Poison

Boasting big riffs, party-hearty lyrics and a look that took “glam” to the extreme, Poison were one of the biggest acts of the hair-metal era. Formed in 1983 in Pennsylvania by frontman Bret Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall and drummer Rikki Rockett, Poison moved to Los Angeles shortly after coming together, adding New York-born guitarist C.C. DeVille to the lineup after relocating. The group’s maximalist approach to good-time rock made their debut, Look What the Cat Dragged In, a surprise smash, with the playful sing-along “Talk Dirty to Me” becoming one of ’80s hard rock’s defining tracks. The album’s 1988 follow-up, Open Up and Say… Ahh!, included the storming “Nothin’ But a Good Time” and the lighter-raiser “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, cementing the quartet as one of the era’s biggest rock bands. Flesh & Blood, released in 1990, scattered the introspective tracks “Life Goes On” and “Something to Believe In” amid party jams like “Unskinny Bop”. DeVille left Poison in the early ’90s, and the band soldiered on for 1993’s Native Tongue and the initially shelved Crack a Smile before his return in 1999. Michaels and DeVille had stints of reality-TV fame in the 2000s; since then, Poison have continued touring, playing feel-good rockers and tear-jerking ballads to crowds around the world.