Bret Michaels (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Bret Michael Sychak, also known as Bret Michaels (born March 15, 1963 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is best known as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison and stars in the reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels on VH1.

Youth and early career

Michaels has suffered from Type 1 diabetes since 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). He was born in Butler, Pennsylvania. As a child, his family relocated to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. He attended Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School. He was interested in music from an early age. Michaels formed the band Paris in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1984. The band, which later became Poison, moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to begin touring the clubs there.

Music career

Success with Poison

Michaels had a successful career with Poison in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During that time, he co-wrote ten Top 40 singles including the hit, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," which held the number-one spot for three weeks in Billboard's Top Pop Singles chart, and Poison videos were in heavy rotation on MTV. Michaels was featured on music-magazine covers and pull-out posters sans shirt. Poison has six studio albums, all featuring Michaels on lead vocals, although C.C. DeVille has sung lead vocals on occasion.

Solo projects

Michaels released his second solo album, Songs Of Life, in May 2003. The album featured cameos by C.C. DeVille and Rikki Rockett of Poison. The first single, "Raine" was named after Michaels" daughter, Raine Elizabeth Michaels.

In 2005, Michaels completed work on his third solo album, Freedom of Sound, scheduled to be being released by his own record company BMB Records.

Michaels has produced and written for numerous artists, including Stevie Nicks, for whom Michaels wrote and produced the song, "Love's a Hard Game to Play" for the album Timespace - The Best of Stevie Nicks.

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 No Code Of Conduct 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. He also served as a judge during the 2005 season of reality television singing competition Nashville Star. He was scheduled to star in an autobiographical movie, tentatively entitled Between a Rose and a Thorn, that was scheduled to begin production in 2006. He was scheduled to be a member of the Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp, held February 15-19, 2007.

The cable-TV network VH1 announced on February 14, 2007, that Michaels would star as the bachelor in in the reality television dating-competition series Rock of Love With Bret Michaels.

On August 16, 2007, it was announced Bret Michaels would appear as an animated singer in Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Personal life

Michaels had a short relationship with Pamela Anderson. A video of the couple having sex appeared on the Internet and it was released as a DVD on September 7, 2005 by Metro Studios. Michaels later stopped the sexually explicit tape from continued distribution.

Michaels has two daughters with Kristi Lynn Gibson. Raine Elizabeth Sychak, was born on May 20, 2000, and Jorja Bleu Sychak, born May 5, 2005. As of 2007, Michaels and Gibson are separated and share custody of their children.

Michaels is a Pittsburgh Steelers football fan. He has a personalized guitar bearing the team's logo, and played the national anthem at Three Rivers Stadium. His favorite player was Jack Lambert, and Michaels has been a member of fan club "Lambert's Lunatics."

Michaels also owns a metal store in Shakopee, MN called "Bret Michaels Steel Emporium". The store also contains a small area that is home to various hard-to-find Poison memorabilia.

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