1993: Native Tongue was not doing well on the charts, but MuchMusic dutifully had Bret Michaels and new guitarist Richie Kotzen on hand for an interview with Erica Ehm. It’s a pretty solid 10 minutes, touching on the following topics:
- Getting “serious” lyrically
- Safe sex
- C.C. leaving the band, Bobby breaking his hand
- Reasons for being in a band, still
- The “Stand” video, and the Bill Clinton inauguration
- Critics
- Bret writing “country music”?
- Toning down the image
Richie Kotzen utters one complete sentence the whole time. This interview is remarkable not because Bret Michaels is always entertaining, but because Richie Kotzen didn’t fit in and it’s painfully obvious.
mikeladano.com 
I hate watching awkward interviews, but I just wanted to comment that I feel bad for the guy. Also, the Contrarians did an episode about ‘Native Tongue’ not too long ago. I haven’t watched it yet, but I will eventually.
LikeLike
Don’t feel bad. He was sleeping with Rikki’s wife. Feel bad for Rikki.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh that’s right! I read about that on Wikipedia when I looked up the band’s bio. Richie was romantically involved with Rikki’s then-fiancée Deanna Eve. What a jerk!
LikeLike
Oh how I do love this album, but Richie was out of his element with these guys. I just listened to this the other day and still think its one of their best!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is their best in my opinion, bar none. Flesh & Blood would be a close second. I guess Richie did it for the exposure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That makes me want to do a Top 5 albums for Band’s after their peak. That would be one. And I could easily do a Top 5.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a great idea for a list show!
If you look at the comments in the Metal Mike / Bret Michaels interview, I caught a lot of flack for calling this Poison’s best album. The guy says, “well I went to a lot of other sites and they don’t agree with you.” All I can say is you went to the wrong sites.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with you sort of. I had Flesh & Blood #1 and Native a very close second.
LikeLike
I just think it’s funny that the one guy could not fathom how I ranked it first. It’s awesome! I know Jompa finds it so good, he doubts anybody but Richie Kotzen played on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not surprising, some people don’t realize they can actually be wrong, but they can’t accept that fact.
LikeLike
Bret talks so much crap.
Native Tongue is one hell of an album and Kotzen definitely brought a different edge to the band musically.
And Rikki’s ex-wife has been Kotzens wife for 20 plus years
LikeLiked by 1 person
True, but the fact that he even went there? Proved he didn’t care about being in Poison.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Politics of it all aside, I remember liking the album at the time. Been ages since I heard it, though. I tried Flesh And Blood recently, an album I loved, and it was good but maybe I wasn’t in the mood. If I see a cheap copy I might grab it and just see.
LikeLike