With 20 years in the entertainment business, Bret Michaels is best known as Poison’s frontman and primary singer/songwriter. After selling over 22 million records, including 15 Top 40 singles and 12 albums, he continues to sell out arenas and amphitheaters worldwide.
Michaels has also produced and written for numerous artists, including Stevie Nicks, for whom he wrote and produced. Michaels formed a film production company with Charlie Sheen and wrote, directed, and starred in several of the films. He’s had numerous television appearances, including “Yes Dear” and “Martial Law” on CBS, “The Chris Isaak Show” on Showtime, and he co-hosted “Access Hollywood” with Pat O’Brien and Shaun Robinson. Michaels has appeared on VH1’s “Rock Bodies” with Beyonce Knowles, made Spin magazine’s “Top 100 Greatest Moments in Rock,” was on the cover of Playgirl Magazine, and had his 10-acre Malibu Ranch featured on MTV’s “Cribs.”
In the midst of all this, Michaels found time to talk to All Access’s Valerie Nerres. Here’s what he had to say.
AAM: I'm looking forward to your New Year's Eve show. I'll be AAM’s photographer for it, so I’ll get to spend New Year's Eve with you, Bret!
Bret Michaels: That's good – a good party right there!
AAM: After Poison’s 20th anniversary tour, was there an adjustment period for your solo tour? Did you perform any Poison songs on the solo tour, or was it all country?
BM: Adjusting for me is really easy, and here's why – and I mean this completely – I still love making music. I'm still extremely passionate about it. I put in 150% regardless of what venue you put me in. If I'm out with Poison, it's a big production. We're out every year from usually Memorial Day weekend until about mid-September. I give everything, put everything into that; not just the music, there's the big screens, the pyro, and everything else. Then when I go out solo, it's really simple. I play all the Poison hits, I love doing that. And I feel a part of them because I wrote them. It wasn't like we were propped up and someone wrote us one hit. We could choose from quite a few hits, and the cool thing is about it is, when I'm solo, I play guitar quite a bit more than when I'm out with Poison.
I love country music, but mine's more like contemporary country in a vein of almost Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith meets John Cougar or Bob Seger. It has that real Americana feel. I'l
l do some of those songs, and throw in a couple really cool cover songs of bands I grew up loving. When I do a solo show, I make an absolute party out of it. It's fun, it's exciting. I tell some funny stories about what happened to me when I was getting ready to write this song, or what inspired me. Especially if you're in a smaller venue, it makes people feel like they're in your living room hearing what you went through and makes it kind of fun.
AAM: I agree.
BM: Yeah, you feel like you're part of something. Don't get me wrong, obviously for every rock band you dream to get to play the arenas. But throughout my career, you can put me in any venue, you can hand me a guitar and set Poison up. We've played those fan things – even before Metallica did – where a fan would win, and we'd go set up in their back yard when we were at the height of “Flesh and Blood.” And it was cool, and everyone rocked, and we treated it as exciting as if we were playing an arena. That's the same attitude I have when I go out solo. I go in there feeling blessed that I got to live out what I wanted to do, which was make music.
AAM: Who performs in your solo band?
BM: They're all friends of mine from the East Coast. I grew up in Pittsburg and they're from that area: Pete Evick, Dirty Ray, and Lucky Chucky. Chuck is all punk rock, but he's one of the best drummers ever. He can play any style, but man, when he gets up there and throws down on these songs, it is insane.
AAM: What made you switch gears musically, from party-time rock to country?
BM: I can only say this: I've been like that through my whole career. We would have a song like, "Cat Dragged In," and then all of a sudden we'd have "I Won't Forget You." This is all a throwback to the late ‘60s and early ‘70s-style music that I grew up on. If you've listened to "Open Up and Say Ahh," you have nothing but a good time. And then "Fallen Angel." Then all of a sudden you have "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." "Flesh and Blood," that's Un-"Skinny Bop," which is the most ultimate kind of sex/fun/party song; and then the next single was "Something to Believe In," about my best friend dying…. I attribute it and throw it all back to the way music used to be for me. I can listen to "Dream On," and then turn around and listen to "Mama Can" in the very next track. You didn't have to have a record that all 12 songs sounded identical to each other. You could just make music; if you wanted to do some of it on the piano, great; some on the acoustic – and then also you could get heavy and dirty and sexy – whatever your mood was. When I wrote "Freedom of Sound," that's what it was all about, just music I like playing.
AAM: So what do the other members of Poison think about you doing country-style music?
BM: You know what, I don't honestly know. I've never really had a deep talk about it because they all knew that I grew up liking it when they met me. My first day meeting Rikki, I had a Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt on. I love Zeppelin. These were bands I grew up with.
AAM: Do you approach songwriting differently when you're writing country?
BM: No. The "Songs of Life" solo record, or "Freedom of Sound," for the most part, are rock records. Every time I write, it’s the production. I write the song the same way, I approach it the same way, and then I say, “Now, this would feel really good if we put pedal steel here instead of drop-D.” Take a song like "Raine" or "Bittersweet" off of "Songs of Life," and I'll say, “Let's do some drop-D tuning”; it will sound really thick, it'll sound great, and it's just slightly different – it's really all in the production.
AAM: Speaking of "Raine," how do you adjust from coming off a tour being a "rock star" to being "daddy"?
BM: You want to know the truth? I try not to be any different, and when I say this, I have to watch how I word it. Don't get me wrong, I do like to party and have a good time. And obviously there's a certain amount of that you do not want to expose your kids to at a young age. I just tell them, "Hey, Dad's having a good time tonight." But you know what I do? My 2 daughters, Jorja and Raine, both love music. Sometimes I put some KISS on or Aerosmith’s "Walk This Way," and they're all bopping around. When they come out on the road, they get so excited. Then when I come home, it's not so much of an adjustment with the kids. You know what the biggest adjustment is? Not being on the tour bus. All of a sudden I've got a house and a car and after not driving anything in six months, to see if I remember how.
AAM: When do you think a good age is to bring your kids to a show?
BM: I started with Raine when she was 1 or 2. I have a headset: You don't want them to damage their ears. This last July, what a fun time, I had both daughters at that show.
AAM: Is this TV show you might be doing, “American Rock Star,” a takeoff of “American Idol”?
BM: Here's how that works: I developed that a few years ago, and they've sort of done something like it in reality TV. You've got to be very careful because people kind of borrow your ideas really quickly. So we turned it into a show called “National Star” for NBC and USA, which was really cool, the exact same companies that do “American Idol” and all that stuff. But it's not karaoke, you actually play with a full-on band, you play your instrument and sing. I got to do that with LeAnn Rimes, which was cool. I can't say the name of the show yet, but yes we're signed, this is a done deal. We're getting ready to shoot a really killer show, very music-based, at the beginning of 2007. We're also going to shoot in the near future on VH1, but I can't go into any details yet, and I apologize. I'm not one of those guys who says everything and then it will change. So let's just say that it's going to be a really cool, very music-driven show on VH1 to do with real rock-n-roll. I'm really excited about it.
AAM: How did your work with Stevie Nicks on her album “Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks” come about? Did she approach you?
BM: She's on the same management company that I'm with, HK, and we had met as acquaintances. She's a really nice person. I had written a song called "Love's a Hard Game to Play," and I took it down to HK. I played them the demo and the same day they sent it over to Stevie’s house and she loved it. She said it was a beautiful song, and she was looking for 2 new cuts. She got 1 from Jon Bon Jovi and the other from me. I went in the studio with her, spent a couple days recording it and producing it as well as writing it.
AAM: How did you get involved with the Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp in February? And by the way, I'll be there as well!
BM: Here's how easy it was: First of all, the guy that runs it, David Fischof, is a great guy. When he first threw the idea out he said, “Look, it's going to be with Roger Daltry, and this is legitimate.” He's friends with Trudy Green and all the people at HK. Once I knew he was involved, I knew it wasn't some BS thing where he charges people a lot of money and then no one ever shows up.
AAM: Well, it's almost $10,000 to attend…
BM: Yeah, but he does a really good job. I don't know the price exactly. I’m also developing a show called "Bret Michaels: Rock-n-Roll Reality Camp." It’s the real dirt on how to make it, including all the scumbags you’ll meet, and what it’s really like to play a club. I don't want the attendees to live in a fantasy world.
AAM: What sparked that incident at the Poison show in Atlanta between you and Bobby and that brawl on stage?
BM: I surely hope that it's not the end of Poison. In the heat of the moment I was pretty sure that me and Bob were not going to work it out in a day or 2. But just like the friends that we are, we got on the next day. He came onto my bus. I got hit in the knee with the bass – no big deal, I've been hit with worse – but it was a few stitches, and I had a hyper-extended knee. They put on an outside body cast that kept me from moving. We had a sold-out show in Memphis the next day, and I said, “Look, guys, when I get out of the hospital I'll get to the show. Let's work it out there.” And me and Bob and C.C. and Rikki sat up on my bus and we talked through it. We said, “You know, we've been through worse than this. We've gotten in worse fights than this off the stage. It's part of life, let's deal with it.” The whole incident started from arguing about what songs we wanted to put and not put into the set list at an earlier show. Here's the good thing about that: the fact that we still care about what music we’re playing or not playing, or a song to take out and add – that's the great thing.
The stupid thing is, you don't want to get in a full-on brawl. We started to have a few words, and it got much more heated, and it doesn't help when you're onstage with adrenaline – as you know, Poison puts on a big rock show. Our blood is pumping, and the next thing you know, Bobby came out – long story short, he screamed something in my mic and knocked the mic over with his bass. and broke the mic. I was pissed. I threw the mic back at Rikki's drums. I said, “What do you want to do, Bob?” He's like, “Let's rock,” and I'm like, “Okay.” And he went Peter Townsend on me. Took the bass off, whipped it over his head a few times, chucked it at me. I thought I had Karate Kidded it out of the way with my “Karate Kid” stance, but it got my knee pretty good.
I take full blame along with Bob. I think both of us were just being stupid, that's all. And hopefully it will not be the end of Poison. Even though I love to play solo, I really love being in Poison and being a part of it, and hope it continues for a long time, regardless. I think we're playing better musically than ever. C.C. is trying to be sober now, and he's playing pretty damn good. We're having fun, and once in a while you just hit a few bumps in the road.
AAM: Are you guys working together anytime soon?
BM: I know the guys want to. We’re considering doing a record of just cover stuff, just to go in and play and work out our differences.
AAM: On BretMichaels.com from time to time, you auction some of your stuff. What charities do proceeds go to?
BM: I did 3 of them this year. I'm juvenile diabetic, so we send a kid and/or kids every year to a diabetic camp, same as I went to. It really helped me to adjust, realizing I wasn't the only kid who had to take insulin. Doing 4 shots a day when you're 6 years old, you're going, “Okay, I'm a freak.” Camp helped me to adjust to life. Whether we raise money or not, I do it anyway for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. The 2 other auctions, we raised a bunch of money for breast cancer research. We did a solo show in Minneapolis and raised a ton of money for the breast cancer research foundation there. And the one that I love doing the best is the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the kids. I signed the acoustic "Every Rose" guitar, and raised a bunch of money with it.
AAM: Does diabetes affect your touring schedule?
BM: I take injections 4 times a day. At the arenas and amphitheaters, I get out and mountain bike and then have a full workout at a gym on the road, and that's great. On a smaller tour I work out either at the hotel or we have a mini-gym in the bus, like a Bowflex. I call it "bus funk" when you just get in the bus and you don't do anything, just lay around lethargic, and then you start to put on bad shows.
AAM: Did you ever think that 20 years later, you would still be doing what you love to do?
BM: That's what keeps me motivated every day. Good God, I must have really wanted to do this for a living, because let me tell you something: You don't want to know the amount of just the smell, lack of showers, and lack of anything. Not a lot of stops, if you know what I mean. It wasn't pretty. I figure that we must have been damned determined, because here we are 20 years later. That's a good feeling.
AAM: Will you be going to NAMM 2007?
BM: I don't think so. I would love to be down there, but between doing this new show and everything else that's going on….
All Access thanks Bret Michaels for the interview, and wishes him well with all of his projects. For more info visit www.BretMichaels.com.
