The new album from Poison has been the subject of much debate, especially since Andrew McNiece of melodicrock.com gave the album a paltry 50% score, much of the criticism stemming from his opinion that the production was, to say the least, extremely poor. Many fans posted their own reviews in response, some agreeing but many proclaiming the album a return to form, and the raw feel was all part of the Poison sound - and that at the end of the day, it was the songs that mattered. Kieran Dargan got on the hotline to Rikki Rocket to get the band's perspective...

'Hollyweird', the first Poison recording with the original line-up in ten years. Now that it's finally out, what are your feelings?

"That's always a tough one for me. The only thing I know is the intention with which we go into a project. Then you get so wrapped up in it you end up not being sure about it. I'm proud of the songs and what we did. I liked my drum tracks particularly on this record. The response has been really good out here on the tour. I have had a ton of people every night, now don't forget we're in our world here, the people who are coming up to me are Poison fans who are diggin' it. Somebody who never liked our band, now that's different. Is this a record that would turn them around? I don't know. It's a Poison record, it's exactly the record we set out to make."

It's a Poison record okay, but the one thing I wondered about was the inclusion of the two CC tracks: 'The Emperor's New Clothes' and 'Living in the Now'. Those two tracks are as far away from the traditional sound as you could possibly get. Is this the price that Poison must pay to have CC stay in the band?

"Hahahaha... those two tracks are more like his solo stuff. To some degree that's true. When we all sat down and talked about it nobody knew he wanted to sing that badly to the point he went and started his own band to do that. It's like.. look if you really want to sing that badly we can do it, it's not a problem. The reason those two songs got picked was we wrote twenty odd tracks, we went in two week increments - two weeks on, two weeks off - that way we wouldn't kill each other. When we looked at every thing we had to work with Brett said okay, what do we go with and we made a deliberate decision to pick the ones that didn't sound like Poison. We said if we're going to take a chance let's really take a chance so that's why we did it. I don't know how he ended up with three songs though. Hmmm, I don't know how he did that."

The lead single 'Squeeze Box', why did you choose to release that first. In my opinion there are better songs on the record - 'Hollyweird' wouldn't have been a bad choice I know you are all big fans of British glam rock - did that have anything to do with it, or was it the fact that this was going to be Poison's return to the mainstream and you wanted something instantly recognisable to sort of help you get immediate airplay?

"I'm not going to bullshit you, you nailed it. Quite honestly with us trying to get back into radio again, there's a lot of classic rock stations in the USA who are more likely to play a song like that than anything new from Poison. We treated that song like our own. It doesn't matter to me what song goes to radio, it really doesn't. There aren't any songs I dislike, for instance if 'Shooting Star' had been the single that would have been fine too, I like that song, but the PR people, managers, promoters... everybody said 'Squeeze Box' it's really cool. You picked this one, we can run with this. We are like cool, great, just get it out there and let us go play live."

'Rockstar' has finally turned up on an album. During the course of our last conversation some eighteen months ago you said that Poison were so close to singing a deal with a major label and now the new record is out on Jimmy Buffet's Milaboat Records, is the idea of a major label finally gone out the window?

"We had a few offers that really didn't make sense to us and a few more that didn't make sense in time. It's Jimmy's label and he has just gone double platinum with his own record so we know it can be done on this label if we have the right songs but I don't know if we have everything in place yet. The one thing is people did want a rock and roll Poison record and they got that."

The album has come in for quite a bit of criticism from various sectors of the media, some citing the production as weak, others saying the songwriting is lacking. Have you heard any of this criticism or do you have anything to say in defense of the album?

"Well, Tom Panuzzio has been producing records for years, he even engineered 'Rattle and Hum' so he knows what he's doing. The one thing we didn't want to do was over produce the record. We did the drums in A&M in the big drum room. It wasn't done as a garage project or something. Sometimes people will take one thing and fifty others will run with it...'Hey man, I heard the production sucked,' and this is even before they have heard it. That's the bad thing about the internet - bad news travels fast. I think the production is up to snuff, that threw me for a loop. I mean where's the beef with it? The drums are good and the guitars are in your face. What we didn't do is layer a bunch of shit. Those songs sound live the same way they sound on the record and that's what we wanted to achieve."

You're out on tour, how's it been going so far?

"We left May 8th and we're going to be out until Sept 2. It's been a blast every night."

I see Metal Sludge are giving you a rough time about your percentage fill every night. 50% this year, 70 % last year and 95% the year before.

"If you go into a building which holds 25,000 then 40% is pretty damn good. Attendances in general have been good. We had about 14,000 in the building last night in Milwaukee. Tonight we're in Indianapolis. The other thing is there are a lot of bands out there with top ten singles that are playing clubs, how does that happen? Somewhere along the line the demographics are tweaked."

I've just seen very briefly the current set list and only two tracks from 'Hollyweird' have made the cut.

"We actually did three last night: 'Emperors New Clothes', 'Squeezebox' and 'Hollyweird'. There have been nights we have done only one. That way it's fun, changing it around every night. Plus a lot of people follow us around. I'll see some of the same people at three, four, five shows and it's cool to swap stuff around."

Did you rehearse the whole album just to be able to play everything should you decide?

"Yes, everything."

So that way if the album takes off, towards the end of the tour you could do five or six new songs?

"Yes, and have a lot of people stare at us like they've just sniffed glue. It's weird trying to introduce new songs. You have to be careful, you just can't dump everything on 'em at once. Bowie used to be able to do that once, but I doubt if anybody else is doing it in 2002. Plus, I want to play 'Nothin' But a Good Time' and stuff like that."

Not to mention you wouldn't get off stage alive if you didn't play that stuff.

"You can bet your life on that."

So how is the single doing in the USA? We here in Europe see things like - Most added to this playlist and most requested on this list and top of the other playlist. So taking it all into account what's your take on it?

"I really honestly don't know. I have these people from radio and we meet them every night as competition winners and they tell us it gets played quite a bit. But I do feel uneducated about this in as much as I really couldn't tell you. I have to make a point of finding that out. It's not that I'm not concerned it's just that we have this big fan base and it's my job to entertain them and by and large we do that every night. I think a lot of people want us to have a number one single again, but it doesn't really matter to our fans, it's not critical. We are in a different place in our career now. Sure I'd love to have a number one single again, or win a Grammy - that would be cool but the fact that we are able to come out and tour every year is just awesome. I'm not side stepping your original question, I don't know but I don't think it's going through the roof."

Do you think it's whipping up enough interest to make people say, hey Poison have a new single and it's cool, lets go see a show.

"Yes I do. We are seeing a big mix of all ages at our shows every night and that's very, very cool. It's mind-blowing. I've seen fourteen-year olds and I've seen lawyer looking guys all standing together in a row. We've always had this motto, let our audience pick us. I mean I'm not trying to appeal to a certain group of people, we have a cultural thing going on. I'm not going to dare to say we've had the same cultural impact as the Ramones but it goes far beyond record sales and who's number one. It becomes a little bit of a legacy and I'm not patting myself on the back for it but we have developed a similar type of vibe to those bands, maybe not to the same level but something has definitely happened."

The first weeks sales for the new album are 12,000, a small bit of a difference from the heady days of the late 80's.

"That's not bad - it came out over a holiday weekend. The one thing people don't understand about Soundscan sales records is first, we're an independent so we don't have these big gorillas pushing all that stuff around. Let's say The Strokes come out and somebody pulls their Soundscan sales from Comptom LA - their sales are going to look really bad but if they pull sales from The Village in NY it would look a whole lot different because they are two totally different areas, the Village being more happening, big time. You can pull some real scams but it depends on which areas you pull your figures from."

So not a bad first week total then. Do the figures still bother you?

"Well, I'd love to see big numbers, who wouldn't, but it's funny how things can creep up on you. We played Universal in LA last year and we got platinum record awards for the Greatest Hits record. They're putting out a Greatest Hits....great, cool, then all of a sudden when you're not paying attention to the record the fucker goes platinum. Wow, how did that happen? Who knows, maybe similar things will happen with this record for whatever reasons."

Have you had a chance to check out you're fellow acts?

"Every night. I've known Tamie for fifteen years, those guys are nuts. I love watching Rod Morgenstein of Winger, he's an amazing drummer and Cinderella, well they're our pals. I don't watch them every night but I have seen them on five or six occasions so far. When people come out to visit with me, friends, fans etc. I say go out and watch Cinderella, they are a fucking great band, don't sit back here with me. Okay, fuck it, hang on I'll go with you...hahaha."

Recently on the internet a guy from Spain mentioned that a promoter announced that Poison and Cinderella would play two live shows in October in Spain. Any truth in this one?

"I don't know anything about that. I do know that some dates were being worked on but so far nothing is down on paper. That's the thing about putting the tour together, you have to do a few shows to support the tour. There is no point in coming over half assed, you know, we'll just bring guitars, amps and drums and play. We're not going to do that, we'll do it right or we're not going to bother. We have to do a few shows to make it all pay, and when you get into dealing with overseas promoters that's a whole different ballgame. I think we're still owed money from shows we did in Europe last time.hahahaha."

Do you think then that this tour, or even part of it will make it to Europe this time.

"As I said, we have been working on it already. You know there is always early next year, we are trying to put something together with Whitesnake for then. You know I'll take whatever I can when I can get it, or when it makes sense. I'm working on it making sense."

So now the records is out. Looking back, the first record together in ten years - has it been painless?

"The writing was painless, the recording was painful, which is weird. Normally it's the other way around. For some reason - I don't know why - I still sit back and think about it and ask myself why was it so painful because normally you know what you're doing and you go in and do it. That's okay, the fact of the matter is it's done and it came out well."

It wasn't a lack of ideas then?

"Oh no, never is. I don't know how to put this any other way other than it's four guys trying to hurry up and take a shit at the same time and fertilise the Poison plant."

So finally I'm the genie and I'll grant you one wish for this album. What is it?

"Oh, I'd love for it to go huge and keep us out on the road even longer. Then we could come to the UK and back down to South America and stuff like that. That would be so cool."