Poison’s Bret Michaels Responds to Nikki Sixx’s Twitter Rebuttal — Exclusive

The hard rock gods rejoiced when it was announced that Poison and Mötley Crüe would be heading out on their first co-headlining tour together this summer. Even though we're still weeks away from the first show, the tour has already had more than its share of drama.

In an recent interview with The Arizona Republic, Poison's Bret Michaels claimed that Nikki Sixx apologized to him for some negative comments his Mötley Crüe bandmates made about Poison. A few days later, Sixx posted on his personal Twitter page with his version of the story.

Sixx wrote: "Just to clarify, Bret Michaels recently said I apologized to him about derogatory comments that Motley made about Poison in the past and that isn't what i said. What I did say was 'I personally never had anything against you guys as a people but Motley just sorta though you sucked as band but let's give the fans what they want and go out and have a good time.'"

During an exclusive interview with Michaels yesterday, Noisecreep asked the rocker if he felt comfortable commenting on the recent Sixx mudslinging.

"No, I love it and I hope you can help me put this to rest," Michaels said. "I'm going to be very blunt and honest. When my career started, Nikki and I hung out and I remember telling him there were some Crüe songs that I absolutely liked – I took a positive approach to things. You can look back at old photos me and Nikki with our Harley's. We used to ride together because we had a house down the street from each other. At the time, both of our careers had just started and our records had hit. We would go out and party together, I would even join the Crüe on stage and sing. Everything was great.

"Now at one point – I think it was in the mid-'90s – Poison and Bon Jovi were playing the arenas. Our 'Native Tongue' album [1993] had sold a million copies and Bon Jovi's album, 'Keep the Faith' [1992], was at about 1.5 million or something and at one point in the middle there, Mötley Crüe changed singers all this stuff."

Michaels is referring to John Corabi, the former The Scream vocalist who replaced Vince Neil in Mötley Crüe on their 1994 self-titled album. The Bob Rock- produced effort eventually went gold, but was generally viewed as a commercial disappointment compared to their earlier releases.

"That's around the period when Nikki decided to brand his band differently," Michaels continued. "What confused me about that time period was when Nikki said that Vince and I were kind of ridiculous. Now these are his words, 'You and Vince are kind of the same -- you don't really pick and choose your fans, you just kind of go out and play music.' Well, I thought that's what music was about. I didn't know I was supposed to decide which fan can like or not like my music.

"I did Nikki's radio show about two months ago and it was an absolutely great day. We talked about the tour and everything was cool. Now on the show he says to me, 'Bret man, what's going on? Let's take a picture together,' and so on. We also did all of this television press for the tour in Los Angeles together and everything was great.

"He even apologized to me and said, 'I sort of said a lot of bad crap about you guys, but you're actually a relevant band,' and he went in and said some other good stuff about a month ago. I got a text from Nikki two weeks ago saying, 'Hey bro, excited to see you on the road!' But then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I hear about him talking trash about us again. I can't keep up [laughts]!"

Noisecreep asks Michaels if the back-and-forth has gotten to him.

"The funny thing is that I don't harbor any bad feelings towards Nikki. That's why I get confused when all this negative stuff comes up. Now I'm the kind of guy that doesn't get off the phone and become a different person. So it was confusing to hear that he was saying bad things about Poison in the press or whatever."

When Noisecreep mentions that pulling off a Poison and Mötley Crüe tour sounds like a nightmare in terms of the egos that might be involved, Michaels immediately interjects.

"There's no ego on my part – I want this to happen," he said. "I want to be very upfront with you, Mötley will be closing all of the shows and that's fine with me. I'm just excited that we're doing this. I remember having a great phone conversation where I said, 'Nikki, if you don't want to do the tour, then don't do it. I just think the fans would love it.' There was no bad intention on my part. Look, Poison and Mötley don't have to love each other. All we have to do is go out on the road and put on a great show and be professional.

"This is the biggest amount of tickets and sales [Mötley Crüe have] had in three years. Fans are buying seats in a – let's be honest – s---ty economy, so the public has spoken. I'm not sure what Nikki's been ranting and raving about lately, but like I said, these are the best ticket sales they've had in a long time. They are celebrating their 30th anniversary and we're celebrating our 25th – let's go out and have a party."

Mötley Crüe / Poison / New York Dolls tour dates:

June

7: Dallas, TX: Gexa Energy Pavilion

9: San Antonio, TX: AT&T Center

10: Houston, TX: Toyota Center

12: Albuquerque, NM: Hard Rock Pavilion

14: Los Angeles, CA: Hollywood Bowl

15: San Francisco, CA: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

17: Phoenix, AZ: Desert Sky Pavilion

18: Las Vegas, NV: Red Rock Amphitheater

19: Salt Lake City, UT: USANA Amphitheater

21: Kansas City, MO: Sprint Center

22: Maryland Heights, MO: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

24: Minneapolis, MN: Target Center

25: Milwaukee, WI: Bradley Center

26: Cincinnati, OH: Riverbend Music Center

28: Toronto, ON: Molson Amphitheater

29: Clarkston, MI: DTE Energy Music Theatre

July

1: Tinley Park, IL: FMB Amphitheater

2: Noblesville, IN: Verizon Wireless Music Center

3: Nashville, TN: Bridgestone Arena

5: Hollywood, FL: Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena

6: Tampa, FL: St. Pete Times Forum

8: Biloxi, MS: Mississippi Coast Coliseum

9: Pelham, AL: Verizon Wireless Music Center (Mötley Crüe & NY Dolls Only)

10: Atlanta, GA: Aaron's Amphitheater at Lakewood

12: Charlotte, NC: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

13: Hershey, PA: Star Pavilion at Hershey Park

15: Uncasville, CT: Mohegan Sun Arena

16: Camden, NJ: Susquehanna Bank Center

17: Holmdel, NJ: PNC Bank Arts Center

19: Mansfield, MA: Comcast Center

20: Uniondale, NY: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum

22: Darien Center, NY: Darien Lakes Performing Arts Center

23: Saratoga Springs, NY: Saratoga Performing Arts Center

24: Pittsburgh, PA: Stage AE

27: Cheyenne, WY: Frontier Days (Mötley Crüe Only)

29: Youngstown, OH: Covelli Centre

30: Frederick, MD: Outlaw Jam 2011

31: Scranton, PA: Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain

August

2: Columbus, OH: Schottenstein Center

3: Grand Rapids, MI: Van Andel Arena

5: Tomah, WI: Fort McCoy

6: Moline, IL: iWireless Center

7: Omaha, NE: Qwest Center

11: Ridgefield, WA: Amphitheatre at Clark County - New Date: On-Sale 5/21

12: Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Dome - New Date: On-Sale 5/20

13: Nampa, ID: Idaho Center - New Date: On-Sale 5/21

16: Fresno, CA: Save Mart Center at Fresno State - New Date: On-Sale 5/21

17: Chula Vista, CA: Cricket Wireless Amphitheater - New Date: On-Sale 5/21