Poison is an American rock band which originally achieved popular success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band has sold over 25 million records to date worldwide.
Formed by a group of aspiring rock musicians from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Poison moved to Los Angeles, California in search of fame. The band's roots, and those of glam metal in general, lay in America's east, and in particular, the sounds and images associated with the New York Dolls, KISS, Boston, Aerosmith, and Cheap Trick. These influences were transplanted to California in the late 1970s, mutated following the release of Van Halen's debut in 1978, and ultimately ignited into a colourful music scene on L.A.'s Sunset Strip in the 1980s. The band's later work would also exhibit a Southern rock and blues influence.
Poison's music is characterised by straightforward melodies and catchy guitar riffs. The band's tunes are often not remembered as well as their garish costumes, overblown hair, feminizing make-up, and frenetic stageshow, all delivered via the metal-heavy MTV of the mid to late 1980s. To many, Poison was the epitome of the Sunset Strip glam metal scene. For their fans, this meant a straightforward celebration of hedonism; for their critics, it meant music which was uninspired and unimportant.
January 03, 2007 Poison announced on their official My Space page that they would like the fans to help pick songs for the new album they are to go into the studio to record an album of your favorite classic rock songs. The fans replied with suggestions like Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird," The Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz," and AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" along with what might be an obvious choice -- Alice Cooper's "Poison."
Poison had a lot of success in 2006 with a cover of Grand Funk Railroad's "We're An American Band." and are no strangers to recording covers on their albums. Other songs they have covered are "Your Mama Don't Dance" (Loggins and Messina), "Squeeze Box" (The Who), "Cover of the Rolling Stone" (Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show) and "Rock and Roll All Nite" (KISS). Rikki Rockett also recorded a solo album of covers in 2003 entitled Glitter 4 Your Soul.
January 28, 2007 Rikki Rockett:
“The Album will be ready for a summer Poison tour. That is the plan, anyway. p.s. The songs we are doing are NOT what you expect!”
On February 14, 2007, it was released by VH1 that Bret Michaels is going to have his own reality show called "Rock of Love With Bret Michaels" where women will have to compete for his love and prove they can keep up with his rock star life.
On February 14, 2007, it was announced by VH1 that Bret Michaels is going to have his own reality show called Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, where women will have to compete for his love and prove they can keep up with his rock star life. Rock of Love premiered on July 15, 2007.
During 2007, Poison went on a summer tour with Ratt. They released their covers album, now named Poison'd!, on June 5, 2007 through Capitol Records. White Lion was removed from the tour due to legal issues, and Vains of Jenna took their place. The August 2nd sold-out show in at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre St. Louis, Missouri was taped for a live concert DVD and for a HDNet Concert special called: POISON: LIVE, RAW & UNCUT that aired on October 26, 2007 as part of Heavy Metal Halloween. The band also appeared that night on the channel's Sound Off with Matt Pinfield.
The band played at the Rock2Wgtn rock festival in Wellington, New Zealand, on the weekend of March 22-23, 2008. The festival also included fellow legendary rockers Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, and Finnish hard rock act Lordi.
Poison played at the Sweden rock festival 2008. Sebastian Bach is slated to be the opening act on this Summer's 2008 Poison tour, also featuring Dokken.
On March 28 that year Rikki Rockett was arrested on suspicion of rape in Los Angeles after getting off a flight from New Zealand. According to police reports, a woman in Neshoba County, MS, filed a report stating that on September 23, 2007, Rockett sexually assaulted her in his room at the Silver Star Hotel & Casino located on a Choctaw Indian reservation. Rocket was exonerated of all charges on May 22, as it was discovered that he was not in Mississippi during the time of the alleged rape, and that a man by the name of John Minskoff used Rockett's name when he met the woman before raping her.
Bret Michaels also starred in Rock of Love with Bret Michaels (season 2). Both seasons were successful and led to a solo compilation album which featured a few new tracks heard on the series. The album was titled Rock My World and was released in June 2008.
Poison live DVD, "Live Raw Uncut", released on Tuesday, July 15, 2008, was filmed in St. Louis, Missouri during the Poison'd tour in 2007. This DVD/CD set will be initially exclusive to Best Buy stores and will include behind-the-scenes footage as a bonus feature as well as a live audio CD with selections from the concert. It sold around 2,400 copies in its first week of release to debut at position No. 8 on Billboard's Top Music Videos chart.
Also in 2008 a live CD version of the Poison DVD "Seven Days Live" was released.
In 2009, Bret Michaels starred in the third installment of Rock of Love called "Rock of Love Bus", and a Poison box set was released, consisting of 3 Cd's of music from 1986 - 2000. On January 14, 2009, Bret Michaels unveiled plans to team up with fellow rockers Def Leppard for a summer 2009 tour - ending a bitter feud between the two groups, plus Cheap Trick.
