Birthday:
March 15, 1963
Grew up:
Butler,PA Mechanicsburg,PA
First
Concert: Sweet
Former
Jobs: Cook, busboy, delivery man, maintenance worker
First
Band: Laser
Movies:
Burke's Law - played rock star;
"A Letter
From Death Row" - self financed film starring Bret
to
be released in Jan/Feb 98
Voted:
Sexist Rock Star by Play Girl, August 1993
Born
Butler, Pennsylvania,
Bret
Michaels was raised in Mechanicsburg,
where
he spent most of his time listening to rock music,
riding
motorcycles and causing havoc wherever he went.
"I
always was an active kid, always getting in and out of trouble,"
remembers
Bret, who admitted that he was arrested
a
few times, mostly for curfew violations.
"I've
always done my ownthing, for better or worse. I've never had men in suits
and ties tell me what to do."
Citing
earliest musical influences as Kiss, AC/DC, Sweet and Aerosmith,
Bret
began his performing careerwith a basement band called
Laser,
eventually moving on to Spectres, which he formed with Rikki.
"Back
then, all I knew was I wanted my dad to hate us and I
wanted
my mom to hate us," explained Bret.
"That's
what I lived for. Back in Pennsylvania, there was nothing I loved more
than flipping a guy off while driving down the street with me and a bunch
of my buddies in the car."
Michaels
may have had his share of fun in the early days,
but
he's also had to contend with the fact that he was suffering from diabetes,
a terrifying disease which forces him to monitor his blood sugar and take
insulin
shots
on a daily basis.
"I
went into insulin shock around three times when I was little
and
had to go the hospital in an ambulance. That was very scary,"
stated
Bret,who often gets mistaken for a heroin addict when people come across
syringes in his trash as hotels.
"I
was once in a Portland, Maine hotel," recalled Bret, "and the maid came
in theclean the room, and she saw the syringe in the trash basket and
called
the police because shethought I was a junkie and she was going to get
AIDS
because she touched the basket. I had to go to
the
police station and prove that I wasn't."
Not
about to let the disease prevent him from pursuing his goals or his active
lifestyle, Michaels was determined to lead as normal a life as he could,
which he accomplished through constant support from his friends and taking
"as
good care as I could," Bret explained. "For the most part, I never let
it stop me from doing anything."
Describing
his younger self as a "loner, an independent kid,"
Bret's
always been able to do things by himself, which gave him time to
"take
in a lot" and ultimately helped him when it came to writing songs.
An
intense, hardworking individual, Bret professes to being attracted to "women
that are ambitious, that know what they want.
I
love aggressive girls, in the sense of that they say what they want."
He
met his ex-girlfriend, Susie Hatton , backstage at a Poison show. She became
a recording artist and Michaels wrote most of the material for and
produced her well-received 1991Giant Records debut.
As
the main songwriter in Poison, Bret is a competent guitarist and pianist,which
allows him to cover more musical ground and experiment with a variety of
sounds that a mere vocalist would not be able to do. But even though he
is responsible for most of the songwriting in thegroup, Bret doesn't view
the rest of Poison as his backing band.
"I
don't run this band. I'm not the leader. We split everything four ways,"
said the singer.
Bret
regularly works out to keep himself in top shape, which he has to in order
to maintain,the intensive touring schedule that Poison was renowned for.
Of course, the female Poison fans don't mind it either, branding the frontman
"one of the sexiest rockers around. " While he appreciates such attention,
he modestly brushes it off by saying,
"If
you saw me in the morning, I wouldn't even bein the Top 500!"
This
down-to-earth attitude is equally evident in the way Bret treats and talks
about Poison's fans, who he feels are "on an even par with us. I hate it
when I hear other stars saying how they 'want to come down to the fans'
level', 'cause we party, we're never rude to anyone."
While
Bret keeps pretty busy touring, recording and writing with Poison, he occasionally
finds the time to check out a movie or two, preferably with his
favorite
actors, Sly Stallone, Mel Gibson,
favorite
actresses, Jami Gertz, Kelly LeBrock and Brigitte Nielsen.
Naming
Rambo as his favorite movie of all time, Michaels also likes to read in
is spare time (of which there isn't very much at the moment), with The
Outsiders topping his list of favorite books.
Although
he's an experienced performer, Bret admits that he and the rest of Poison
still get "more nervous than anyother band in the world" when playing live,
"but that gives us more energy than any other
band
in the world.," explained the blonde vocalist.
"The
nervousness eventually falls into place a little better. You expect it
every night. You learn the pattern."
Despite
having sold millions of records all over the world, Bret is still not completely
satisfied with his achievements thus far, adding that he would like to
expand musically, especially as a frontman and a singer.
In the past, I've held back on some of the talents I have
at being a frontman, and each year I release some of those abilities, little
by little," remarked Michaels.
Bret
Photo's are Here
Will
have More Bio on Bret Later
Check
back in a few weeks