Poison fans hoping for a massive reunion tour to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary are likely going to be disappointed.
According to a new report, the iconic rock group has officially scrapped plans to reunite for a long-rumored anniversary tour, with money disagreements derailing the comeback before it ever became official. The news was confirmed by drummer Rikki Rockett, who said negotiations broke down over pay demands from lead singer Bret Michaels.
“We had a great offer, I thought. But we left the table,” Rockett said, explaining that the deal ultimately fell apart. According to the report, Michaels was seeking to make significantly more than the rest of the band — a gap Rockett said made the tour impossible to pull off.
“C.C., Bobby, and I were all in, and I thought Bret was,” Rockett said, referring to guitarist C.C. DeVille and bassist Bobby Dall. “But he wanted the lion’s share of the money — to the point where it just doesn’t work. It’s like six dollars to every one of ours. You can’t do it that way.”
Rockett added that while money isn’t the only motivation for him, fairness matters. “You don’t want to work really hard just to make somebody else a bunch of money,” he said.
The reunion tour was never officially announced, but fans had been buzzing since Michaels hinted in a 2024 Facebook post that 2026 would be the perfect year to mark 40 years since the band’s breakout album Look What the Cat Dragged In. He suggested a limited run of shows could be appealing, fueling speculation that a comeback was imminent.
Behind the scenes, however, talks stalled. Rockett previously hinted in late 2025 that negotiations had already collapsed, saying a strong offer had been passed among band members before hitting a dead end once it reached Michaels.
“If you’re not moving on a tour of that size by a certain point, it becomes incredibly hard to make it happen,” Rockett explained in an earlier interview. He also said attempts to regroup the band through texts went unanswered, calling the situation frustrating rather than hostile.
“There’s no hate here,” Rockett said. “It’s just frustration. Everyone wants something slightly different, and when money gets involved, it gets complicated.”
Poison, which formed in Pennsylvania in 1983, rose to fame as one of the biggest rock bands of the late ’80s and early ’90s. The group scored massive hits including Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Talk Dirty to Me, Fallen Angel, and Something to Believe In, cementing their place in rock history.
While a 40th anniversary tour now appears dead, Rockett hasn’t fully closed the door on the future. He joked that it would be “a very Poison thing” if the band ended up doing a 41st anniversary tour instead — assuming they can ever agree on the numbers.