POISON's RIKKI ROCKETT Explains Why Original 'Open Up And Say … Ahh!' Album Cover Was 'Rejected' By WALMART

During a recent appearance on The Môtley Crôc Show, POISON drummer Rikki Rockett spoke about the original version of the cover for POISON's second album, "Open Up And Say … Ahh!". Released on May 3, 1988, the LP was clouded in controversy when retail outlets like Walmart banned the album for what they considered inappropriate cover art, which featured a model dressed as a demon with a long red tongue. POISON's then-record company eventually offered a censored version of the album cover that hid the offensive tongue, exposing only the she-demon's eyes.

Regarding how the original cover art ended up being censored, Rikki said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "So my buddy Mark Williams, God rest his soul, built that tongue. And it was a prosthetic, obviously. So we had this model. We did this photo session with this one photographer, and the label said it was too mild. We're, like, 'Okay.' It just kind of looked like this rock girl with his long tongue and her hair pumped up and she had very dramatic makeup on, but it wasn't shocking enough. So we went to [famed rock photographer] Neil Zlozower, and [POISON bassist] Bobby Dall and I, we got his girlfriend Bambi and we started doing all those stripes on her and did all this stuff. And she had contacts — we had her get the contacts — and then we just kind of did her up, Bobby and I did. And then we did that tongue and everything like that. And everybody loved it, thought it was fricking great. And Walmart rejected it — Walmart. So Wally [presumably referring to Walmart founder Sam Walton], he was alive at the time, said it represented a demonic figure and he didn't want it. So we sat down with management and the label. And, really, at the end of the day, it was, like, are we in the album cover business or are we in the music business? Really, we should be able to just make a green cover or a white cover with nothing and put our music out, if that's what we need to do. Our goal was to get our music out. What's our percentage of sales at Walmart? Does it matter? Well, it's 38 percent, sometimes 40 percent of your sales. At that time, man, people were just going through Walmart and going, 'I'm getting my records here. I'm getting my records here.' It was cheaper than going to the record store by a certain percentage. So the percentage of people buying records at Walmart was high. And we're, like, 'Are we gonna throw away 35 to 40 percent of our market share, getting our music into the hands of fans, or are we gonna gripe about it and fight with Walmart?' And so it just didn't make sense. So they said, 'We'll just shrink [the photo] down like this.' And then blah, blah, blah. And then it became a collector's edition, the ones that had come out on Enigma, because we were still technically with Enigma through Capitol, I believe. But there was whole full body shots of her too. And she was naked, by the way. It was Bobby's girlfriend. I wasn't allowed to look at her [while I was] helping paint the stripes on her."

"Open Up And Say... Ahh!" ended up being POISON's most successful release, spawning four hit singles: "Nothin' But A Good Time", "Fallen Angel", "Your Mama Don't Dance" (a LOGGINS AND MESSINA cover) and the mega-hit "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.

"Open Up And Say... Ahh!" was certified platinum in 1988 and five times platinum in 1991 by the RIAA. It also has been certified four times platinum in Canada and gold by the British Phonographic Industry.

Rikki's memoir, "Ghost Notes", will be released on July 15, 2025 via Rare Bird Books. The book was written with writer duo Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson.

Rikki is the co-founder and drummer for the band POISON, which exploded into the highly competitive Los Angeles music scene in the 1980s, making a name for themselves in the clubs on the Sunset Strip.

POISON has sold over 50 million records worldwide, releasing eight studio albums, four live albums, and four compilations. The band has charted 10 singles on the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and one Hot 100 number-one smash hit, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".

Relentless from the ground up and forged in the hellfires of the Pennsylvania and Los Angeles club scenes, POISON smashed its way up as an independent band who bet on itself. Selling over three million copies of an independent album which included the big hits "Talk Dirty To Me", "I Won't Forget You", "Cry Tough", "I Want Action" and the underground smash "Look What The Cat Dragged In", they were soon picked up by Capitol Records and beat the sophomore jinx by releasing the aforementioned No. 1 smash "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Written out of emotion by singer/songwriter and frontman Bret Michaels, the song blasted into the charts remaining a top the pop, rock and country genres for threee months consecutively. The album "Open Up And Say...Ahh!" sold eight million copies out of the gate and spawned other hit singles "Fallen Angel", "Nothin' But A Good Time" and "Your Mama Don't Dance". Followed up by the multi-platinum album "Flesh & Blood", POISON again lit up the charts with several more smash hit singles, including "Unskinny Bop" and "Something To Believe In".

POISON's reunited original lineup — Rockett, Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall and guitarist C.C. DeVille — completed "The Stadium Tour" with MÖTLEY CRÜE, DEF LEPPARD and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS in 2022. The trek was originally scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rockett was declared cancer free more in 2016 after undergoing an experimental treatment. He was diagnosed with oral cancer back in 2015.

In October, Rikki announced the launch of a new band called THE ROCKETT MAFIA. Joining him in the group are Brandon Gibbs (DEVIL CITY ANGELS) on vocals and guitar, Mick Sweda (BULLETBOYS) on guitar and backing vocals, and Bryan Kimes on bass and backing vocals.