POISON XXX TOUR?
Bret Michaels talks about 30 Year Anniversary dates in 2016 with Poison

Las Vegas — In a recent interview with Las Vegas Magazine Bret Michaels talks about 2016. One thing that Bret touches on is the 30 year anniversary of Poison’s release “Look What The Cat Dragged In”.

The band issued their debut in 1986 and fans expect something will happen with the band for this landmark year. Read more below from Bret’s recent interview about all things solo and Poison related going into 2016.

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Bret Michaels with BMB guitarist Pete Evick

I was told that this has been an attendance breaking tour for you. Is that a personal record or records for the festivals?

MICHAELS: It’s both. For me being on the road is usually about 200 dates per year, and that includes the concert but also speaking engagements for charity events. I did a lot of charity events with (Michaels’ organization) Life Rocks, but for this year at the festivals we broke a lot of attendance records. And that’s a great feeling, especially since, and I’m saying this now, next year will mark Poison’s 30th anniversary, and I’ve tentatively titled it The XXX Tour. Poison’s going out, and at least trying to do 10 to 30 select dates, just select dates, and make each one of them unbelievably awesome. That would be great. I’m hoping we can make that happen, but to be honest the Bret Michaels Band … breaking some of the same records that we set with Poison at these festivals like at Prior Lake (Minn.). That was an awesome feeling.

You have two nights coming up at The Orleans in Vegas. Why two nights and what do you have planned?

MICHAELS: Well, each show is always going to be a little bit different. If I’m not mistaken, they’re sold out, or they’re close to selling out. It’s going to be an amazing night, and we always change the set up a little bit because at a lot of venues we play we’ll do two or three nights in a row and I want a lot of fans to come back night after night. We mix it up with a perfect mix of the Poison hits and the new solo stuff, and then some good cover stuff that we remade on True Grit—songs that I love that we’ve been doing onstage. No matter what, like I said, it’s three generations of fans just partying, and it’s much more than a concert. It’s nothing but a good time. That’s the mood we set with the music we’re playing. When people walk through the door, I want music jamming. I want everyone having a great time.

Are you doing countrified versions of Poison songs?

MICHAELS: No. Straight-up, everything is rock. It’s a rock show, and there’s some songs like “Girls on Bars” that lean more country. I love the sound of well-produced (country music). You know, I go onstage with Kenny Chesney. Tim McGraw and I did songs together at the stadiums in different places, but most of the set is just a pure fun, upbeat, great rock ’n’ roll show. Some of the songs that we do have that influence in them, but more than anything it’s the energy.

So you will do “Girls on Bars”?

MICHAELS:  Yeah. We do the theme song from Rock of Love. “Go That Far” was a No. 1 rock song. I remade Lynyrd Skynyrd on the new record, “Sweet Home Alabama.” Sublime, we did “What I Got, “ which I love and the crowd loves it. And then we mix that in with the Poison stuff as well.

Who is in the Bret Michaels Band? Is it a new band or are these all long relationships?

MICHAELS: I’m a long relationships guy. I’ve known Peter Evick … my guitar player and music director Pete is one of the best. He’s just passionate about music. And so, I’ve known them a long time. When I was playing with Poison, their band Evick was playing the B-stage—the Wrangler stage or the Red Bull stage, whatever they were doing. I literally took my Harley—I travel with my motorcycle—I took it and started driving and heard them playing. They sounded great, walked up and did a song with them. People were just starting to come into the amphitheater at the Nissan Pavilion, which is now Jiffy Lube Live, outside of D.C. They’re all from Virginia, and I walked up and jammed with them, and we’ve been best friends and a band ever since.

You seem very tight with Pete.

MICHAELS: He’s my best friend. You know when you meet people in your life, there’s no rhyme or reason, you just click? We just clicked the minute we met, and he’s got the same work ethic I do. He’s a go-out-there, have-fun, get-it-done guy. We’re having a good time, but he’s a hard worker and a great musician. He understands I’m an “audible guy.” I’ll call out onstage a completely different song than we’re supposed to be playing. No one freaks out. Our bass player Bart (Harris), our keyboardist Robbie (Jozwiak), our drummer Mikey (Bailey)—they just get it. They get it, and we are a completely live band. There’s no ProTools, there’s no nothing. We’ve just playing live, live music.

I can see why you might prefer that musical bond and do selective dates with Poison.

MICHAELS: My best buddies in Poison—this is a true story—we grew up together. We loved playing music together, we had a lot of battles, things that we fought against, and I’ll never forget that. I’ll always remember that, but the truth of the matter is as a solo artist there are a lot of things I’d like to do that I get a chance to do, instruments I get to play onstage, stuff that I can change. I think with Poison there is no doubt I still feel blessed to be friends with these guys. We still do a lot of touring together. We’ll co-headline with Def Leppard or Mötley, or go out there with Skynyrd or Kiss and do great shows, but the bottom line is as you go along with the band, different guys wants different things. I think that Poison, if you were to ask us directions to some place, we’re four guys that would give you four completely different sets of directions but we’d all end up in the same area. So the chemistry worked, and the chemistry works with my solo band in the same way. There’s a great energy there, and like I said most of the dates I’ll do will continue to be solo, but the Poison stuff I think would be great for this summer to have select dates for the 30th anniversary, and then the 31st year it would be great to go out with Def Leppard again or go back on the road with Kiss or Aerosmith, or so something amazing.

I would think Poison would be offered a Vegas residency by next year.

MICHAELS: We were supposed do it last year, and we wanted to do that. I think Poison would blow that away. I think with our show and our ability … again it’s two things. You want your visual show to be good but you still gotta have it in your heart, and passion as a person to make the show great. That would be the best of both worlds. I would love to do that for a couple of weeks so hopefully we can work that out.

Read the full interview with Bret at Las Vegas Magazine