Poison

During the 1980s era dominated by upbeat party tracks and dramatic power ballads, Poison achieved widespread success, surpassed in sales only by Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. Although the band amassed numerous pop-metal chart entries, their elaborate live productions soon drew equal attention, allowing them to sustain strong concert draw well into later decades even as pop-metal faded commercially. Frontman Bret Michaels later transitioned into reality television in 2007, with appearances on programs including Rock of Love, Celebrity Apprentice, and Life as I Know It keeping the group visible to audiences and supporting ongoing tour demand.

Originally operating under the name Paris, the band formed in 1984 when Bret Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall, and drummer Rikki Rockett came together. After relocating from Harrisburg, PA, to Los Angeles, they auditioned candidates for a guitarist, ultimately selecting C.C. Deville, who edged out future Guns N' Roses member Slash for the role. The completed lineup adopted a flashy, gender-blurring visual style and performed frequently around Los Angeles, honing skills in self-promotion and grassroots marketing that secured a deal with Enigma Records in 1986. That summer they issued their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, which yielded the Top 40 singles "Talk Dirty to Me" and "I Won't Forget You" and moved more than two million copies inside its first year.

Poison had already built a solid following by late 1987, yet 1988's Open Up & Say...Ahhh! marked their major commercial arrival through the major successes "Fallen Angel," "Nothin' But a Good Time," and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," the latter becoming the group's initial number-one single. Following a lucrative run of dates supporting David Lee Roth, the band entered the studio for 1990's Flesh and Blood, which featured the number-three hit "Unskinny Bop" and the number-four ballad "Something to Believe In." The set achieved multi-platinum status but also closed the peak commercial chapter; while on the road in support (captured on the double-disc live set Swallow This Live), internal tensions surfaced, most visibly when Deville took the stage for "Talk Dirty to Me" with an unplugged guitar, sparking a backstage confrontation that escalated into a physical altercation.

Soon after Swallow This Live appeared, Poison dismissed Deville amid mounting struggles with substance issues. Twenty-one-year-old Richie Kotzen stepped in and made his recorded debut on 1993's Native Tongue. Though it earned favorable notices and produced the hit "Stand," the album underperformed commercially. Kotzen was let go mid-tour after an alleged affair with Rikki Rockett's fiancé, at which point session player and solo artist Blues Saraceno became the third guitarist. The group tracked its fifth studio effort, Crack a Smile, slated for 1996, but the label instead issued the compilation Greatest Hits: 1986-1996. By year's end Saraceno departed and Deville rejoined, prompting a well-received reunion trek in summer 1999. The shelved Crack a Smile recordings surfaced the next spring, followed by Power to the People, which combined five new studio tracks with twelve live recordings from the comeback shows; that tour ended prematurely after bassist Dall sustained injuries requiring major spinal surgery.

Once Dall completed an extended rehabilitation, the band reconvened to create Hollyweird, issued in summer 2002. The accompanying tour leaned on nostalgia and received funding from VH1, initiating a sustained partnership with the network. Deville later joined the sixth season of The Surreal Life, while Michaels received his own dating series, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. Hollyweird met with muted response, and the group stepped back from the spotlight as Michaels and Rockett each released solo projects. They regrouped in 2006 to mark their twentieth anniversary with an extensive U.S. tour and the retrospective The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock. Capitalizing on Michaels' reality-television profile, the collection entered the Billboard Top 20, the band's strongest chart placement since Native Tongue. The next year brought comparable results when the covers album Poison'd! sold more than twenty thousand copies in its opening week.