Poison drummer Rikki Rockett says the music industry has largely ignored how much his band changed since its debut album in 1986.
Rockett told the Nothing Shocking podcast that Poison was pigeonholed because of its androgynous look during the Look What the Cat Dragged In period.
"How does everybody else like to be judged on what they did and looked like 32 years ago?" Rockett asked. "Now, I'm proud of what we did — don't get me wrong — but even by Open Up and Say...Ahh!, which was the next record, our look and sound had evolved. And by Flesh & Blood, our look had evolved and our sound had evolved."
Look What the Cat Dragged In featured one of Poison's biggest hits, "Talk Dirty to Me."
Rockett (aka Richard Ream) said the band's drastic change over that four-year period is overlooked because people like mocking the band.
"But I always tell new artists, 'Be very careful about what you put out there at the very beginning because people are gonna judge you forever," the 56-year-old musician added.
He said Poison wasn't just some superficial "hair band." Musically, Poison thought of itself as being more akin to Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS or Van Halen.
Poison's look at the beginning was more about doing something shocking "because that was more exciting to look at then just jeans and a T-shirt at the time."
Though getting pigeonholed was frustrating, Rockett said he's at a point in his career where he's not "worrying about impressing" people.
“I'm not impressed by us; I'm impressed by our fans supporting us," he said.
Original article by Andrew Magnotta at iHeartRadio