Poison haven't performed together since their 2022 stadium tour opening for Mötley Crüe, but the hair metal hit-makers had been teasing a big anniversary outing this year tied to the 40th anniversary of debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In. It's not going to happen, and if drummer Ricki Rockett is to be believed, Bret Michaels is to blame.
Last year, Rockett told a podcaster that there were no tour plans on the books for 2026. He said he stayed close in touch with guitarist C.C. DeVille and that bassist Bobby Dall mostly keeps to himself. It sounded like relations with Michaels, the frontman who went on to solo success in the reality TV world, were not good: "Bret and I do not talk, unfortunately. And that's a shame — honestly, it is."
Now Rockett is telling Page Six that although plans were in motion for a 40th anniversary tour, Michaels' financial demands made those plans untenable. According to Rockett, Michaels was asking for a 600% payday compared to his bandmates.
"We had a great offer, I thought. But we left the table," Rockett told Page Six. "It didn't work. Really what it came to was C.C., Bobby, and I were all in, and I thought Bret was, but he wanted the lion’s share of the money, to the point where it makes it not possible to even do it. It’s like $6 to every one of our dollars. You just can’t work that way."
Rockett added, "I don't do this just for the money. I do have a love for this, absolutely. But at the same time, you don’t want to go out and work really hard just to make somebody else a bunch of money." Would he consider doing a Poison tour with a different frontman?
"It’s not out of the question," he said. "But doing that is like surgery: it’s the last resort."
Instead, rocket plans to perform Look What The Cat Dragged In on tour with his side band, Rockett Mafia, and hope for another go with Poison in 2027. He notes that it would be "a perfect Poison folly to do a 41st anniversary tour."
