There are many great bands that came out in the 80s and 90s, but not many of them are still together, and still sound great. One of those bands happens to be one of my favorites as well, and that band is Poison. Best known for their many hits like “Every Rose Has its Thorn,” “Unskinny Bop” and “Rock and Roll All Nite,” to name a few. The band consists of all-original members Bret Michaels (lead singer and guitar), Rikki Rockett (Drums), C.C. DeVille (lead guitar) and Bobby Dall (bass).

I had the opportunity to talk with Rikki Rockett about their upcoming summer tour, “Nothin’ But A Good Time 2018” with Cheap Trick and Pop Evil.  Rickki said, “It’s been really great so far, no issues. Just trying to find our groove a bit. It takes a couple of shows to do that, no matter how much you rehearse, it’s not the same as playing in front of a live audience. It just isn’t. You have to get the heat back and all that kinda stuff.  Then you have to adjust a little bit, and that’s what we’ve been doing over the last couple of shows. I think it’s cool to come to those early shows because your probably see stuff that won’t be repeated the rest of the tour. Some good and some bad, but mostly good!”

I asked Rikki what should fans expect for this tour, and he responded, “We have a totally new stage set this year, which I don’t want to give too much away, but we have a bunch of video screens, which we’ve done a little bit in the past, but we’ve kinda taken it to the next level. And we have a light system and new LDs, and a new sound guy and monitors. We have almost a whole new crew out here supporting us. It’s just kind of a different approach, so I think people will like it.”

Rikki tells me that there is no formula for the band’s longevity, but he feels that, “At the end of the day, honestly, I think we probably just all really love the band and we just don’t want it to go away. We really do like to tour and we do like to play for people. We respect each other enough to try to keep our distance in the sense, that you sort of know each others hot spots after a while, and how far you can push another member.  Sometimes you push a little too far or whatever, but I think that’s sort of it.  We are all team players, so we hang in there.”

Rikki tells me that one of his favorite songs to perform is “Unskinny Bop” because he says, “I like to slant it, the beat has a swing to it and that I really like that kind of drumming, so it’s more fun and groovy.

For many fans, most know that Rikki had been diagnosed with oral cancer in 2016. And as of today, he is still cancer free after undergoing an experimental treatment. Since Poisons shows are high energy and physically demanding especially for a drummer, I asked Rikki how he got back on his feet and he said, “I stay active, I just never decided to go buy the whole collection of Sons of Anarchy and sit in front of the TV and veg. I just didn’t want to do that. I had to a little bit at one point, but almost 95% of the treatment, I was doing something everyday.  I think that helped, because as soon as I could, I got back on the mat and got back to Jiu Jitsu. I tried to play drums here and there, so I just stayed with it.” Being healthy doesn’t prevent cancer, although as Rikki has mentioned, “If you come in at 90% healthy and it’s gonna knock you down 20%, it’s hell of a lot better than coming in at 50% and getting knocked down 20 or 30%. So if someone is very fragile, they’re gonna have a hard time surviving the treatment. The healthier you are, the stronger you are going through any kind of treatment.”

Cancer doesn’t distinguish between healthy cells and cancer cell…the immune system doesn’t distinguish between those two things, so it doesn’t attack it. The treatment I was on was immunotherapy at the end, and that did tell the body, hey that is an intruder.  That’s the thing that’s so awesome about immunotherapy. That’s what worked for me; that’s what saved me. And I hope that it becomes the standard of care for cancer. That’s what my hope is.”

Prior to last year’s tour with Def Leppard, Poison took a 5 year hiatus. During that time several members had side projects with other groups. Rikki’s side project is with Devil City Angels. Rikki feels that working with other artists will bring new ideas back to Poison for possible new Poison music. He said, “I don’t have an announcement to make about Devil City Angels, but I do think there will be. We have talked about that. I think it’s healthy to play with other people, because I expect Bobby to play a certain way. But when you play with a different bass player and you don’t play differently than you had, that gives me room to do this or it pushes me in this direction a little bit. As long as everybody’s open minded, it can be a very healthy experience. But what is bad is if you try to expect Poison to be some other project that one of us is doing.”

Rikki tells me his greatest musical accomplishment to date is, “Honestly, all of our records. Especially, ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In,’ ‘Open Up and Say..Ahh!,’ ‘Flesh & Blood,’ and ‘Native Tongue.’ Those are all really solid records. So I feel like those are the things that solely defined my career.”

Rikki would like to tell his fans, “I love our fans so much for giving us the opportunity to continue to do this and go out and play, and enjoy the music together. I just wanted to honestly say that, I mean it, genuinely from the bottom of my heart. That’s what we’re doing, that’s what a live show is about. It’s about enjoying music together. We might be supplying it and they might be listening to it, but that line ends right there, the rest of it is a party!”

Don’t miss this much anticipated tour coming to Florida for 3 dates, June 29th Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, June 30th Daily’s Place in Jacksonville and July 1st at Hard Rock Event Center in Hollywood, FL.