Poison Promise to Play at Least 40 Shows in 2026
It’s pretty easy to tie what a lot of the metal world was like in the 80s back to Poison. That time was riddled with power ballads and interesting hair cuts and much of that came from all of their musical nonsense. Their debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In came out in 1986, making 2026 its 40th anniversary. Goddamn does that make my bones ache but, according to Poison’s drummer Rikki Rockett, the band plans on doing it hella big to celebrate.
Rockett made a special Halloween appearance on the SiriusXM show Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk to in part discuss the band’s plans for the next couple of years when it comes to headlining versus split bill tours and topics of the like. Here’s what he had to say, as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net:
“It’s not figured out. We have agreed to do a minimum of 40 dates and maybe more. So whatever it works out to be, but it’s for sure gonna be that many, at least. And I don’t know. I mean, if there’s somebody that we can package with that makes sense, great. If there isn’t, then we’ll headline. Whatever makes sense. I don’t know who’s going out yet that year, in ’26, but if it makes sense to package with somebody, we’ll do it. If it doesn’t, we’ll do it ourselves. It’s like Bret [Michaels] said, if you can’t do it right, do it anyway. But we’ll be doing it right. [Laughs]”
I guess the future of the band was perceived to be mildly meh after their big 2022 stadium tour, leading fans to wonder what would come next for them, especially since frontman Bret Michaels has been on the road so much as a solo artist. Any doubt held since then was quelled by Michaels during an interview with Arizona Republic this past September. About touring in 2026, Michaels said:
“Yeah, that would be incredible. We’ve just got to work out all the moving parts. But all original members. There’s so much planning goes behind that. When I’m out as Bret Michaels, it’s simpler because I’m making all the end decisions. When you’re in a band like POISON, it’s a committee. You go in there, and you figure it out together. You make sure everyone’s good. And hopefully, we can make that work in ’26.”
He also added context about the 2022 tour nonsense and how it had no effect on Poison’s dynamics:
“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.”
That really is some sibling shit. We’ll see ya in 2026, ya clowns.
