Walmart Rejected Classic Poison Album Over ‘Demonic’ Cover

Poison
drummer

Rikki
Rockett
has
looked
back
on
his
band’s
classic
album


Open
Up
And
Say
…
Ahh!,
recalling
that
Walmart
initially
refused
to
carry
the
LP
in
its
stores.

The
issue
came
down
to
the
album’s
cover
art,
which
featured
a
wild,
tribal-like
figure
with
a
long
tongue.
During
an
appearance
on

The
Motley
Croc
Show,
Rockett
revealed
how
the
image
came
together.

“So
my
buddy
Mark
Williams,
God
rest
his
soul,
built
that
tongue,”
Rockett
explained.
“And
it
was
a
prosthetic,
obviously.
So
we
had
this
model.
We
did
this
photo
session
with
this
one
photographer,
and
the
label
said
it
was
too
mild.
We’re,
like, ‘Okay.’
It
just
kind
of
looked
like
this
rock
girl
with
his
long
tongue
and
her
hair
pumped
up
and
she
had
very
dramatic
makeup
on,
but
it
wasn’t
shocking
enough.”

Poison
kept
the
concept,
but
went
to
rock
photographer
Neil
Zlozower
to
further
build
on
the
idea.

READ
MORE:

20
Famous
Rock
Albums
That
Were
Banned
by
Walmart

“[Bassist]
Bobby
Dall
and
I,
we
got
his
girlfriend
Bambi
and
we
started
doing
all
those
stripes
on
her
and
did
all
this
stuff.
And
she
had
contacts
—
we
had
her
get
the
contacts
—
and
then
we
just
kind
of
did
her
up,
Bobby
and
I
did.
And
then
we
did
that
tongue
and
everything
like
that.
And
everybody
loved
it,
thought
it
was
fricking
great.”

Walmart,
however,
didn’t
share
the
band’s
enthusiasm.

Walmart
Claimed
Poison’s
Cover ‘Represented
a
Demonic
Figure’

“Walmart
rejected
it
—
Walmart,”
Rockett
confirmed.
“So
Wally
[Walmart
founder
Sam
Walton],
he
was
alive
at
the
time,
said
it
represented
a
demonic
figure
and
he
didn’t
want
it.”

Poison
and
their
team
were
left
with
a
difficult
decision.

“So
we
sat
down
with
management
and
the
label.
And,
really,
at
the
end
of
the
day,
it
was
like,
are
we
in
the
album
cover
business
or
are
we
in
the
music
business?”
Rockett
explained.
“Really,
we
should
be
able
to
just
make
a
green
cover
or
a
white
cover
with
nothing
and
put
our
music
out,
if
that’s
what
we
need
to
do.
Our
goal
was
to
get
our
music
out.
What’s
our
percentage
of
sales
at
Walmart?
Does
it
matter?
Well,
it’s
38
percent,
sometimes
40
percent
of
your
sales.
At
that
time,
man,
people
were
just
going
through
Walmart
and
going, ‘I’m
getting
my
records
here.
I’m
getting
my
records
here.’
It
was
cheaper
than
going
to
the
record
store
by
a
certain
percentage.
So
the
percentage
of
people
buying
records
at
Walmart
was
high.
And
we’re,
like, ‘Are
we
gonna
throw
away
35
to
40
percent
of
our
market
share,
getting
our
music
into
the
hands
of
fans,
or
are
we
gonna
gripe
about
it
and
fight
with
Walmart?’
And
so
it
just
didn’t
make
sense.”

A
censored
cover
was
eventually
agreed
upon,
allowing
Walmart
to
stock
the
LP.
Released
in
April
1988, Open
Up
And
Say
…
Ahh! went
on
to
sell
more
than
5
million
copies
in
the
U.S.A.