POISON Drummer: NIKKI SIXX Is Too Old To Care About 'Dumb Little Rivalries'

Michael Christopher of DelcoTimes.com's "Rock Music Menu" recently conducted an interview with POISON drummer Rikki Rockett. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On the recently released "The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock" compilation:

"Capitol was going to put (the best of) out whether we helped out or not. I wanted to do a box set and work with McFarlane Toys and come up with this ridiculous thing with action figures to go with it. If I had it my way, you’d get a free PC with every CD, or I mean come on, a green iPod? That would be very, very cool."

On the shoot-for-the-stars mentality that got him out of Pennsylvania in search of a success that didn't — and couldn't, come until starting over in a more artist friendly town (Los Angeles):

"It was a struggle for us because people didn't get it. The struggle for every musician is you want to be creative, at the same time, how are going to do it, plus go play Top 40 songs to get gigs? That area is a Top 40 circuit, and it's difficult just to be an original band, and we had to leave."

"All I can say is it's really easy to get comfortable collecting that check every week playing at bars every weekend, doing all Top 40 and throwing in five originals. You'll build up a nice little audience, you have your girls there or whatever, but it stops there."

"There's nothing more that I'd like to see than a scene come out of Philadelphia. It seems like there's a cool little community going on, but I can't help that scene unless that scene helps me and gives me the power to do it. POISON is a little bit shunned here lately."

On bands like WINGER, WARRANT and KIX — all of which fell apart or are playing much smaller venues than they used to:

"WARRANT had a pretty good run, and anything they don't do is kind of their fault right now, because if they put that original line-up together, put the egos aside; they could do some business. Jani Lane (WARRANT's singer) is too easy of a target, and I don't take the shot anymore, it's almost like kicking a man when he's down. He's a talented guy. You don't really see that on 'Celebrity Fit Club'."

On MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx being abrasively vocal in his displeasure about being categorized alongside POISON:

"Nikki really needs to get over it. I don’t think a forty-something year-old man should be acting like that; you'd think with all that Nikki has been through, he wouldn't care about these dumb little rivalries."

Read the entire interview at www.delcotimes.com.