Photo by Mark Weiss
By Andrew Catania
I recently spoke to Bobby Dall of Poison and discussed their current tour with Cheap Trick and if we’ll see any new Poison music.
How’s the tour going with Cheap Trick?
BD: Great! We’ve done other tours with Cheap Trick with Def Leppard and this is the first time that we’ve headlined with them opening for us. They’re great guys, I’m big fans of the band and they’re awesome guys to tour with.
What was Poison’s first record deal?
BD: No, we took an independent deal on my Enigma Records and we were passed on by all the major labels. So, we took an independent deal with Enigma Records and released the video for Cry Tough, which wasn’t that successful on MTV, but we managed to sell 20, 30,000 copies in the Los Angeles area where we had our huge following. It was right when Capitol Records was in negotiations with Enigma to pick up the distribution for their label. Right as Talk Dirty To Me was released, Capitol came in and picked up the label. That’s how we became part of Capitol. It was a great label to be on as the Beatles were on Capitol. at that how we became a part of capital and it was a great label to be on the label for the Beatles. I always enjoyed the fact that we were on the same label as the Beatles and that end to end. We’re still on Capitol, but technically it’s Universal today. It’s Capitol, Universal, and EMI.
I first saw you guys on tour opening for RATT. The RATT/Poison tour.
BD: That was our first large arena tour. It was a blast touring with RATT. It was an honor.
Then I saw you opening for David Lee Roth on the Skyscraper Tour.
BD: When went out with Dave on the first leg of the tour. By that time, we were on heavy rotation with MTV and switched to the headliner and it hasn’t stopped from there. Part of rock and roll history!
Was it difficult to put this tour together with the different schedules of everyone?
BD: Absolutely not. We went out last year with Def Leppard and it was very successful. Live Nation was very much into this during the course of the summer. We managed to put together a six, seven-week block of time that was convenient for everybody. We went out here for 30 dates and that’s really how it is. you just never know. Will we be touring next year? I can’t tell you that for sure.
The gaps between tours, other members of Poison are in the public eye with various projects. Bret has his solo band, Ricki has his, What do you do in your time away from Poison?
BD: I’m in many industries and many businesses, it’d be boring for your rock and roll audience. I don’t talk about them. I’ve raised my children. My daughter is 21, her name is Zoe, my son is Zach, who’s 27. My children are raised and I’m in many businesses and industry I do very much. But I keep it very private.
Is there any chance you guys will record a new Poison album?
BD: I’m not going to bullshit you Andrew say there’s any in the process. Would I like there to be? Yes. But, it’s a matter of everyone having the time. Everybody in the band has other commitments. Some members have younger children and others. So between those two issues, it’s difficult and you know, health issues as we get older. Should we be making a new record? Yes, definitely. But will it happen? I don’t know.
One of your tours I liked the best was when Alice in Chains was opening for you on Native Tongue.
BD: That was definitely a good one. That was long before their time, as they were up and coming. We actually requested Alice in Chains for the tour. It was unfortunate because we had to shut the tour down early for a situation that happened.
Out of all of the Poison records, which one is your favorite?
BD: You know, that’s a that’s a great question. Nobody has ever asked me that or asked me that specific question. I would have to say that, Look What The Cat Dragged In. You have your whole life to write your first album. It’s your first hit record. It’s the first time you turn on the radio and you hear yours. So would be a playback. There were a lot of firsts that went with that record. After that, we had to make our sophomore record and there’s a lot of pressure on you after coming off with a hit record and we just came right off the tour, went right into rehearsals and spent a couple months there and a couple of months in the studio. Then came Open Up and Say Ahh which is this year is the 30th anniversary of.
After the summer tour with Cheap Trick, does Poison have definitive plans for the rest of 2018?
BD: Things have been talked about but there’s nothing definitive on the table to tell you that we are doing. So stay tuned to our sites and we’ll let our fans no ASAP if we do. Thanks, Andrew!
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