Bret Michaels promises that it will go beyond “nothin’ but a good time” — it will be “a modern-day throwback to a circus of awesomeness.”
The Poison frontman, born in Butler and later raised in Mechanicsburg, will be the ringleader of Parti Gras Tour 2023. Initially, he planned it for 2022, but then things shifted and he got the call that The Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard and Joan Jett was on again for that summer.
It came through PNC Park in August and, if you were there, you witnessed the Terrible Towel-waving singer having the time of his life fronting Poison in his first Pittsburgh stadium concert.
“It was one of the best days of my life,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday morning.
Not only that, while he was in Pittsburgh he sealed the deal on the Parti Gras Tour, which was announced this week. The 12-city limited-date run will stop at The Pavilion at Star Lake on July 15, with Michaels topping a bill featuring Night Ranger and Jefferson Starship along with appearances by Steve Augeri (formerly of Journey), Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) and a special nightly surprise guest.
“I handpicked the bands on the bill, I called all the band members,” Michaels said. “The agents and all that are great, but I said, ‘I wanna speak to all the band members — are all friends — to make sure they want to do this and make sure they understand this is about celebration of fans, bands, music. It's basically a party.’
“The first band that comes out,” he added, “is Jefferson Starship and they're playing nothing but their hits. Night Ranger, same thing. And then I come on and do three or four of my songs and Poison songs, and then all of a sudden, in the middle of it, I say, ‘You know, I wanna sing one of my favorite Journey songs, but rather than me sing it, why don't I play guitar and bring out the actual singer from Journey.’ And then he comes out and we seamlessly roll into a couple Journey hits, back to me, then I throw the microphone over to Mark McGrath and then the other bands roll up with us at the end of the night, and it’s like organized chaos.”
Somewhere amid that organized chaos, Michaels will capture “the flavor of the area” with a hometown hero or two. In Pittsburgh, that could be Donnie Iris, Joe Grushecky, maybe both, maybe more.
“It’s going to be positive energy, raw, real music, everyone playing their instruments. Real and raw,” he says. “For Pittsburgh, I personally picked a Saturday and we're gonna make this incredible.”
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at ticketmaster.com.
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com.
First Published: December 6, 2022, 3:58 p.m.
