POISON Drummer Talks Touring With MTLEY CRE On 97.1 THE EAGLE ROCKS (Audio)

On June 6, POISON drummer Rikki Rockett was interviewed by Cindy Scull of the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas radio station 97.1 The Eagle Rocks. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow.

On how POISON ended up touring with MTLEY CRE this summer after members of MTLEY CRE had less-than-kind words to say about POISON during the last few years:

Rikki: "Bret [Michaels, POISON singer] was doing some solo gigs, he was up in Canada, and somebody before the show, I think it was, mentioned about, 'Oh, you guys are doing a tour with MTLEY CRE,' or something like that. And so he mentions it on stage. He goes, 'Hey, how would you like us up here with MTLEY CRE?' All of a sudden, somehow, that got convoluted that he was trying to book a tour through the press, and that's not the case at all. He just mentioned it to the fans because he had heard something up there. So then we just kind of let it go. We said, 'OK, well, if nobody wants do it.' A couple of months later, we got a call from the CRE's management, and they said, 'You know what?! That's a pretty good idea. Would you like to do it?' And we said, 'Yeah, that makes sense to us.' I think it was a combination between their folks and some of the Live Nation guys and the fans. I think the fans were like, 'This is one combination we have not seen from either of these two bands. We haven't seen them on the same stage.' I think the last time we played a show in the States with MTLEY was Day On The Green in 1989, or something like that."

On why he thinks members of MTLEY CRE were so adamantly against the idea of touring with POISON when it was mentioned in the past:

"You know what?! I don't know, quite honestly. I really don't. I don't share that animosity. I like MTLEY CRE; I'm a fan. I think they're awesome. I think we're awesome. I love our own band. We have a lot of the same fans. Not everybody that's a POISON fan is a MTLEY fan and vice versa, but a big chunk is. And the fact of the matter is that somebody doesn't have one band's CD in their car all the time, or on their iPod or whatever; we all like a variety of bands and music. And honestly, I'm seeing a lot of breaking down of the barriers again, like it was In the Sixties, there was some crazy, different combinations of bands that would together or be on the same bill, and now it's kind of getting back to that a little bit. I mean, you're not gonna see MAROON 5 open for SLAYER it's not that crazy but there are some interesting combinations of stuff that wouldn't have happened in the past, for whatever reason. I think rock has grown up a little bit Look at the rap guys they stick together, man. They play on each other's records, they'll support each other They'll kill each other sometimes, too. [Laughs] But they support each other and that's why that genre of music has hung in there. And if rock's gonna hang in there, it's gotta do the same thing, and it's doing it."

Interview (audio):

POISON's tour with MTLEY CRE and the NEW YORK DOLLS kicked off on June 7 at Dallas' Gexa Energy Pavilion, before continuing on to more than 40 other cities and major venues across North America, including Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl on June 14, Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre on June 28, Detroit's DTE Energy Music Center on June 29, and Chicago's FMB Amphitheatre on July 1.

To celebrate POISON's 25th anniversary, 35 of the multi-platinum band's top hits and fan favorites have been gathered for "Double Dose Of Poison: Ultimate Hits", a new career-spanning 2CD and digital collection which was released May 3 by Capitol/EMI.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Double Dose Of Poison: Ultimate Hits" sold 2,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release.

"Double Dose Of Poison: Ultimate Hits" features all of the band's charting singles, including the #1 smash ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", Top 10 hits "Nothin' But A Good Time", "Unskinny Bop" and "Something To Believe In", and other big hits and fan favorites, including "Talk Dirty To Me", "I Want Action", "Your Mama Don't Dance", "Fallen Angel", "Ride The Wind" and many more, including standouts from the band's most recent album, 2007's "Poison'd!"