Poison drummer Rikki Rockett recently discussed the challenges the band faced with the distribution of their classic album ‘Open Up And Say … Ahh!’ due to its original cover. Walmart gave Poison an ultimatum to change the cover because it featured a wild, tribal-like figure with an extended tongue, which they found inappropriate.
During an interview on The Motley Croc Show (via Ultimate Classic Rock), Rockett shared, “Walmart rejected it — Walmart… So, Wally [Walmart founder Sam Walton], he was alive at the time, said it represented a demonic figure and he didn’t want it.”
“So, we sat down with management and the label. And, really, at the end of the day, it was like, are we in the album cover business or are we in the music business?” he explained. “Really, we should be able to just make a green cover or a white cover with nothing and put our music out if that’s what we need to do. Our goal was to get our music out.”
“What’s our percentage of sales at Walmart? Does it matter? Well, it’s 38 percent, sometimes 40 percent of your sales. At that time, man, people were just going through Walmart and going, ‘I’m getting my records here. I’m getting my records here.’ It was cheaper than going to the record store by a certain percentage.”
“So, the percentage of people buying records at Walmart was high,” the drummer noted. “And we’re, like, ‘Are we gonna throw away 35 to 40 percent of our market share, getting our music into the hands of fans, or are we gonna gripe about it and fight with Walmart?’ And so it just didn’t make sense.”
Ultimately, Poison agreed to modify the album cover. Released in April 1988, ‘Open Up And Say … Ahh!’ went on to sell over 5 million copies in the USA.
