Poison says it has antidote to trouble

By Denise Neil
The Wichita Eagle

They don't tease their hair quite as high. They don't party half as hard. And they almost never get in fistfights with each other anymore. Still, the members of the infamous 1980s hair band Poison, who will headline Tuesday night's Glam Slam Metal Jam at the Kansas Coliseum, say that after 16 years of sometimes turbulent togetherness, their stage show is just as wild and their music just as loud as ever.

"Now it's almost like we go on stage and it's a finer-tuned machine," said lead singer Bret Michaels during a recent phone interview. "The show sounds better. It looks better. And the stage show is even bigger than it was back then."

Back then was the late 1980s when the members of Poison -- Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille, drummer Rikki Rockett and bassist Bobby Dall -- were kings of the glam-rock scene.

They had big hair and made-up faces and were enjoying outrageous success with hit songs such as "Talk Dirty to Me," "Nothin' But a Good time" and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

Poison spent much of its time then touring and played more than one show in front of large audiences of screaming teenage girls at the Kansas Coliseum.

The band's reign continued until the early 1990s, when grunge rock took over the music scene and the hair band backlash began.

Poison began to fall apart. There were fights. Drug addictions. General rock star messiness.

Sound like fodder for VH1's biography series "Behind the Music"?

It was. In 1999, the cable music channel produced a segment on Poison's rise and fall, which turned into one of its highest rated shows and is still regularly aired in reruns.

The show, coupled with a resurgence of 1980s nostalgia, convinced band members to reunite in the late 1990s.

Today, the members of Poison are all pushing 40. They're growing up and slowing down.

Even the band's most well-publicized rift is a distant memory.

Michaels and the clownishly out-of-control DeVille got into a fistfight backstage at the 1992 MTV Music Awards, prompting DeVille's removal from the band. He was replaced with other guitarists, but the chemistry just wasn't the same, Michaels said. DeVille rejoined the original lineup in 1998.

"We're best friends now," Michaels said. "It's like family. It's like blood. When we had the other guitar players in, although they were good guitar payers, the band wasn't truly us. The band is C.C., Rikki, Bobby and myself."

Poison embarked on the Glam Slam Metal Jam, which also features Warrant, Quiet Riot and Enuff Z'Nuff, on Memorial Day weekend and will remain on tour through late August.

Michaels promises that during the band's set on Tuesday, fans will be treated to "pyrotechnics, confetti, explosions and moving laser lights," as well as performances of many of Poison's hits from the past.

In between shows, the band also is working on a new album, which it will release in May 2002.

And Michaels, a burgeoning actor and screenwriter, will continue to work on a production company he started with friend Charlie Sheen.

He also will continue to reject suggestions that Poison is past its prime. The group is as solid as ever and now has a maturity that will prevent a second experiment with self-destruction, he said.

"I think I've found more of a balance in my life," Michaels said. "I don't have to party with every person as long as I can every night now. I can still go backstage and shake hands and take pictures. But now, I don't have to outdo them all."

IF YOU GO

What: The Glam Slam Metal Jam, featuring Poison, Warrant, Quiet Riot and Enuff Z'Nuff

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: The Kansas Coliseum, 85th North off I-135

Tickets: Reserved seats are $28 at Select-A-Seat outlets, by calling 755-SEAT or at the web site www.selectaseat.com.

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