Songfacts®:

• This very hedonistic song was a good representation of what Poison stood for. In the song, lead singer Bret Michaels doesn't have much money and isn't too concerned about saving what he has.
• In a 2018 interview with AXS, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett explained how the band wrote "Nothin' But a Good Time" for everyday people: "We wrote that song around the time we were living in a warehouse in downtown LA. We didn't have any money of our own at the time, but we would convince girls into getting fast food and taking us to the beach on the weekends. We realized that song spoke to people who were just like us. People doing their best to grind it out. It was just like us when we were a band back in Pennsylvania. We all had second jobs so that we could buy PA equipment or drum heads. That's what the song is for. It's for the working class and the wish that you can have a good time among all that. Music is the way to escape. At the end of the day, that's the payoff."
• Jennifer Robertson sang part of this on the Schitt's Creek episode "Rock On!" (2019) when her character, Jocelyn, was excited for a Poison concert. It was also used in these TV series Young Sheldon ("Pilot" - 2017) and Master Of None ("Religion" - 2017).
• This was featured in several movies, including Rock Of Ages (2012), Yogi Bear (2010), Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009), The Rocker (2008), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), and Friday Night Lights (2004).
• The video was directed by Marc Reshovsky, a cinematographer who worked on Madonna's Truth or Dare documentary and U2's Rattle and Hum film. It opens with a vignette where Bret Michaels is working as a dishwasher, listening to Poison's cover of "Rock And Roll All Nite." After his boss turns it off and chews him out, Michaels kicks open a door, revealing a Poison concert.
• According to Tom Werman, who produced the Open Up and Say...Ahh! album, it was recorded digitally at a time when digital workstations were new and still quite glitchy. But edits were easier in the digital world, and Poison guitarist CC DeVille needed lots of them.
  
  "I knew after watching CC play in the rehearsal that there would be a lot of punching in," Werman told Songfacts. "CC was a party guy at the time. He changed afterwards. I think he's probably very clean at the moment, or has been since then, but we worked on the solo for 'Nothin' But a Good Time.' It's about a 30-second solo, and it took hours."
• "Nothin' But a Good Time" was also the name of Poison's 2018 joint tour of the US with Cheap Trick.
• The song was featured in Guitar Hero: Rock the '80s. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Martin - Detroit, MI
• Bret Michaels recorded a new version of "Nothin' But A Good Time" for his 2013 solo album Jammin' With Friends. His version features Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley and Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony.
  
  When Frehley died in 2025, Michaels posted: "Ace, my brother, I surely cannot thank you enough for the years of great music, the many festivals we've done together and your lead guitar on Nothing But A Good Time."