Rock of Ages?
The seventh sign of the apocalypse should occur around Memorial Day
if Bret Michaels’ wishful thinking pays off. On the day when
America will be paying homage to combat veterans, the Poison
frontman expects to be launching an Exile From Mainstream tour with
fellow veteran cock-rockers Def Leppard, Motley Crue and
Whitesnake. If his fellow glam pals are game, they’re not admitting
it.
“There will be no egos about who is headlining each show,” he says.
“I don’t want to predict the size of the venues we will play, but I
can say that all of us will go out there and do a great job.”
Poison’s tour de faux is tentatively set to kick off in the
Midwest, however America’s Dairyland shouldn’t panic quite yet.
Though Michaels puts full confidence in his self-conceived
headbangers ball, it seems the other honorable mentions are far
from committed to the tour.
“Well, you’re getting it from the snake’s mouth: No,” says frontman
David Coverdale regarding Whitesnake’s involvement in Exile. “I
retired Whitesnake after a farewell tour last year about the middle
of December. I finished that twenty years of good fun, up and down,
and that was enough.”
After peaking eleven years ago with songs like “Here I Go Again”
and “Is This Love?” (best remembered for their videos featuring
red-headed vixen Tawny Kitaen), Whitesnake went into hibernation as
rumors spread that the Robert Plant-knockoff artist planned to fire
the entire band. Though band members changed almost routinely,
Whitesnake survived overseas, and Coverdale says he did speak with
Michaels about bringing the band stateside during the spring or
summer of this year. When Exile was pushed back one year, Coverdale
had a change of heart.
“I sound like Clinton … I do recall speaking with Bret Michaels,
but I didn’t touch him — not in any intimate, inappropriate
manner,” jokes Coverdale. “Poison was deliberating about going out
later because they didn’t have an album, but I didn’t think it was
a promotional tour by any stretch. Basically, I withdrew.”
Yet another unlikely touring companion, Def Leppard will remain
under quarantine until next spring, when they plan to release the
follow-up to 1996’s Slang. For the time being, however, a
representative at the group’s management company says they “know
nothing about this proposed tour.”
Likewise, a spokeswoman for Motley Crue says the Exile escapade
does not appear on the band’s upcoming itinerary. Immediately
following the release of their greatest hits album on Oct. 27, the
Crue plan to launch their second North American tour in as many
years, which would seem to make all but Poison exiled from
Exile.
Michaels’ possible delusions aside, three-fourths of Poison
(Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille and drummer Rikki Rockett) will
play together for the first time in seven years this Saturday at
the Roxy in Los Angeles. The show will precede a full-scale Poison
reunion, that will include a new album (Winter ’99) and road show
— with or without their metal brethren.
“I’m jonesing to tour again — I miss being around Bobby [Dall] and
Rikki [Rockett] and C.C. on stage,” he says. “And I gotta have my
sweaty leather pants so I can barely move around. It’s a must.”