Bret Michaels spoke about the occasional ‘fistfights’ between Poison members in a new chat with AZ Central. His explanations raised some concerns about the band’s inner dynamics following their recent online conflicts, but the singer attributed the situation to their sibling-like bond.
The interviewer asked Michaels if things were good in Poison after their run on Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard’s ‘The Stadium Tour’ in 2022. “Absolutely,” the vocalist replied.
“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,” he continued. “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.”
Poison hasn’t performed together since supporting Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard alongside Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Talks of a reunion in the upcoming years spread around on the internet in recent months but also caused tension for the band members.
Rikki Rockett recently shared on social media that a 2025 reunion tour was not happening because Bret Michaels did not want it. The post received a strong fan reaction because Michaels previously showed interest in celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut album, ‘Look What the Cat Dragged In,’ with a tour.
“People, I never said that Bret is cancelling the 2025 tour,” Rockett later explained on Facebook. “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!”
Michaels also took to the platform to clarify his stance on a 2025-2026 Poison tour. The vocalist explained that his focus in 2025 would be on his family and health, allowing him to perform only limited shows.
“However, in 2026, I’m excited to say it will be Poison’s 40th anniversary since the release of ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’ in 1986,” he continued. “So, it would make perfect sense to have the possibility of a reunion in 2026. In my opinion, it would be the perfect 40th Anniversary Tour, with 40 awesome limited dates to go out, play real live hit songs, and rock the world…for example, in 2018, Poison headlined and rocked, and in 2022 (four years later) Poison joined Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Joan Jett and Classless Act and rocked ‘The Stadium Tour’ and now, four years after that, Poison hopefully will continue to rock the world in a 2026 headlining tour.”
Michaels is currently set to perform solo until the end of December, with his next show scheduled for September 19 in Highland, CA.
