Metal Sludge Gossip Board

Rikki recently did an hour and a half interview where he covered Poison’s full career, answered questions about Native Tongue, Crack a Smile, recording new music and more.
https://youtu.be/6vmbOvaeCNo?si=pLoh8Kd5h714TCyB

Good interview but I didn't realize he changed his name to Rikki Botox. Or maybe it's Rikki Botoxx? That's more glam. Anyway, he doesn't look as bad as some but he has zero movement in his forehead and face. 63 year olds don't look like that.

Saw this the other day. Some good stories.

Good stories in this
Biggest thing to me is Rikki saying both "Native Tongue" & "Crack a Smile" have gone double platinum over time

He seems like a good dude, so much more likable than Brett.

Bret = Bert

He's in the comments claiming he's all natural, no Botox or plastic surgery.

LitaStrauss wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 2:34 pm Good interview but I didn't realize he changed his name to Rikki Botox. Or maybe it's Rikki Botoxx? That's more glam. Anyway, he doesn't look as bad as some but he has zero movement in his forehead and face. 63 year olds don't look like that.

hahahah looks like he is AI

Wednesday 13 Fan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 5:31 am He's in the comments claiming he's all natural, no Botox or plastic surgery.

He also claimed Native Tounge & Crack a Smile are double platinum. I not sure his opinion can be trusted.

Brainy Lane wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 7:25 am

Wednesday 13 Fan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 5:31 am He's in the comments claiming he's all natural, no Botox or plastic surgery.

He also claimed Native Tounge & Crack a Smile are double platinum. I not sure his opinion can be trusted.

I wonder if he's perhaps conflating Crack a Smile with Greatest Hits, which is actually double platinum and had two of the Crack a Smile songs on it.

Also, makes me wonder what the sales figures for those albums actually are. LWTCDI and Flesh and Blood haven't been recertified since Soundscan started, and Open Up and Say Ahh hasn't been recertified since October of 1991, so surely those albums have moved some copies in the last 35 years.

Wiki says they sold 40 million but doesn't back it up.

This site says 20 million which sounds legit. Poison were def bigger than Winger or Warrant for example but wow, I didn't realize Open Up sold 8M. I figured sales were pretty even among the first 3 albums. It goes to show you just how big the ballads were. Something to Believe In was a big hit but Every Rose was HUGE! Still is...

https://bestsellingalbums.org/artist/10524

Only thing when these guys talks sales numbers, most havent been recertified in 35 years.
Some bands ( Dio for ex) have gone in & recertified & RJD went from Gold to Double Platinum a few years ago. Artists get paid for the sales but dont seem to truly care about the "official" certifications
I know it costs money for lawyers, accountants, etc but Im surprised more artists dont do this to get the official sales

I remembered that Metal Sludge used to pull the Sound Scan numbers so I did a Wayback Machine look and found this. It's from September 2002. Granted it's 22 years ago, but this is also back when people were still buying records.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040614005 ... pt2002.htm

Poison "Native Tongue"
276,385

Poison "Crack A Smile"
74,784

Native Tongue wasn't even gold in 2002. There's zero chances it sold 1.7 million albums since then. As for Crack A Smile being double platinum.... lol! I'm sure Crack A Smile has sold 1,925,216 copies in 22 years! They never even printed that many CDs to begin with.

Sounds like somebody has a degree from the Sebastian Bach School of Album Sales Exaggeration.

Good, long interview. Lots of interesting stories. Same guy had an interesting interview with soccer great Alexi Lalas (and big Ratt fan).

I hate the lame excuse for not changing the set list. If that is the case get rid of the covers no one needs to hear Poison do covers of any song. Even 'Your momma don't dance." no one is going to leave the show being mad that they didn't play it. Play the bigger hits and throw in a couple of other track that they don't usually play and everyone would be happy.

This was great.

Rikki here and Tracii Guns on the Paramount documentary both showing a startling sense of self awareness with regards to the hair metal scene. Cool to see when compared to some others