RIKKI ROCKETT Says POISON 'Got A Great Offer' For Headlining Tour In 2026: 'It's In BRET MICHAELS's Lap Right Now'

During an appearance on the May 12 episode of SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, POISON drummer Rikki Rockett spoke about the band's plans to return to the road in 2026 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of POISON's debut album, 1986's "Look What The Cat Dragged In". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " We are [still] planning [on going out next year]… We got a great offer, and to be honest with you, it's in [POISON frontman] Bret's [Michaels] lap right now — honestly. So, we're good to go, and hopefully we can make a deal and do it. I think it would be a shame not to do it, because this is our 40th anniversary — all original members. We're not getting any younger. We can tear it up. We've still got it. Let's do it. That's how I feel about it."

Rockett went on to say that the offer he and his bandmates received was for a "headlining" tour and that most of the POISON members have already agreed to do it. "I'm good to go, [and so are bassist Bobby Dall and guitarist C.C. DeVille]. It is [up to Bret at this point]. And that's just being truthful… I mean, as far as I know, we're good to go. There just hasn't been anything solid. I haven't signed anything or anything like that. But it's more than a year away, or about a year away, so we have time. But hey, with the economy, who knows? [Laughs] I just wanna get out there while we can."

After host Eddie Trunk noted that POISON was considered by many fans to have been the highlight of the 2022 "The Stadium Tour" with DEF LEPPARD, MÖTLEY CRÜE and Joan Jett, Rikki said: "Well, I really appreciate you saying that, for sure. We had a great run. Everybody was energetic. Everybody can play, everybody can sing. When we get to a point where we can't do those things, then that would be the time to shut it down. We're not gonna play to track. Now, there are some bands that play to track — industrial bands, different types of bands where what they create is impossible to replicate on stage — so I'm not cutting any of those bands down, that that's what they do. But when bands like ours start to like not be able to do what they did before and then they start making up for it by having recorded tracks, that I don't care for. For our band, I don't want that to ever happen. I think it would be so obvious. We're just not built that way. And I don't think our audience would accept it or really respect it if we did it that way. I really don't."

In response to Trunk saying that POISON is doing it "right way" by having a keyboard player and backing vocalist on stage, Will Doughty, who helps fill out the band's sound when POISON performs live, Rikki explained: "When we did those [early POISON] records — you do a record and then you go and do the vocals. Bret does his vocal part. And then we do backgrounds. So we're all standing in front of a mic, and then you can layer it. So then you do another track of all four of you doing background. So it's really full. And you can't really do that live. We tried not to paint ourselves into a corner too much when we were recording those records. And we had some people that go, 'Well, live is live. And studio is studio.' It's, like, yeah, but our thing's always been that we write our songs to be a soundtrack for our live show. So we can do that a little bit, because people expect a sonic level on record, a particular level, but I don't want it to be a letdown, though, then when they see us live; I don't want that either. And so with Will, it's, like, hey, right there he is. We've got a guy helping us out. It's fucking obvious. We just saw this with David Lee Roth [at the M3 Rock Festival]. He's got those background singers. Did anyone mind that they were there? I didn't mind that they were there. I'll tell you what I would've minded — if I was hearing backgrounds come out of nowhere, and I'm going, 'Where the hell did that come from?' And if that's coming out of nowhere, what else is coming out of nowhere?' And I think that's what the audience thinks. I think the audience just thinks, 'Wow, what else are they doing that's pulling the…? Is this whole thing an illusion?' And most of the time it isn't… But anyway, you have to rehearse a little harder to do that — you do — to be able to pull it off, to be able to sing every night, to play your instrument and sing at the same time."

Last December, Michaels told Ethan Dometrius about POISON's 2026 touring plans: "So here's the deal. I go through '25. We're doing a bunch of these big festivals [with my solo band] … So I'm doing a bunch of those. And then 2026, C.C. and Bobby and Rikki, I'm here because of them, because of us having each other's back in the beginning, through the middle, through right now. And it'll be four years since we've toured, since 'The Stadium Tour', together, and we're just hoping to make this absolutely 40 awesome dates, and just putting every, as we do, putting every ounce of energy on that stage and just bringing an absolute party."

Regarding POISON's mindset when performing live, Bret said: "POISON just goes out there. And I say this, that stadium tour, I was so grateful to be on it. And I just hit that thrust and I couldn't stop… I told 'em, I said, 'I can't stop smiling right now. It's ridiculous.' And we just went out there, and we play real live music. We don't mess around. We just give it, thrills and frills and good times."

Speaking specifically about DeVille's skills as a guitar player, Bret said: "I kid you not, and I get it, POISON's had some good parties, some good times, some highs, lows — that's what you go through as a human being and as a musician — but C.C. and Bobby and Rikki, and I like to put myself in there, we grew up just playing real live music, and C.C. can play; that guy can play… And C.C. up there, his tribute [on 'The Stadium Tour'] to Eddie [Van Halen], who was a friend and he loved, I thought it was not only engaging but it was really sincere. He wasn't doing it just to throw it away; he really meant it."

In September 2024, Bret told Arizona Republic about POISON's plan to tour in 2026: "Yeah, that would be incredible. We've just got to work out all the moving parts. But all original members. There's so much planning goes behind that. When I'm out as Bret Michaels, it's simpler because I'm making all the end decisions. When you're in a band like POISON, it's a committee. You go in there, and you figure it out together. You make sure everyone's good. And hopefully, we can make that work in '26."

Asked if things were "good" between him and his POISON bandmates during "The Stadium Tour", Bret said: "Absolutely. I want to be very clear. Other than an occasional throw down fistfight — I'm not making this up — we're like best friends. But there's no gray area. All of a sudden, we'll get in a fistfight. But the next day, we'll go out and play. We'll work it out like a band of brothers. 'The Stadium Tour' was amazing. We were having fun. We didn't get too many soundchecks. We just dealt with what we were given and were grateful to be there. DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY, they were amazing. They played great. But we just came out, and we knew we had one hour at 6 o'clock to go out there and give it everything we had. And it was one of the only stadium tours that from Live Nation's lips to everyone's ears, it was 98 to 100% filled when POISON went on."

Earlier in September, Michaels released a statement via social media in which he said that he was planning to "perform limited shows" in 2025 to focus primarily on his health, "starting with my diabetes which needs a tune-up, not to mention a little R&R." He added that 2026 "would be the perfect" time for a POISON 40th-anniversary tour, "with 40 awesome limited dates to go out, play real live hit songs, and rock the world."

Bret's explanation came two days after Rockett revealed on social media that Michaels was no longer interested in touring with POISON in 2025.

On September 10, 2024, the POISON drummer took to his official Facebook page to write: "I keep getting asked multiple times a day, 'Why isn't POISON touring in 2025 now?' Super simple answer, Bret doesn't want to." The following day, Rikki clarified: "People, I never said that Bret is cancelling the 2025 tour. It didn't get booked. I said the reason POISON isn't touring in 2025 is because Bret doesn't want to. Doesn't matter what the reason for him is as far as what I said. I'm simply telling you why so that CC, Bobby or myself doesn't get blamed. It isn't dirt. It isn't a fight. Just the facts, ma'am. Surmise what you want from it. You will anyway!"

More than a year ago, Bret spoke about POISON's plans to regroup for more shows following the band's 2022 participation in "The Stadium Tour" alongside MÖTLEY CRÜE, DEF LEPPARD and Joan Jett. During a February 25, 2024 question-and-answer session aboard the Rock Legends Cruise XI, he said about his motivation for going back out on the road with POISON after spending most of his time touring with his solo band: "We've known each other since we've been in junior high school… I wouldn't be here without Bobby or Rikki or C.C. And then, as you go along, we've been together a long time — still great friends. If anyone saw 'The Stadium Tour', that was a party. And when you're out there with that DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY and Joan, you're talking A-plus awesomeness. And we just came out and brought it.

"For me, what it is, we do about a couple of years solo, and then we'll go out and do 35 or 40 dates with POISON," he explained. "And we set it up, we schedule it."

POISON's long-delayed North American trek with DEF LEPPARD, MÖTLEY CRÜE and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS was originally planned for 2020 and later moved to 2021 and then to 2022.

In 2018, POISON completed the "Nothin' But A Good Time" tour with CHEAP TRICK and POP EVIL.

POISON's last album of new material was 2002's "Hollyweird". An album of covers, "Poison'd", followed in 2007.