Every Thorn Has It’s Rose -By Vegas Nacy

It was the winter of 1989.  Poison and tesla were in town and I also heard they were staying close to me. As a fan of all genres of music I decided to head out to try and meet the bands as I did many many times before.  I got to the hotel and almost immediately I met the guys in Tesla. Great guys and great band.

I stuck around for a while and Brett Michaels came out of the Hotel bar dressed in full ski gear. He signed something for me we chatted then he headed back into the bar.

As I was leaving He came back out and stated that one of the crew was drinking, stole the bus and hasn’t been back for hours. “I need to get out of these  winter clothes and all of my clothes are still on the bus”. He then asked if there was anywhere to get clothes. This was Saratoga in the late 80’s, There was only Pyramid Mall and it was going to close soon.

I told him I could take him there. He grabbed his security dude and a briefcase and off we went. As soon as we got in the mall he was recognized. He told me this was a bad idea as he grabbed a pair of jeans from the Jean hut. 

By then it was too late. We ran into a shoe store and were bombarded. Mall security called the police in and it quickly turned into a meet and greet. Police had lines formed with rules in place. Brett leaned in and whispered to me “Just sign everything they must think you are Rickie”. Rickie is the drummer for Poison. We got about 1,000 roses, signed a ton of stuff and the funny thing is I signed everything with my signature lol.   We got done and the police asked how we were getting out “My car is in the parking lot” I said. “Ok we can get you to the parking lot but then we can’t control the crowd”.

We got to the doors, took a breath and ran for it. Ironically my locks were frozen shut. In a panic Brett asked this older lady if she could take them to the hotel. 

He said “my briefcase is in the backseat and has very important papers in there, please come to the Hotel as soon as you can. 

I called AAA and everyone soon realized I was not in the band and left me there with my frozen locks. I got them unfroze and headed to the Hotel, having the front desk call up to his room.

He came down and hugged me. He said “ you could have just stolen my briefcase and I would have never been able to find you”. I said “I’m not that kinda guy” We went out to dinner and for a while he would leave me tickets whenever nearby. That’s my one night in Poison story, 

Thanks for listening!