Bret Michaels

Few frontmen have moved as freely between arena rock, reality television and country-tinged solo records as Bret Michaels. Born Bret Michael Sychak in 1963 and raised in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, he made his name as the frontman of Poison, a band that headed west to Los Angeles in 1984 to chase success on the Sunset Boulevard scene. Their records are credited with selling more than 65 million albums worldwide, and Michaels has since built a parallel career that keeps the rock fan and the mainstream audience in view.

The turning point arrived in 1987, when Michaels persuaded the band to film a video for “Talk Dirty to Me” from their debut, Look What the Cat Dragged In, and the record finally went platinum. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, written after his breakup with Tracy Lewis, followed as a power ballad in December 1988 and became the band’s number-one single. Poison went on to chart six Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Away from the group, Michaels judged the talent show Nashville Star, won Celebrity Apprentice 3 on NBC, and fronted VH1’s Rock of Love, while his solo album Custom Built reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock chart.