what Poison’s meant to be. I love Rikki. He’s my brother. We’ve been through a lot together. I love Bobby, I love C.C., and I appreciate C.C. and Bobby staying out in the middle. They didn’t make any comments. I truly believe, ’cause we already knew last summer it was moving to ’27.”
