POISON BEST FRIENDS ’TIL THE VERY END!

"If there's one thing you quote me on, it's this," insists beefy Bret Michaels in that oh-so-subtle way he has. And, as usual, the extremely vocal vocalist for Poison gets his way. "Poison are best friends. In fact, we're friends before we're a band. We've gone through the best of times and the worst of times and we've stuck it out together."

The golden (make that platinum) boys of Poison aren't usually prone to understatement, but in this case, Michaels' comment only scratches the surface of the true dream behind rock's rowdiest representatives. Their rags-to-riches story ("Or rather, our rags-to-better rags story," says Bret humbly) has been marred by a plethora of lawsuits causing financial strains on the would-be millionaires. "This is the first year we're making any money," says drummer Rikki Rockett, "after being ripped off by business and s#@$ that would crush most bands."

But Poison, as the planet has come to know by now, is nothing like most bands. It's their ambition and their lasting friendship that has kept them together against all odds. Bret, Rikki and bassist Bobby Dali have been the best of friends ever since they first met in their hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (guitarist C.C. Deville, a Florida native, caught up with them soon thereafter in Los Angeles).

Because their kinship is at the core of Poison's success, and because the band is so much more than frontman Michaels, here's Bret and Rikki themselves to make personal introductions all the way around:

* * *

MEET RIKKI ROCKETT

"Rikki is the most artistic of all of us," Bret begins. "He draws, paints and designs our clothes. . .

"The first bands he played in were jazz-rock fusion bands," he continues. "And when you're growing up in a place like (nearby) Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, there aren't a lot of people to choose from, but actually, that turned to be for Rikki's benefit—'cause now he can play a straight out rock 'n' roll 4/4 beat or he can turn around and play anything. I think that backbone and ability has helped our band do a lot more, and henceforth we can write a great song because it's the beat that makes people groove."

Rikki's Hollywood foothills home features his famed Hell Room. "It's my tribute to horror fiims," Rikki proudly admits. "I have the spider head from the Alice Cooper tour, one of the spheres from Phantasm and other odds and ends. My video library has everything from the classic stuff to the Friday The 13th series." His collection features 160 films in all, including uncensored versions and trailers. "Stuff that I can't even watch because I don't have a projector," he's sorry to say.

MEET BOBBY DALL

"If it wasn't for Bobby, I can honestly say that our band wouldn't be where we're at right now," declares Bret with admiration. "He's the one that said 'I don't care what anyone else thinks, let's just be the best at one thing and that's putting on music and being Poison.'

"Bob's a leader. . . and you'll never get a lie outta Bob. A lot of the time bass players are just meant to be backline people, but he's not. He's the animal of the band. He typifies what rock 'n' roll is all about—the women, the booze, smashing the hotel room, getting arrested... he lives the lifestlye to the extreme ... he drinks the hardest, parties the hardest and kicks ass the hardest. . .onstage you just gotta stand out of his way!"

MEET C.C. DEVILLE

"People love C.C. because he's loud and upfront, a hell of a good time and an excellent guitar player," continues host-with-the-mostMichaels. "He's one of those people that's musically gifted. Me, I've been trying to learn saxophone for two years and I still can't play it right. He picked it up for 15 minutes and could play three songs already.

"I'll be the first to admit that C.C. is very strange," Bret laughs, "but all guitar players are. He's very outgoing but at the same time he's very much his own person. He'll sit in back of the bus for hours and just play guitar."

C.C.'s grace, apparently, is most evident when he's safely seated. "We call C.C. 'Twinkletoes,' because he's so light on his feet," whispers Rikki mischievously. "He kicks ass onstage then forgets where he's walking!"

"He's the most obnoxious, the loudest, the most outrageous," Bret snickers, "and the biggest pain in the ass!"

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST. . .

"Me?" Bret is momentarily at a loss for words when asked to describe himself.

"If you could see inside my brain," he suggests, "you'd see it's like a View-Master that shows what I was thinking about when I wrote the lyrics to each song. In 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn' and 'Fallen Angel' the names are changed to protect that innocent!"

So, you might wonder, what's the one thing that keeps these old Pennsylvania chums as close as ever after all these years? It's something as thick as blood, a kinship that's more than skin deep. It's something that glows green in the dark. . .

"We were living about 10 miles away from Three Mile Island," Bret explains, alluding to that community's nuclear mishap. "I was 16 exactly and was just getting my driver's license when the whole thing happened.

"So I think Three Mile Island had everything to do with the way we turned out! You just wait when 10 years from now the skin starts falling off my face! We'll change the concept of the band, you know what I mean?"