10 October 2005
Poison guitarist gets 80 days in jail
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille was sentenced to 80 days in jail after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated.
DeVille, whose given name is Bruce Johannesson, was also sentenced to five years probation, fined $1,000 and ordered to surrender his license for a year, city prosecutors said Monday.
The 43-year-old rocker known for his over-the-top antics hit a parked vehicle Aug. 24 while he was backing out of the driveway of his girlfriend’s home, prosecutors said. He allegedly rammed another parked car, deploying his vehicle’s air bags and injuring his girlfriend.
He pleaded no contest Friday to a charge of driving under the influence causing injury, authorities said.
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8 Oct 2004
According to an AP story on the wire today, guitarist C.C. DeVille of the rock group Poison has had one of his (ahem) artistic efforts named the worst of all time by Guitar World magazine.
The magazine, in its December ‘04 issue, selected the “100 Worst Riffs, Licks & Solos of All Time,” identifying ones that are “lazy,” “boring,” “just plain stoopid,” or “involve C.C. Deville.”
The Guitar World article characterizes a nine-minute DeVille solo as being “completely devoid of taste, structure or steady tempo,” and goes on to recommend every would-be young guitarist listen to it because “surely, they can’t do any worse.”
DeVille was also cited for his “Cherry Pie” solo when he played with Warrant and Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”
The magazine offered a bit of cold comfort to Mr. DeVille, suggesting he “take solace in the fact that he’s in some rather good company.” The list includes songs by David Bowie, Def Leppard, Metallica, Green Day, B.B. King, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith and The Strokes, among others.
Incidentally, the rest of Guitar World’s top (or perhaps bottom) 10 list: “Summertime Blues,” Blue Cheer; “The Game of Love,” Carlos Santana; Falstaff beer 1967 radio spot, Cream; “All You Need is Love,” The Beatles; “Thirsty and Miserable,” Black Flag; “Wango Tango,” Ted Nugent; “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” Rolling Stones; “Sting of the Bumblebee,” Manowar; and “American Woman,” Lenny Kravitz.
Some have suggested that DeVille’s name means “devil” in French, charging that he performs his infernal spectacles within a larger — darker — context, what is seen by many as insidiously diabolical, corporate-driven debasement of the musical taste of America’s youth, in much the same manner that Big Macs® corrupt their culinary taste by the millions daily. One individual spoke of DeVille and his “Dark Minions” (his fan base), saying, “This is nothing less than another assault against The Enlightenment by the forces of dissolution, who would destroy all that is Good, Beautiful, or True!”
While this assertion strikes us as perhaps a bit overwrought, we are nonetheless sympathetic to those casting a chary eye on Mr. “DeVille” and his various hairdo incarnations. Remembering the late Frank Zappa’s definition of rock’n’roll journalism as something done “by people who can’t write, about people who can’t play, for people who can’t read,” we say no more.
