The final chords of Squeeze Box meld with the screams of 12,000 sweaty fans, and Poison frontman Bret Michaels incites the crowd. It's nine o'clock on a hot Sunday night outside Chicago.
"Do you want action?" Bret asks. "We're gonna give you some action tonight! You know who we brought tonight? We brought Playboy!"
You'd expect nothing less from the band responsible for such hair-metal anthems as Talk Dirty to Me, Nothin' But a Good Time and Unskinny Bop. As a burst of pyros lights up the stage, Bret rips into the Poison hit, I Want Action. Among the crush of females in the front row, there is a dirty blonde in a neon bikini, a pony-tailed pixie in a tight Playboy American flag T-shirt and a slinky babe in a black bikini. All sing along with the tune: "Long legs and short skirts. These girls hit me where it hurts."
Earlier in the day, the mercury shot to 100 degrees at the Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, Illinois. Touring in support of a new album, Hollyweird, that the band hopes will be equally hot, Poison headlines a hair-metal bill that includes Cinderella, Winger and Faster Pussycat. On this evening outside Chicago, Poison has agreed to give Playboy.com an inside look at the parade of beautiful women who come backstage after their final powerchord has faded into the night. If Playboy.com can convince a sexy groupie to pose nude, the band is all for it. Bret even agrees to play Playboy photographer for a day and take some of the nude photographs himself.
