DURING a marathon three-hour-plus interview, veteran bassist Robbie Crane has told how – while crewing for Poison – he was ordered to “dress down” because he was “getting too many chicks”.
Crane, currently a member of Black Star Riders, spoke at great length to Hair Metal Guru about his decades in the industry, which includes time as a member of Ratt, Vince Neil Band, Tuff and Lynch Mob.
He began as a roadie for Poison while being suspended intermittently from high school in Los Angeles.
“Our first show with them was at the Santa Monica Civic in here in Los Angeles,” Crane, 57, told host Anthony Bryant.
“And I remember watching the Cinderella guys unboxing their Marshalls. I was helping them and and I I used to have like this palm tree hair and the Poison guys, Rikki (Rockett) and Bret (Michaels) – and they’ll laugh about it now because their crew guys have joked with me about it, Bret and I laugh about it to this day – they were like, ‘Dude, you’re getting way too many chicks. Like, you you’re just a crew guy, you need to start dressing down’.
“I swear to God. And I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t even looking at it like that. I was just being me, right? Dressing how I dress.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I I get you, bro’.”
But the change of image did not go how Crane, Rockett or Michaels intended.
Crane continues: “I was like, ‘Fuck, what do I wear dress down?” So I started stopped wearing like my, you know, stretch jeans and leather jacket and I started wearing my pyjamas. So, I had a pyjama shirt with open, no undershirt and a bunch of bolo ties, like maybe eight. And then my pyjama pants, I cut them into shorts.
“And I had, you know, like eight swatches on this arm and like 50 bangle bracelets on this arm. And then I had a look. It was like I was the only person … (people) would go, ‘Wow, you have the coolest look that is’. So, it was like kind of grunge, pre-grunge.
“Like, I wore Doc Martens back in those days because, you know, I think my parents bought them … so I was kind of like a grunge kid on the Poison tour and I got more chicks because I was dressed down.
“So, Bret and Rikki would say, ‘Dude, you you know…’Â I’m dressed in my pyjamas! I don’t know how much further I could go, you know?
“There wasn’t much pay – financial, I think I made $50 a week but $50 was more than nothing.
“But all the girls you could get and and I and so I got paid millions in in in that aspect.”
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