Bret Michaels

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Bret Michaels

Background information
Birth name Bret Michael Sychak
Born March 15, 1963 (1963-03-15) (age 45)
Origin Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genre(s) Glam metal
Heavy metal
Hard rock
Country rock
Instrument(s) Vocals, Guitar
Years active 1984–Present
Label(s) Capitol Records
Cyanide Music Inc.
Associated acts Poison, Bret Michaels Band
Website BretMichaels.com

Bret Michael Sychak (born March 15, 1963 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is best known as the lead vocalist of the glam metal Rock band Poison and for starring in the VH1 reality show Rock Of Love & Rock of Love 2.

Contents

[edit] Music career

Michaels formed the band Paris in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1984.The original lineup for Paris was Leighton Zema on lead vocals, Bret Michaels on guitar, Brian Bircher on drums, Jonathan Combs on synthesizer/gong, and Patrick Bircher on bass. All original members, except Michaels, were from Steelton, PA, but they were all replaced by the members of what later became Poison. The band moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to begin touring clubs there. Poison became one of the biggest heavy metal/Pop metal bands in the world and also recording several hit albums such as the 8 million seller Open Up and Say...Ahh!.

Bret Michaels recorded his first solo album in 1998 "A Letter From Death Row" the soundtrack to the movie he directed, wrote, and starred in.

Michaels also served as a judge during the 2005 season of reality television singing competition Nashville Star and released a country rock album in the same year called Freedom Of Sound.[1]

The song "Talk Dirty to Me" appears in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.[2] Michaels also appears as the lead singer in the game for it, as well as his solo song "Go That Far", re-recording the vocals for the in-game cover of the latter. Michaels' song Every Rose Has It's Thorn appears in the Sony PlayStation game "Sing-Star".

[edit] Other ventures

Michaels and actor Charlie Sheen established a film production company, Sheen/Michaels Entertainment, which produced the movie A Letter From Death Row (1998) which Michaels wrote, directed and starred in, as well as releasing a soundtrack album. They also produced No Code Of Conduct in the same year. Their company also produced the feature film Free Money, starring Marlon Brando and Mira Sorvino.

Michaels appeared in an episode of the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear.[1][3]

The cable-TV network VH1 announced on February 14, 2007 that Michaels would star as the bachelor in the reality television dating-competition series Rock of Love With Bret Michaels.[4][5] Jes Rickleff was the winner of the series; however, she also had a boyfriend outside the show and claimed that the casting directors chose her off of the street. She announced during the reunion show that she and Michaels were not right for each other and that he should have chosen the runner up, Heather Chadwell.

Michaels went on to star in the second season of Rock of Love, which premiered on January 13, 2008. On April 13, 2008, Michaels selected Ambre Lake as his "Rock of Love".

On May 1, 2008, Michaels appeared on a special celebrity edition of Don't Forget the Lyrics!, where he raised $200,000 to donate to charity.[6]

[edit] Personal life

Michaels was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of six (as Michaels later attested in the Behind the Music special, backstage photos of the singer injecting insulin led many to think that he was a heroin addict). As a child, his family relocated to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended Mechanicsburg High School.

Bret Michaels was associated with singer Susie Hatton during the early 1990s. He has two daughters with Kristi Lynn Gibson. Raine Elizabeth Sychak was born on May 20, 2000, and Jorja Bleu Sychak was born May 5, 2005.[1] As of 2007, Michaels and Gibson are separated and share custody of their children. There are rumors that they still have a live in arrangement.[7]

Michaels had a short but notorious relationship with Pamela Anderson. An explicit sex tape the couple made appeared on the Internet [8] and was released on DVD on September 7, 2005 by Metro Studios. Michaels later stopped the sexually explicit tape from continued distribution, although it is still widely available on the internet. Word of another sex tape[9], this time with unnamed girls from Rock of Love surfaced in early 2008. Michaels is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League.[10] He has a personalized guitar bearing the team's logo, and played the national anthem at Three Rivers Stadium.[11] His favorite player was Jack Lambert, and Michaels has been a member of fan club "Lambert's Lunatics."[12]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Solo albums

[edit] Singles


[edit] Poison

[edit] Filmography

Features:

  • Burke's Law - 1 episode (1994)
  • In God's Hands (1994)
  • A Letter From Death Row (1998)[13]
  • The World's Greatest Magic 5 (1998)
  • No Code of Conduct (1998)[14]
  • Martial Law - 1 Episode (1999)
  • Poison: VH1 Behind the Music (1999)
  • Yes, Dear - TV Series (2003)
  • Nashville Star - TV Series Season 3 (2005)
  • Rock of Love with Bret Michaels - TV Series Season one (2007)
  • Poison: Live, Raw and Uncut (2007)
  • Rock of Love 2 - TV Series Season two (2008)[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Bret Michaels at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ http://www.guitarherogame.com/gh3/ Guitar Hero Game
  3. ^ Yes, Dear episode "Greg's Big Day" at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ^ StarPulse.com News
  5. ^ RealityBlurred.com
  6. ^ TheGauntlet.com News
  7. ^ ohnotheydidnt: After Bret Michaels picked Ambre Lake as
  8. ^ Celebrity sex tapes. WCBS-TV. CBS Broadcasting, Inc..
  9. ^ TheGauntlet.com News
  10. ^ Bretmichaels.com "It was also said that Bret could be considered the front man for the Steelers for his devotion and love for the team."
  11. ^ Bretmichaels.com "Bret was asked to sing the national anthem at one of the last Steelers games held at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium before it was demolished."
  12. ^ Diabetes Health "When Bret was a kid, his most influential role model was a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker by the name of Jack Lambert. Says Bret, "He was one of these people that just had this ferocious go-for-it attitude. And that's the attitude that helped to develop my thinking. When they would be losing games, you could just see him come on the field and motivate that team to win. Finding a way. You're not going to win every game, you're not going to have a platinum record every time you put a song out, but it's the going for it that is really the pot of gold. As I've gone along, as I've experienced life, I've learned that it's the going after it that's the really awesome thing. He starred in Don't Forget the Lyrics on May 1, 2008"
  13. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119521/ IMBD Film Reference
  14. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131502/ IMBD Film Reference
  15. ^ http://blog.vh1.com/2007-10-09/rock-of-love-2-rocker/ Rock Of Love 2

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Poison
Current members
Bret Michaels | C. C. DeVille | Bobby Dall | Rikki Rockett
Former members
Studio albums
Compilations
Live albums
Bret Michaels
C.C. Deville
Rikki Rockett
Former Members
The Best Of Richie Kotzen | The Best Of Blues Saraceno
Videos
Singles