The reason Korn, Limp Bizkit and the Deftones are categorized as alt-metal or rap-metal or just hardcore, is so they're not typecast as heavy metal, which came to connote glam or hair metal in the overwrought Eighties. That may be fine and dandy for the Family Values legion, but what about hirsute groups like Poison, Ratt and Cinderella, who are proud to say they ruined it for everyone?

Not to worry. Those bands will get their due, more than a decade after their due was thought to be done. Beginning Memorial Day, Poison, Ratt, Cinderella and Great White (or possibly Dokken) are expected to hit the road for a sixty-date tour, primarily playing in sheds across the country. Though the festival has been in flux for some time now, the retro excursion's line-up is nearly finalized. "They're very likely gonna do it," says Tammy Gardner, a representative at Great White's management firm. But there's a potential conflict: It's believed that Great White or Dokken will open the tour, with each band's camp directing "if they're on it, we're not on it"-type remarks toward the other, according to a source on a rival retro-metal tour. "We're still on it or plan to be on it," says a representative at Dokken's management company. "They're ready, willing and able."

Ratt, Cinderella and Great White were recently signed to Sony by A&R guru John Kalodner, a minor coup considering most Eighties metal bands (Dokken, Iron Maiden, Vixen, Dio) are signed to the lesser-known CMC International. Poison (who are at present unsigned), and possibly Cinderella, will likely be the only bands to hit the road without an album to support. Ratt's new record, which is being produced by Richie Zito (Cheap Trick, Poison), is due out in late May or early June, while Great White will be supporting two new releases, an all Led Zeppelin-covers album and You Can't Get There From Here, a record of originals due in June. Dokken, if they get the nod, will be supporting the tentatively titled IX, due out this spring. Poison's new album won't be out until this winter, and Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer is still in the writing stage, so it's highly doubtful the quartet will have new material out by the time the tour is expected to launch.

Last September, Poison frontman Bret Michaels had his sights set on a more star-studded glam-metal package tour that he hoped would feature Motley Crue along with Def Leppard and Whitesnake. It's not known if this poor-man's package will also be dubbed "Exile From Mainstream," a folksy epithet Michaels had dubbed that unrealized tour.

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(February 26, 1999)