RIKKI ROCKETT Looks Back On 'Hollyweird', POISON's Final Album Of Original Material: 'It's Not Our Best Work'

In a new interview with Robert Cavuoto of MyGlobalMind, POISON drummer Rikki Rockett spoke about the band's last album of new material, 2002's "Hollyweird". The record brought together POISON's classic lineup for the first full studio project since 1990's "Flesh & Blood". Asked why he didn't bring up "Hollyweird" in his long-awaited memoir, "Ghost Notes: My Life In Poison", which will finally arrive September 15, 2026 via Rare Bird Books, Rikki said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't love that record. I feel like we were very disjointed at that time. There's some cool moments on that record, there's no question. There really is. But I felt like we were a little bit disjointed… There's some cool stuff on it, for sure. But it's not our best work — it's not."

Rikki continued: "You go to work every day for 40 years or however long, you're gonna have a period, some piece of work that you do that it's not the best thing you've done. And I think that's... Like I said, there's aspects of that record that are really good, there's a few songs that I think are really good. But then there's a lot of stuff that's, like, 'Eh, it's just not my favorite.'

"But I didn't deliberately leave that out [of the book], honestly," Rockett explained. "For whatever reason, I just didn't think about it in the book. There wasn't anything interesting that I remember about that to talk about it, I guess. I don't know."

The first single released from "Hollyweird" was "Rockstar". The second single was a cover of THE WHO song "Squeeze Box".

Five years after issuing "Hollyweird", POISON released an album of covers, "Poison'd", in 2007.

Back in 2018, POISON bassist Bobby Dall said that the band "should" be making a new studio album but claimed that he didn't know if it would happen. "I'm not going to bullshit you and say there's any [new music] in the process [of being made]," he told All That Shreds. "Would I like there to be? Yes. But, it's a matter of everyone having the time. Everybody in the band has other commitments. Some members have younger children than others. So between those two issues, it's difficult, and, you know, [there are] health issues as we get older. Should we be making a new record? Yes, definitely. But will it happen? I don't know."

In a 2017 interview, Rikki acknowledged that part of the reason the band hasn't been motivated to work on new music has been the fact that fans rarely show interest in hearing fresh material performed live when classic rock groups go on tour. "We could write the second coming of 'Talk Dirty To Me', and I don't know if people wanna hear it or not, and that's a frustrating thing; it really is," he said. "AEROSMITH was able to do it, but not everybody is. I mean, even THE ROLLING STONES have had problems with that in the last few years. So… I don't know. But I do think it's important to stay viable. For the 'über fans,' it's always a really, really good thing. And that's what you do it for — you do it for you, you do it for the real fans, the real true fans."

"Ghost Notes: My Life In Poison" was written with writer duo Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson and includes an afterword by SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor.

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 April 2022, Rockett married his longtime girlfriend TC Smith at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, California.

Rikki was previously married to singer/songwriter Melanie Martel. They share joint custody of their two kids — son Jude Aaron Rockett and daughter Lucy Sky Rockett.

In October 2024, Rikki announced the launch of a new band called THE ROCKETT MAFIA.