Going to a Poison concert can be like a live jukebox given how many hits the rock band has had.
The “Poison…Nothin’ But a Good Time 2018” tour stops at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Tinley Park June 9.
“The songs have withstood the test of time. They’re really good songs,” said drummer Rikki Rockett via phone from his Los Angeles home.
“Poison has been beaten up over the years for various things. We’ve never been the industry darlings. At the end of the day so many bands have come and gone since our inception. We’re very lucky,” he said.
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“A lot of it was the hard work at the beginning — that incessant touring, going to every city that would take us, playing everywhere that we could play, just writing the best songs and delivering the best show that we could. It all paid off.
“We still do those things. We still work really hard at our shows even at our age.”
Rockett, who has been with Poison (www.poisonofficial.com) since its inception in 1983, recalled what a struggle it was to get people to check out the band when it was based on the East Coast.
“Our beginnings in Pennsylvania were probably more interesting than what was happening in Los Angeles. Everybody always concentrates on the Sunset Strip. That is interesting too but we were fairly young when we started,” he said.
“A lot of the venues that we played wouldn’t allow people under 21 because they were bars, except in Maryland where it was age 18, so we created a lot of our gigs at Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, skating rinks and stuff like that so we could have all-ages shows.
“Older crowds at that time, 25 and up, that were going to bars were into new wave and classic rock. We were a hard rock band. At that time classic rock was not like Aerosmith. It was the Allman Brothers Band. All that stuff was crazy because it was such a fight. We were so misunderstood,” he said.
“There wasn’t anything like us. That’s when we decided to move out here because the West Coast was getting it. They were understanding it. At the time Los Angeles was all about original stuff.”
Poison released its debut album, “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” in 1986. The group’s high energy, big hair and makeup certainly made an impression especially on the MTV generation.
The band has sold more than 40 million albums and DVDs worldwide and charted multiple singles to the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 including top 10 singles such as “Something to Believe In” and the No. 1 hit “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”
“I don’t have an announcement of what you’re going to see live yet,” said Rockett, who was a day away from starting tour rehearsals. “It’s not like it’s going to be a total surprise. We have to do the hits. We try sometimes at various shows to pull hits out and stick B-sides in.
“It’s a little bit of a conundrum sometimes. You want to give the hard-core fans something different but, at the same time, people want to hear ‘Nothin’ But a Good Time’ and ‘Talk Dirty to Me.’ There’s only so much time in the set.
“I love most of our stuff live. ‘Unskinny Bop’ and those kinds of grooves as a drummer are fun to play so that would rank up there. Hopefully we’ll add some things in there that’ll be just a little different this year. I’m really pushing for that.”
Poison is touring with some familiar faces in Cheap Trick and Pop Evil.
“I’m such a fan of Cheap Trick. They’ve been so influential not just to me but to our band and so many other bands so it’s quite an honor to have them out there on tour with us,” Rockett said.
“Pop Evil is a fairly new band. They did play with us a few years back. I remember good things. I’m looking forward to that as well.”
One of Rockett’s memorable moments was circa 1988.
“The first day of our very first headlining tour was the time when it hit me. I said, ‘Wow. We really have accomplished something.’ To actually headline arenas after coming from playing small little bars and VFW halls in Pennsylvania was such a huge thing for me,” he said.
Poison
When: 7 p.m. June 9
Where: Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, 19100 S. Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park
Tickets: $18 to $140-plus
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Information: 708-614-1616; www.livenation.com