The Most Un-Commerical Band in the Land
Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 09:59AM 
VH1 Classic is the latest television network to fall victim to struggling finances.
The cable music channel recently let go of nearly every staff member, and now programming is suffering.
Before his contract ended with the network, syndicated radio host Eddie Trunk taped his final Hangin' With episode.
Poison were the featured band on the episode.
During the interview, Trunk asked the boys about the now infamous Atlanta Guitar Slinging Incident.
After Bret Michaels and Bobby Dall explained what happened on stage that fateful night, the conversation moved to the band's new album Poison'd.
Bret and Co. explained their song selection process, and how they narrowed their list of proposed choices from 200 down to about 25 and then to the handful of new tracks that actually made it on the album.
Eddie and Poison spend much of the 30 minute interview laughing. The boys reminisce about their Sunset Strip days and explain the secret to their success.
Says drummer Rikki Rockett "It would be 1 A.M. and the other bands would be hanging around the Rainbow looking cool. We were out flyering. That's how we made it."
Bret says Poison is one of the most un-commerical bands in the business. They have a do-it yourself mentality, and they put any money they make right back into their stage shows.
Eddie also asked Poison about their experiences recording with legendary producer Don Was. On Was, guitarist C.C. DeVille says "Don is no stranger to eccentric behavior. When you're poor, you're crazy. When you're rich, you're eccentric."
Finally, the biggest revelation for me: the reason why the band chose electric green as their signature color.
As the story goes, the band was (obviously) dirt poor back in the early 1980s. They needed paper for flyers to post on the Sunset Strip. The quartet went into Sir Speedy with three bucks. The store owner said they couldn't have a lot of white paper for that money. Instead, they could choose between yellow or electric green. Poison didn't want yellow because it was too common at the time, so they went with green and it became their signature marketing and merchandise color. Brilliant!
You can catch Hangin' With: Poison at various times all this week on VH1 Classic.
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