RIKKI ROCKETT On POISON's Musical Chemistry: 'I Just Think There's A Synergy Between The Four Of Us'

In a new interview with Troy Culpan of Australia's May The Rock Be With You, POISON drummer Rikki Rockett was asked to name the "defining thing that made the band what it was" at the height of POISON's commercial success in the 1980s. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I wish I could bottle that lightning, really, 'cause I could sell it for a lot of money. But I don't know. I just think there's a synergy between the four of us, and I've tried to break this down. I think it starts with the personalities. We're all different personalities, but yet at the same time, I think we complement each other. Like C.C. [DeVille, current POISON guitarist], for example, plays very ahead of the beat and pushes, and I'm really cool, so I feel like it feels really reckless live at times, like it might go off the tracks, but it doesn't. And then Bobby's [Dall, POISON bassist] in the middle nailing it down, and in the meantime, Bret's [Michaels, POISON singer] making the three-ring circus work as the M.C."

Rikki continued: "There's so many little aspects of it. When Bret and I started this band, we wanted a band that we could be a fan of. Like, what would that look like? What would a band that we wanna go see, what would they look like? What would they sound like? What would those songs be like? How would they speak in interviews? And what we ultimately came up with was we can't fake it like that. You can't write a script out like that. That's ridiculous. How long are you gonna keep that up? I've seen bands do it for a period of time, but you can't forever. And we were, like, 'Let's just take our attitude, the things we really truly love, and let's go find it. Let's put it together in the band that we wanna be.' And that's what we did. I think that's why it works. We saw that in Bobby. We saw that in C.C. [Original POISON guitarist] Matt [Smith] was great, but it wasn't really complete. We always knew something wasn't there yet. And when C.C. walked in the door, I feel like it completed everything. It was a complete protein all of a sudden. [Laughs]"

Rikki also talked about what it has been like for him to pay tribute to POISON's "Look What The Cat Dragged In" album by performing the entire LP with his new band, THE ROCKETT MAFIA. He said: "It's great. It's really, really a lot of fun. And it's in a club scenario for the most part. We're playing a couple of festivals here and there, but I'm looking into the faces of these people, and I know it's taking them back to a place. And I'm sure that they might wanna experience it, or at least I thought that they'd wanna experience it with POISON and not with the guys that I've chosen to do this with, but I had so many people come up to me, like in New Jersey on the last show by way of example, and just say, 'You know, I was skeptical about this, but you guys are doing this right. I think this is really cool. I wanna hear it this way. I do.' And so it's working. I think we've found a pretty cool little magic concoction here. The other thing is I said it'd be kind of fun to go out… People keep saying, 'Oh, it'd be interesting to do deeper cuts.' So I'm all about going out and just doing nothing but deep cuts at some point. I think it'd be great. I think it'll work. If you're a fan of POISON, you'll like that, I feel like. And so I've been asking a lot of people, 'Would you like that?' And they're, like, 'Yes, yes. Tell me you're gonna do that. Tell me you're gonna do that.' And it's, like, 'Okay, I might do that.' [Laughs]"

THE ROCKETT MAFIA kicked off its series of shows paying tribute to "Look What The Cat Dragged In" on May 21 at The Vixen in McHenry, Illinois.

In addition to performing songs from the POISON catalog, THE ROCKETT MAFIA performs a powerful mix of classic rock from the 1970s and 1980s, often reimagining songs from that era with a heavier, more contemporary feel.

Earlier this year, POISON scrapped its previously proposed 2026 tour plans to commemorate the 40th anniversary of "Look What the Cat Dragged In" after Michaels allegedly demanded to earn $6 for every dollar his each of his bandmates stood to make from the shows, a claim made by Rockett in January. Bret later shot down the report, saying he and his POISON bandmates "never got to that part of negotiations."

POISON was founded in 1983 and released "Look What the Cat Dragged In" in May 1986.

Rockett's long-awaited memoir, "Ghost Notes: My Life In Poison", which was written with writer duo Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson, finally arrived earlier this month via Rare Bird Books.