By Valerie Milano
Mega-million selling Hollywood band POISON’s drummer RIKKI ROCKETT has released his long-awaited memoir & book ‘GHOST NOTES’. A special treat to music lovers anxious for the ‘rags-to-riches’ story of one of the most successful groups from the famed ‘80’s SUNSET STRIP, the book doesn’t disappoint.
From the suburbs of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, driving across country to the neon glare of Hollywood, Rikki Rockett & his POISON bandmate’s journey is as raw and unrelenting as the beat of his drums. Before becoming the flamboyant, fire-breathing drummer of Poison, Rockett was a restless kid with a taste for rebellion and an obsession with music that refused to let him go.
In Ghost Notes, Rockett pulls no punches as he recounts the wild ride from basement bands and dishwashing & hairdressing jobs to forming one of the most iconic rock bands of the ‘80s. Beyond the sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, he also confronts the shadows: fractured family ties, addiction, betrayal, cancer, brushes with death, and a lifelong search for meaning beyond the stage. Brutally honest, darkly funny, and packed with never-before-told stories, Ghost Notes is both confession and celebration—a backstage pass to a life lived loud, fast, and without apology.
Rikki speaks to us: “It started to We started to talk about it for a second. I’m like, “Okay, this is We’re not doing this here.” Um but yeah, I mean Kevin (Dubrow) apologized to me years later. U we came full circle and again I’m one of those people. I don’t like bad energy to stay out there. Um any you know I don’t have many I mean there’s I’m sure there’s plenty of musicians in the world that don’t love me. Okay. But u but I I don’t really have beef with people. I really don’t I don’t hang out that much in the scene uh to get into it with people. You know what I mean? Usually if somebody doesn’t like me uh or my band, it’s because they don’t know us or they’re jealous or it’s it’s not their genre or whatever it is.
You know what I mean? It’s not because they know me and they found out I was a jerk. You know what I mean? Um, you know, uh, they were on their way down and you were on the way up and Kevin’s ego could not handle that at all.
They were responsible for probably 30% of the tickets, you know, being sold. Yes.
Yeah. I mean, and it happened with Rat for a little bit there, too. I mean, when we first went out with Ratt, I mean, it was like we were happy if the first couple rows were full when we went on, you know what I mean? And then as that tour went on, like the place was filling up when we went on, you know, right?
Um, and then we started to be head-to-head with their merch. They had 11 pieces of merch we had to like do, you know, and uh so that’s when we knew that it was starting to really make sense. If it wasn’t for Rat, we may never have got a chance at a second single. And I think Robin Crosby had a lot to do with that uh getting to want us on that tour. Um and uh you know, but ultimately the whole band decided that we could go out with them and then they wanted to keep us longer. So, I owe Ratt a tremendous debt of gratitude for tremendous uh for taking us out on our first real tour. It was so much fun. We had just ridden, I mean, it was so educational on every level. I mean, it was uh it was amazing. It really was.” Get the Book! GHOST NOTES
