Pick your poison: Bret Michaels has done it all. The (dare we say it—pretty?) musician who got his start as frontman of the glam rock band Poison has survived a brain aneurysm, a hole in his heart, lifelong diabetes, a deadly car crash, several bouts with reality TV, high-profile scandals about his love life… and there’s that whole hard-partying rock ’n’ roll lifestyle and all that entails. Michaels is nothing if not resilient. Today the Pennsylvania-born singer is also a TV star, product designer, businessman, philanthropist, husband and father, and at 49 may be one of the hardest working men in music. Whether traveling for work or charity, he spends much of the year on the road doing more in a given day than most people accomplish in a month. “I’m crazy but love what I do,” says Michaels, who recently performed tracks from his current album, “Get Your Rock On,” at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Michaels, who recorded his first album with Poison in 1998, has since released eight studio and four live albums, and has sold more than 30 million records worldwide. And he’s not done yet: starting June 20, he’ll begin a world tour with Poison and Def Leppard, which is scheduled to run through New Year’s Eve.
G N I H T O N D O O G A BUTIME{ T
“I continue to stretch and challenge myself in many areas,” he says.
{
FOR POISON’S FRONTMAN BRET MICHAELS, LIFE DOESN’T GET BETTER THAN THIS BY EMILY HALL
62
T H E B O C A R AT O N O B S E R V E R