Picktown Palooza is back for another year with another killer lineup, running Thursday, July 10 through Saturday, July 12 (see the entire three-day lineup, including set times, at the end of this feature). Headlining the first night is The Rockett Mafia, a supergroup made up by drummer Rikki Rockett (Poison), guitarist Mick Sweda (Bulletboys), singer Brandon Gibbs, and bassist Tyson Leslie (Vixen).This powerhouse band puts their own unique spin on ’70s and ’80s radio hits and cult classics, guaranteeing a night of dancing and good times. Expect to hear electrifying covers of songs like “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” “Everybody Wants You,” “Two Tickets to Paradise,” and “Jet,” alongside some familiar Poison and Bulletboys favorites.
I recently had the chance to chat with Rikki Rockett about the band, the Picktown Palooza lineup, and being a father. Picktown Palooza passes are available for $10 + fees for one-day admission, $20 + fees for three-day admission and can be purchased in advance.
I grew up listening to you and Poison. When I was 15 or 16, I was watching Headbangers Ball and reading Metal Edge Magazine. The dream of writing for RIP Magazine was all I had. Never in my wildest dreams did I think 30, 35 years later, I’d be doing a video interview with Rikki Rockett. This is pretty awesome for me.
Well, thank you for saying that.
I know you probably just get these dates and show up, not always knowing what it is. Picktown Palooza is a suburban festival outside of Columbus, about 15 miles east. They’ve hit this niche bringing in ’80s and ’90s rock bands. This year, you’re playing with Ted Poley from Danger Danger and Charlie Bonnet III, a local guy who’s a great entertainer. Should be a really good show. Given your career, are these fly-in dates new to you, or have you done them before?
Well, first off, I do know about Picktown Palooza. I’m excited about it. It’s cool they’ve carved out something like this. So, yeah, fly-in dates—Poison has done a few, but I did quite a few when I was with Devil City Angels. We actually toured and had a bus, but also did a lot of fly-ins or drive-ins. It’s not new, but it’s not the most comfortable. You’re almost always using a drum kit you’re unfamiliar with—it’s like building an erector set from scratch. For guitar players, it’s easier. They bring their guitar and go. But you can’t do set decoration like you want because you can’t bring all that gear on a plane. That said, it kind of throws you into the deep end. The music and performance have to stand on their own, which is kind of cool.
You’ve been touring for 40-ish years. I imagine it takes a few days to really settle in when Poison tours. But with this kind of thing—Pittsburgh one night, Columbus the next—are you in the groove right away?
We’ve only done one show, but we rehearsed the night before. I felt totally comfortable on stage. We had a nice chunky soundcheck—did four songs—and that helps. Soundchecks aren’t just about sound. It’s also about everyone getting comfortable—the sound person, the band, visually and spatially. You’re getting used to your surroundings.
When you just fly in and jump onstage with gear someone else set up for you, it throws you off. That kind of deep end I don’t like. Now it’s not about performance—it’s about what gear broke, what didn’t make it, what doesn’t work. I don’t want to worry about that. I want my gear to work so I can just do my thing.
When you do these shows with bills thrown together, do you hang out with guys like Ted, catch up?
If I see him, absolutely I’ll say hi. We’ve only ever had good experiences. Sometimes it’s weird—I’ll run into someone and find out they don’t like me, but that’s rare. I don’t have too many enemies in this business. I tend to get along with everyone.
I’m not trying to stir anything up here, but the next night at Picktown Palooza, it’s Mike Tramp, Black ‘N Blue, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Mike Tramp is basically a solo act now. Not sure what Black ‘N Blue’s lineup looks like. You’ve been in the same band for 40 years, with only a brief period that wasn’t the original four. What do you think about bands with only one original member?
I don’t know if I’d do that personally. I think I’d just do something else. But Jamie St. James—if he’s still in Black ‘N Blue, which I think he is—he’s a phenomenal singer. He was kind of the face of the band, so I don’t think that’ll suffer too much.
Mike’s a great guy. We used to ride motorcycles way back in the day. He’s a really good singer. These guys—Ted, Mike—they all deserve to be out there, playing and being heard.
There’ll be people at Picktown Palooza who won’t know some of the bands aren’t all original members. For them, it’s just about hearing the songs. Same with Foreigner—it’s the music that matters, right?
A lot of us started bands in basements with friends, people we struggled with. There’s a magic to that. Somebody can come along and play the songs better, but they didn’t write them. That matters. For me, I like seeing the original lineup and the chemistry. But people leave, pass away—it happens. If it’s just one guy or none, I don’t know. Personally, I like seeing at least a couple of the original guys. But if you’re someone who just wants to hear the music, I get that. With Poison, if something happened to a member, I wouldn’t say throw in the towel right away—as long as we can still bring value. But yes, the dynamic changes. We saw that with Richie Kotzen and Blues Saraceno. C.C. is a super important part of the band.
Devil City Angels put out a record, which is kind of rare. A lot of bands are just playing the old hits. Robert Mason from Warrant has said there’s not much point in writing new material because fans just want to hear the classics. So maybe it was risky for Devil City Angels to release something new. But it was great—felt like a bridge between past and future. With Rockett Mafia, why the decision to do covers?
Funny you ask—I was just on the phone with Brandon this morning. We’re planning a writing session with Mick too. So we’re going to work on original stuff. But Rockett Mafia started a year ago with the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. They asked me to do entertainment, and I didn’t have a band. I had recently filled in with Taylor Hawkins’ old band, Chevy Metal, so I called those guys and said, let’s do some of those songs. After the show, Brandon and I looked at each other and thought, let’s keep this going.
We found guys and kept going. It wasn’t meant to be an original project, but I can’t leave well enough alone. I can’t get a car or bike without modifying it—I couldn’t leave the band alone either. Now we’re talking about writing material, and we’re planning to do Poison deep cuts too. Different nights, different sets. We’ll do a Bulletboys song, some Poison, and covers we’ve reimagined—taking ‘70s hits and giving them a hard rock twist.
I love that. At these events, like that benefit or Picktown Palooza, there’ll be people who maybe don’t know Poison or Bulletboys, but they’ll recognize the songs. That’s why even local bar cover bands do well—people connect with the music.
Yeah. Some people saw our setlist and were surprised we didn’t play the usual covers. No “Rock and Roll” by Zeppelin. We avoided the obvious. Instead, we picked stuff that’ll be awesome to hear. And we’ll add Poison deep cuts to that.
It’s a local community fest—people just show up to support the community and have fun.
Yeah, of course. I love the challenge. I don’t like to pad my audience. I love winning people over. Some of these songs are designed to just make people shake their butts and go, “Oh my God, I know that song!” During soundcheck at the Whisky, the opening acts were dancing around. That’s when I knew we picked the right songs.
The one that stood out to me was “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
Oh yeah. We mashed that up with “Bang a Gong.”
I know you’ve done the stadium tour with Def Leppard. I think a Def Leppard/Duran Duran co-headlining tour would be amazing.
I do too. It’d be a weird crossover for some ‘80s heads, but it’d be cool.
Have the BulletBoys toured with Poison in the past? Did you know Mick coming into this? Or was Mick sort of a casual acquaintance?
I only knew Mick a little bit. Yes, BulletBoys did play with Poison way back in the day. Mick’s the kind of guy that—he kind of stays to himself. He’ll change his strings in the dressing room and focus on the show. He’s not out going nuts or trying to agitate everybody. He’s just not wired like that. So I didn’t really get to know him very much.
One thing I always liked about Mick—and this is no diss on anybody that plays like this—but he never really got into the whammy bar and doing all that kind of stuff. He always kept it kind of straight ahead, and that’s what I wanted for this band. And I didn’t realize… I mean, he’s really a monster guitar player—way more than I expected. You don’t realize that until you work songs with somebody.
Somebody can sit there and shred, okay, but working within the structure of the song and making that song work really takes some finesse. And Mick’s got it. He really does.
When you were putting together the initial batch of songs, did all four members bring in a couple things to throw into the hat? Or did you guys sit together and work on the songs you wanted to cover as a group?
A bit of both. If someone had an idea, we’d try it out. And if it didn’t work and we couldn’t think of a way to make it work, we’d just go “next” and try something else. Then we’d hit on something and go, “Wow! That works—I don’t know why, but it does. Let’s chase that down.” So it worked out that Mick came up with a couple things, I think Brandon did, too. I don’t remember that much now because it’s been a couple months since we worked out the set.
But we’ve got a group text we use almost every day, and we’re always sending each other videos. Sometimes we’re joking, and we don’t know if the other guy’s joking or not. Like, “You really want to do a Michael Jackson song? Really?” (laughs) “Oh no, he wants me to figure out a Michael Jackson song.”
So while you’re working on original stuff, will other stuff be recorded and released—like the cover songs—or is that just more for the live setting?
We might do one more. You know, we did “I Think I Love You.” But maybe one more. We have something in mind. But as far as releasing stuff, we’ll probably do our own. Most likely, yeah.
I was looking at your Instagram bio—you had this long list. It’s not just “drummer,” it’s… you got a lot going on. I’m just curious—is that in order of importance? I mean, “Daddy” comes first. I imagine that’s the most important thing in your life.
Yeah, after that it’s whatever I decided to throw in there. Whatever rhymed. (laughs)
Is there a typical day in Rikki Rockett’s life?
Typical days are being a taxi cab for my two teenage kids. Well, one’s a tweener. She just turned 12. But yeah, I’m a taxi. Like yesterday, that’s all I did—just drove around all day. That was it. Thank God I like to drive.
Then they get old enough and start to drive, and then you become the nervous parent. I didn’t love being the taxi driver—running one kid to soccer practice, another to some other thing all around town. But then once you give them the keys, you’re like, “Wait a minute… maybe I want that back a little bit.” I want a little more control.
I love doing stuff with my kids. We make plans every weekend. We do stuff. And it’s for the most part good, wholesome stuff. I mean, yeah, once in a while we’ll go to horror movies—and I know Mom probably doesn’t like that. But you know, we’ll go hiking. We’ll go to little towns and investigate things. We’ll go dirt bike riding. All sorts of really cool stuff.
And now they’re getting more independent. We went to Magic Mountain, and they want to go off with their friends, and it’s like… that hurts a little bit. You used to want Daddy to go on every ride with you, you know?
Are they into music? I think I saw a picture—your daughter plays guitar?
No, she plays bass.
Okay, so they’re into music—your kind of music? Or have they forged their own path?
Lucy a little bit. She likes rock, but she also likes Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter and all that kind of stuff. And Jude—he likes more hip-hop and stuff. He doesn’t play anything. For a minute I thought he was going to be a drummer, and I should have pushed it harder, maybe. But now music isn’t really his thing. He honestly wants to go in the Army. So, you know, we’ll groom him for the Army so he can be the best soldier he can be—if that’s what he wants to do.
Have you ever had the opportunity to kind of show off and pull the “Dad” card—like, “Hey, want to meet Olivia Rodrigo?” Have you gotten to do that?
Well, I don’t know anybody in that camp, so I can’t really pull that card. But yeah, there’s been some people. Heart, you know? I’m getting older, so… Dad’s the old guy. (laughs) But Lucy’s proud of it. She really is. She likes her last name. She likes the idea that I do what I do. Jude… not so much. He’s more independent. He doesn’t want much from me. I learn a lot from both personalities.
Yeah, it’s amazing being a parent and learning from your kids. I never thought I probably taught my parents anything, but I learn something from mine every day. Did I also see that you have a book—biography—coming out? Is that still happening this year?
It is. It’s supposed to come out July 15th. I’ve got to check with Rare Bird and make sure we’re still good on that date. Nothing’s changed that I know of.
Do you have a headline or tagline for it? Like, “Local Boy Makes Good” or “Surviving at the Top”? How would you describe the story?
The book’s called Ghost Notes, for a couple of reasons. I originally wanted Best Seat in the House, but that was taken. Ghost notes are drum notes—like a lighter tap. I wasn’t allowed to do those on the first couple of records. Producers didn’t like that in the ’80s. They wanted straight, single, bam-bam-bam. So I wasn’t able to stretch out and do that until much later. It was like I was always in pursuit of the ghost notes.
But I’m also super into paranormal stuff—run around all over the place doing that. So there’s some of that in the book as well. I just thought it was a fun double entendre.
As somebody into that kind of stuff, I’m going to assume you’ve encountered some sort of paranormal activity?
I’m not so sure it’s the spooky, weird thing we think it is. I think there’s physics at work, and we’re trying to figure out what that is. And I also like true crime. That’s why I like the urban legend stuff—especially when it’s steeped in true crime. Those are the most interesting things to figure out—like where some of those ideas came from. But as far as pure parapsychology and the occult goes, I think there are dimensions and physics at work that we’re still trying to figure out. String theory, you know—all that. I don’t think I personally have the tools to figure it out. I think maybe even consciousness has something to do with it. Collective conscious.
But that’s a whole other subject.
The first time I saw Poison was when you were opening for Quiet Riot. Early Look What the Cat Dragged In days—might’ve been before the “Cry Tough” video even. You did an in-store at a place called Chris’s Warped Records. That’s where I got your autographs.
I remember that. I remember all our in-stores. Bret and I almost got ourselves in a really bad situation at one. Someone waited in line just to say something snarky—“You guys suck” or whatever. We jumped over the table and went after him. He ran through the exit, through the back of the record store—where the microwave and lunch stuff is—and we chased him all the way out to a dumpster. It got violent. Cops came. I think that was the last in-store we ever did. We just lost our minds. We could never get away with that now.
So final question: have you guys talked about doing some kind of meet and greet at Picktown Palooza?
Probably. I haven’t gotten that far, but yeah—probably. That makes sense.
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PICKTOWN PALOOZA LINEUP
Thursday, July 10
Charlie Bonnet III and the Gasholes – 5:30 – 7:00
Ted Poley of Danger Danger – OPENER – 7:30 – 9:00
Rockett Mafia featuring Rikki Rockett of Poison – HEADLINER – 9:30 – 11:00
Friday, July 11
Pretty Boy Floyd – 5:30 – 7:00
Black ‘N Blue – OPENER – 7:30 – 9:00
Mike Tramp’s White Lion – HEADLINER – 9:30 – 11:00
Saturday, July 12
Vinnie Appice’s Sabbath Knights– 3:30 – 5:00
Little Caesar – 5:30 – 7:00
TBD – 7:05 – National Anthem
Trixter – OPENER – 7:30 – 9:00
Jackyl – HEADLINER – 9:30 – 11:00
