What do you do when you’re Rikki Rockett, drummer for one of the most successful glam metal bands of all time, and you find yourself with some free time between Poison tours?
Most musicians might rest on their laurels. Not Rockett.
Enter the Rocket Mafia—a project that started as a favor for a motorcycle charity event and evolved into something that’s challenging everything you think you know about cover bands. This isn’t your typical Friday night bar band running through “Sweet Child O’ Mine” for the hundredth time.
The Accidental Beginning
The story begins with motorcycles, not music. When the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride—a global charity event supporting men’s health—needed entertainment for their Columbus stop, they approached Rockett. The problem? He didn’t have a band ready to go.
“I didn’t have a band,” Rockett explains. “And to do it very quickly, I had filled in in Taylor Hawkins’ old band, Chevy Metal. His son was just kind of getting his sea legs at the time.”
What started as a hastily assembled group for a one-off charity gig became something more when Rockett and vocalist Brandon Gibbs looked at each other after the show and realized they had something special. “I hope this isn’t done,” they thought, “but they’re going to go do what they’re going to do, so we need to figure it out.”
The Anti-Cover Band Cover Band
Here’s where it gets interesting. The Rocket Mafia isn’t doing what you’d expect from a group featuring the drummer from Poison and guitarist Mick Sweda from BulletBoys. Instead of leaning into the expected classic rock repertoire, they’re taking a completely different approach.
“I don’t like to pad my audience,” Rockett states with conviction. “Like, really, I don’t. I love to win people over. I love to just come out and do a great job and get people having a great time.”
Their setlist reads like a deliberate challenge to rock orthodoxy: Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” (mashed up with T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong”), Billy Squier’s “Everybody Wants You,” and—wait for it—The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You.” These aren’t the songs you’d expect from guys who helped define ‘80s metal, and that’s exactly the point.
“Instead of doing the typical rock fair stuff, you know, War Pigs by Sabbath or something like that, we’re going to take other hits from the 70s that we grew up with and kind of make them hard rock,” Rockett explains. “Like take the challenge, the hard rock challenge.”
The Chemistry Experiment
The band’s lineup tells its own story. Brandon Gibbs, the vocalist, has worked with Joel Hoekstra (Night Ranger, Whitesnake), bringing serious rock credentials to the project. But it’s the addition of Mick Sweda that provides the guitar foundation Rockett was looking for.
“One thing I always liked about Mick, and this is no diss on anybody that plays like this, but he never really got into the whammy bar and doing all that kind of stuff. He always kept it kind of straight ahead. And that’s what I wanted for this band.”
Rockett’s assessment of Sweda reveals the kind of musical insight that comes from decades in the trenches: “He’s really a monster guitar player, way more than I expected. And you don’t realize that until you work songs with somebody. Somebody can sit there and shred, okay? But working within the structure of the song and making that song work really takes some finesse. And Mick’s got it.”
The Original Lineup Question
The conversation inevitably turns to one of rock’s most contentious topics: original lineups versus replacement members. It’s a subject Rockett has strong opinions about, informed by four decades of experience.
“A lot of us, most, not all of us, but a lot of us, you know, grew up putting together a band in a basement and we did it with our best friends,” he reflects. “And there’s a certain magic that happens when you do that.”
His perspective is nuanced, acknowledging both the irreplaceable chemistry of original members and the practical realities of a business where people age, evolve, and sometimes simply want to move on. “For somebody just to come along and just learn the songs, if they’re a decent musician, they can figure it out. Sometimes they can play it better than the original person, but they didn’t write it.”
Beyond the Drums
Away from the stage, Rockett’s life is refreshingly normal. Most of his days are spent being “a taxi cab for my two teenage kids”—a reality that any parent can relate to, regardless of their day job. His Instagram bio lists “Daddy” first, before “Drummer,” and it’s clearly not just for show.
There’s also his upcoming book, “Ghost Notes,” due out this July. The title works on multiple levels—referring both to the subtle drumming technique producers wouldn’t let him use on early Poison records and his fascination with paranormal investigation. “I wasn’t allowed to do those on the first couple of records. Producers didn’t like that in the 80s. They wanted straight single, bam, bam, bam, you know.”
The Long Game
What’s perhaps most impressive about the Rocket Mafia project is how it reflects an artist who’s still hungry to grow and challenge himself. At an age when many of his peers are content to play the hits and collect the checks, Rockett is actively working to expand his musical vocabulary.
The band is already planning writing sessions for original material, and Rockett hints at incorporating deep-cut Poison tracks into future setlists. “We’re going to do a bunch of poison deep cuts as well over time. Some nights we’ll do a few of one batch and then another night we’ll do a batch of different deep cuts.”
It’s the kind of creative restlessness that suggests the best might still be ahead.
Want to hear more about Rikky Rockett’s journey from Poison to the Rocket Mafia, including stories about legendary tour manager Bob Daitz and that time he and Bret Michaels chased a heckler through a record store? Hit play on the latest episode of Dig Me Out 80s Metal podcast.
Songs in this Episode
Intro - Cry Tough (Poison)
25:12 - I Think I Love You (The Rockett Mafia)
Outro - Cry Tough (Poison)
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