Poison, ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ – Butch’s Way Back Wednesday

As a music fan there is always something new and great, but there really is something special about the songs you grew up listening to. For me, that was 70′s and 80′s classic rock. If I am in a shi**y mood, I throw in a little Zeppelin or Rush and take a trip back to rolling in my mom’s T-Bird. Now every Wednesday you get to take that trip with me. It’s Way Back Wednesday with Butch, and today’s feature is a song that we first heard 26 years ago back in 1988… Poison's, "Every Rose Has It's Thorn."

I have Poison on my mind today because Bret Michaels of Poison will be at Thunder in the Rockies this Friday night (August 29th). Sure, he will do some solo stuff, but having seen Bret do a solo show before, I can say, it's basically like going to a Poison show with less production and no CC Deville.

"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was released in October 1988 as the third single from Poison's second album Open Up and Say... Ahh!. It is the band's only number-one hit in the U.S., reaching the top spot on Christmas Eve in 1988 for three weeks (carrying over into 1989) and it also charted at #11 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The song was also named number 34 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s", #100 on their "100 Greatest Love Songs" and #7 on MTV and VH1 "Top 25 Power Ballads".

In an interview with VH1's Behind the Music, Bret said the inspiration for the song came from a night when he was in a laundromat waiting for his clothes to dry, and called his girlfriend on a pay phone. Michaels said he heard a male voice in the background and was devastated; he said he went into the laundromat and wrote "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" as a result. The name of the girl in the song is Tracy Lewis.

Now take a trip back 26 years with us to 1988...