Original subtitles

♪♪♪

Oh, this is gonna be awesome.

-How are you doing, my friend? -What's up, Bret?

I'm doing great. How's everybody doing? All good?

-All good. -Thank you for having me back.

Obviously, a lot has changed since, uh, not only Poison's,

but when I did my "Behind the Music,"

a lot of stuff coming at us, a lot of personal things,

a lot of professional things.

But I love the challenge, and I love being in the game.

♪♪♪

NARRATOR: He came to L.A. armed with relentless dedication

to a rock and roll dream.

You have to have determination.

You want that energy that defines who you are.

♪ She stepped off the bus out into the city streets ♪

The spirit of Bret's songs

has always been looking out on the horizon.

♪ Win big, Mama's fallen angel ♪

There's so much hope and so much dreaming.

♪♪♪

You guys in a band or something?

Uh, yeah, yeah. Poison.

With Poison, Bret Michaels became the front man

of the ultimate party band...

♪ I want action tonight ♪

-...and everybody was invited. -♪ Satisfaction all night ♪

BOTH: We're just two rock and roll dudes

in a loose party mood. Ow-ooh!

But their quest for fame led to personal heartbreak.

♪ Every rose has its thorn ♪

I had the success of the music,

and I paid the ultimate price in my relationship.

♪ Every rose has its thorn ♪

Years of toxic behavior took its toll...

I didn't know where I was at.

I didn't know where the audience was.

I couldn't think of my name.

...and began to tear the band apart.

Can I finish? Can I joke with this?

Go ahead. I'm waiting.

Me and C.C. could get in a knockdown, drag-out,

true fistfight.

When Poison stopped...

♪ Please let me... ♪

...Bret kept going.

Are we ready to rock each other's worlds?

[cheering]

All of a sudden that new world of reality TV

and being an artist or musician, it just collided.

♪ Pretty kitties back in black ♪

While his solo career soared,

Bret's life took a sudden and very serious turn.

♪♪♪

It was instant. There's a...

[siren wailing]

I'm thinking, is this gonna kill me?

♪ Give me something to believe in ♪

Bret's belief helped him get back on his feet...

-♪ Something to believe in ♪ -...and back onstage.

♪ Something to believe in ♪

I could not be more grateful for Poison.

All the good outweighed the bad.

[cheering]

♪ Ooh-yow! ♪

Now Bret Michaels is reflecting on key moments in his life...

Look, I got chills for real.

...giving new insights on his past...

The truth of the matter is,

is that song will always be a bittersweet moment in my life.

...and sharing his secrets to rock and roll success.

You have to constantly face the challenges.

But the most important thing-- you gotta better yourself.

This is "Bret Michaels: The Story Behind the Music."

♪ And it don't get better than this ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

In 2019, Bret Michaels was looking to channel his emotions

into a new song.

So he turned to a unique collaborator--

his daughter Jorja.

♪ Broken ♪

♪ Sometimes I feel like I'm falling apart ♪

♪ Choking ♪

I think a lot of people, if not all of us,

go through moments in our life that are really tough,

and my daughter was going through

a really tough time in her life,

and I was going through a pretty low moment in my life,

and we sit down

and we wrote a song together called "Unbroken,"

and it is truly about perseverance.

♪ On broken wings, I shall fly ♪

♪ And from these ashes, I shall rise ♪

♪ Unbroken ♪

The music video rapidly

gathered over 1 million views online,

as Bret passed on the power of positivity to his children.

I love my daughters. What I try to teach 'em is how to handle

when adversity comes at you.

♪ I shall remain unbroken ♪

♪♪♪

Bret Michaels' unbroken spirit

took root in the working class town

of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

♪♪♪

Born Bret Michael Sychak in 1963,

he was the oldest of three children.

Growing up in a small town was an awesome experience.

♪♪♪

I had a lot of great friends. Everyone knew each other.

A very tight-knit community.

I always said that if all the kids you had

were like Bret, you might have six or seven.

♪♪♪

But his idyllic childhood took a near-tragic turn

when he was just 6 years old.

I felt really all the time like I had the flu,

completely tired.

They took me to Harrisburg Hospital,

um, the emergency room at about 3 in the morning,

and at that point, um, my blood sugar levels

were extremely, extremely high, and the doctor just said,

"You're--You're in trouble, and this is what's wrong."

Bret was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes

and remained hospitalized for three weeks.

They were giving me all these injections, tested my blood.

They had me hooked up to all these IVs.

I started out taking four injections a day,

and you're testing your blood all the time.

We tried to maintain that he could do anything,

but he had to make sure he kept track of his insulin

or how he felt.

I look at it as a blessing 'cause it made me kind of

in touch with, you know, how fragile life is

and to really enjoy it while we got it.

♪♪♪

I just accepted it, and I just had to work a little harder.

Like they said, I had to go a thousand yards

to get a hundred yards,

and I think that may have actually played a big part

in--in my career and truly being fearless,

and that came from my family.

The diagnosis did little to slow Bret down.

As a teenager, he began playing guitar,

inspired by the hard rock

he constantly cranked in his bedroom.

People like KISS

and Bon Scott from AC/DC.

♪♪♪

David Lee Roth, Van Halen.

He had this energy and this charisma

when he hit that stage that was just unbelievable.

I just knew that's what I wanted to do,

and that focus went completely into my music,

and it was no holds barred.

♪♪♪

In 1979, Bret joined forces with drummer Rikki Rockett.

I had this band, and we needed a singer,

and our bass player said,

"Hey, I'm working at this restaurant,

and this guy just started bussing over here,

and he's got his own P.A. and he's a singer.

I'm like, he's got his own P.A.?

It--we'll figure--if he can't sing, we'll figure it out.

[laughs]

As the Spectres, and later Paris,

they paid their dues cranking out cover tunes

on the Pennsylvania bar circuit.

Bret, Rikki, bass player Bobby Dall,

and guitarist Matt Smith packed their gear

in early 1984 and headed for rock's Promised Land--

the Sunset Strip.

I knew the day that we left,

that our lives would never be the same.

♪♪♪

We literally finished that show. This is no lie.

And we drove to Los Angeles that evening.

You have to get outside of our comfort zone,

and the only thing you have is each other,

and--and you better have tough skin.

You've gotta believe in yourself if anyone else is going to.

We bet on ourself.

I never knew if we were gonna make it,

but I never thought we wouldn't make it.

♪♪♪

For four boys from Pennsylvania,

the Strip was a funhouse of decadence and debauchery--

a combustible combination of lipstick, leather,

and power chords.

♪♪♪

The Sunset Strip in the mid '80s

was a magical and wonderful time,

when the women wore Spandex and the men wore Spandex.

And the women wore makeup, and the men wore more makeup.

♪♪♪

Paris renamed themselves Poison

soon after arriving in Hollywood.

They weren't rock stars yet.

They sure looked the part.

What we worse onstage is what we wore on the street.

If we're gonna be somebody,

we better look like we're somebody, you know?

I'm Bret Michaels from the band Poison,

and this is what we're wearing right now, and this is--

this is the-- we're setting a trend.

[laughs]

[cheering]

[laughs]

♪♪♪

On the Sunset Strip,

Bret met Tracy Lewis one night in April of '84.

Bret was out in the-- in front of the Troubadour,

and he told me that, um, I should come to his show.

He would make me a deal if I came to his show

and didn't have more fun than I had in my whole life,

he would be forced to take me on a date.

When I met Tracy, I thought she was hot.

I was very attracted to her.

We were best friends, and we did everything together.

She was there very early on in my career.

You know, she was supportive of it.

I felt that I was in a really great relationship.

We were in love, desperately in love.

We...you know, we were kids.

♪♪♪

Bret's passion for Tracy was matched only by his desire

for rock stardom.

He and Poison were on a mission to build their audience

one flyer at a time.

You had to be smart. You had to be a businessman.

You had to go out and sell yourself

to get people to go to their shows.

We're like, "We've got to promote.

We've got to let people know we are crazy."

So we make up these crazy flyers.

They worked harder than any band I've ever known.

And as scared as I was,

I mean, believe me, I wanted to break down and cry

'cause I'm like, man, I-I got nothing.

I'm diabetic. I've got no money.

We're out here with what we've got.

Poison worked hard on their music

and were desperately looking for a record deal.

But the boys from Pennsylvania only found abject poverty.

It was extremely tough looking the way we did,

trying to survive.

I'm talking about living with cockroaches,

a sleeping bag behind a dry cleaner

in Downtown Los Angeles for three years like that.

We lived true communal living.

I mean, there was one pot, and we all pissed in it.

We didn't have any money.

I remember one time, I ran out of eyeliner.

I used a Magic Marker.

We knew we were gonna have to work part-time jobs,

whatever it took, just to survive to eat.

♪♪♪

The struggle eventually proved too much

for guitarist Matt Smith,

who quit Poison and returned home in early 1985.

The band auditioned dozens of replacements

and nearly selected a young gun named Slash,

until platinum-haired C.C. DeVille

walked into the room.

♪♪♪

He was the most obnoxious, loud, boisterous, in-your-face,

sell-himself kind of guy that you will ever meet.

♪ What you heard about me was probably right ♪

He came in late. He didn't learn any of the songs.

♪ I'm the boy next door ♪

How do you like my party?

♪♪♪

Bret comes in.

He goes, "Listen, I don't care if you're

if you're Burt fucking Bacharach.

You have to learn our songs."

♪ Number one bad boy ♪

♪♪♪

But the second he picked up and plugged in,

he just hit some open chord.

You know, he picked it up and he went... [imitates chord]

And I went, oh, yeah.

♪♪♪

Whoo!

The addition of C.C.

helped take Poison to a new level of popularity.

-♪ Bad boy ♪ -[cheering]

Local buzz landed Poison a deal with Enigma Records,

which released their debut, "Look What the Cat Dragged In,"

in August of 1986.

♪ Oh, my God, look what the cat dragged in ♪

♪ Livin' my life, sin after sin ♪

But the album was flatlining on the charts

until early 1987 when Bret insisted they shoot a video

for the single, "Talk Dirty To Me."

Everyone at Enigma, everyone was ready to give up.

And I literally said,

"We need just to scrounge enough money together,"

and I wanna say 5 to 7 grand, which was unheard of

shooting a video back in that day.

We brought all of our friends, and we shot "Talk Dirty To Me."

Hit it, C.C.

♪♪♪

♪ I never ♪

♪ I never ever stay out late ♪

♪ You know that I can hardly wait ♪

♪♪♪

♪ Just to see you ♪

I just remember that song got stuck in my head

from the second I heard it.

There was just this great sense of passion.

You could see that they were enjoying themselves,

and it just challenged you to have a good time.

They were like, "I dare you not to enjoy this."

Between the look, the attitude, and the music,

it was just one big hook to pull you in.

Dude, you can't deny a good hook, man.

♪ Talk dirty to me, yeah ♪

The video blew up on MTV, and the exposure

turned Poison into superstars overnight.

We truthfully believed in what we were doing.

We were having the time of our life.

Our dream was happening.

♪♪♪

In 1987, Poison had found the right formula

to rock their way into the mainstream,

but behind the musical harmony that fueled the band

was a very turbulent relationship.

At the same time there was chemistry,

there was a natural friction between Bret and I.

♪♪♪

It was a love/hate relationship of biblical proportions.

Which would only be healthy because it would only, like,

try to make us go a little bit further.

That energy, that dichotomy,

that is also what makes for an incredible song,

an incredible show.

I've talked to Bret, and I've met C.C.

Very big personalities.

Sometimes big personalities aren't always on the same page.

And that tension will drive you to do something

just to go, "There you go."

It's so petty, sometimes, being in a band,

'cause you're like, yeah, all right,

I'll show you. Watch this.

♪♪♪

I'm not gonna say there wasn't some truly heated times.

We could get in a knockdown, drag-out, true fistfight,

and the next day, you shook hands,

and you went right back to work.

♪♪♪

Despite the tension, Poison's rock and roll fantasy

was becoming a reality.

♪ Remember the nights we sat ♪

♪ And talked about all our dreams ♪

Their relentless work ethic was finally paying off.

♪ We knew the things we had to do ♪

♪ To make it, baby ♪

♪ You gotta cry tough out on the streets ♪

♪ To make your dreams happen ♪

♪ You gotta... ♪

When I was writing the lyrics to "Cry Tough,"

it was exactly what was going through then

and I keep in my mind now to this very day.

♪ You've gotta cry out, out to the world ♪

♪ To make them all come true ♪

The spirit of Poison's songs has always been

looking out on the horizon, and that comes from Bret.

There's so much hope and so much dreaming.

♪ You gotta cry out, out on the streets ♪

One year after its release,

Poison's debut, "Look What the Cat Dragged In,"

clawed its way to number 3 on the charts.

And by the spring of 1987, the album had gone platinum.

I'd like to thank all our fans and family.

I wanna thank everyone for doing that.

My dad for buying the first 500,000.

-Yeah. -[laughter]

It went insane. We don't know what happened.

-We can't explain it. -[screaming]

I mean, once it exploded, it was huge. It was overnight.

I just remember we were touring and touring,

and we did an in-store, and I remember it was like a riot.

It was like from, like, being nobodies

to all of a sudden, you know, you're everywhere.

♪ Oh, ahh! ♪

[cheering]

Everything was just bigger, better, now.

That really set up what the '80s was.

[cheering]

And for a kid who had nothing but wanted everything,

I mean, that was very appealing.

When Poison took their show on the road,

they feasted on their newfound fame.

BOTH: We're just two rock and roll dudes

in a loose party mood. Ow-ooh!

♪♪♪

Mayhem, chaos, pure adrenaline, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

♪♪♪

[cheers and laughter]

So what do you want?

Ooh, let me tell you what I want.

♪ I want action tonight ♪

♪ Satisfaction all night ♪

This is what makes life worthwhile on the road.

I hope that's permanent marker.

Me, too.

♪♪♪

♪ Long legs and short skirts ♪

♪ These girls hit me where it hurts ♪

If you can't have a good time at a Poison concert,

you're a pretty fucked up individual.

♪ I want action tonight ♪

♪ Satisfaction all night ♪

Everybody wants to have a good time.

People want relationships. They want love.

♪♪♪

I think when you go to a concert,

the music's primitive, and that's what this party

was meant to be then and now.

♪♪♪

Poison's nonstop touring meant the party never ended.

[laughs]

And the band had no problem keeping pace.

Probably my biggest downfall early in my career

was I would party for six and seven months at a time.

Everything got out of control.

As far as the drugs and alcohol go,

it was like a Roman candle blowing off at both ends,

and eventually, it's gonna get to the middle and explode.

♪♪♪

Poison's toxic lifestyle was taking a toll

on the diabetic lead singer.

In March of '87,

Bret collapsed after the band's biggest gig to date

at New York's Madison Square Garden.

I didn't know where I was at.

I didn't know where the audience was.

I couldn't think of my name.

He just went down. It was like, wow.

I mean, it looked like Tyson hit him or something.

-[siren wailing] -I woke up

in the emergency room. That's all I remember.

When that whole thing happened, you know,

word on the street was, you know, he's a junkie.

And that's when I decided to tell the world.

I said, "Look, that's not the case.

I'm a diabetic. I'm insulin-dependent."

Being diabetic and being on the road definitely isn't easy,

I think, sometimes to deal with.

I mean, it definitely has its ups and downs.

I do have a handicap,

and it's just something I've learned to deal with.

The road would soon claim another casualty--

Bret's relationship with first love, Tracy Lewis.

The road is not conducive to a successful relationship.

It's really, really hard.

It is very tough being in a committed relationship

when there is so much temptation.

♪♪♪

All this, as they say, forbidden fruit,

floating around out there.

I was having a hard time liking him anymore.

He was changing.

He really wasn't anywhere

close to--to the person that he really was.

Bret says their love affair came to a sudden halt

in the summer of 1987

when he called Tracy late one night

from a Dallas laundromat and heard another man's voice

in the background.

Waiting for my clothes to wash and dry,

used the payphone and made a phone call, um,

to my then-girlfriend, but I will tell you this

as a guy who thought I was in love,

to hear her talking and whispering

and to hear another guy's voice in the background

was pretty devastating for me.

No. No.

There was infidelity. There were two people in the relationship.

So you do the math.

I literally hung the phone up, and it was an awful feeling.

And so I sat in the laundromat

and wrote "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

♪ We both lie silently still in the dead of the night ♪

I wrote that song with no intention

of it ever being a hit.

♪ Although we both lie close together ♪

That song was just for me.

♪ We feel miles apart inside ♪

♪ Was it something I said or something I did? ♪

♪ Did my words not come out right? ♪

"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was released as a single

in December of 1988.

♪ But I guess that's why they say ♪

♪ Every rose has its thorn ♪

The power ballad became

the ultimate '80s anthem of heartbreak...

♪ Like every night has its dawn ♪

...and Poison's biggest hit.

♪ Just like every cowboy ♪

♪ Sings his sad, sad song ♪

♪ Every rose has its thorn ♪

But for both Bret and Tracy,

the song's success was bittersweet.

It wasn't until actually I heard it on the album

that I realized, oh, my gosh,

that's like a day out of my life.

It felt a little like everybody's peeking in

on our heartbreak.

♪ Every rose has its thorn ♪

♪ Yeah, it does ♪

When I play "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" today,

it will always, um, have that feeling of bittersweet in it.

That's what the song is about.

Some of the most incredible songs

are born from the most pain, and people can relate.

They've gone through it. They've been there.

They felt it.

Obviously, with Tracy and myself,

our lives have moved on in different directions.

She was a wonderful, awesome human being

and a big part of my life,

but the truth of the matter is, is that song will always

be a bittersweet moment in my life.

♪ Every rose has its thorn ♪

♪♪♪

♪ Ooh-yow ♪

In 1988, Poison released their second album,

"Open Up and Say... Ahh!"

It sold over 7 million copies and launched 3 top 10 hits...

♪ I'm always workin', slavin' every day ♪

♪ Gotta get a break from that same old, same old ♪

...including the party anthem, "Nothing But a Good Time."

♪ Don't need nothin' but a good time ♪

♪ How can I resist? ♪

The great thing about that song is that it can appeal to anyone.

They knew the spirit of the fans.

They just wanna go and have a good time.

It was a message Bret took to heart each and every night.

♪ Ain't lookin' for nothing ♪

I'm done with the show. It's 12:00 at night,

and your heart's pounding, and you walked offstage.

I shoot down a couple shots, and I feel great,

and a couple shots lead to a few more shots.

Then you wanna stay up, so it leads to some substance,

and then you wanna go to sleep, so you take this.

And then you realize you have a problem.

The whole band was dabbling with drugs,

but guitarist C.C. DeVille was hitting the hard stuff

with a vengeance.

We were very successful. We all had money

and everything that you can want.

And then all of a sudden, it was like,

your real life exceeds your dreams,

and then if you still kinda feel empty,

well, then the drugs, like, I don't know, let me try that.

Maybe that's it.

♪♪♪

You've got the cocaine. You've got the booze.

You've got the women, and the next thing you know,

you've got separate tour buses,

and the only time you're finding yourself together

is when you meet onstage to play,

and I think that sometimes success can be a disaster.

During the highly successful 1990 "Flesh & Blood" tour,

substance abuse began to tear the band apart.

The tension between C.C. and Bret was more than evident.

Let me start, and you build on from there.

-Go--Hey! -Okay.

Should I argue with the foundation?

Welcome to the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards!

[crowd cheering]

At the 1991

MTV Video Music Awards,

Poison very publicly came unraveled

when a wasted C.C. made a spectacle of himself.

The whole time Cece was walking to the stage,

he kept screaming to some guy. I don't know who the guy was,

that he wanted to do a solo record.

And I'm like, "Solo record? What are you talking about?"

Let's get it on. Let's start our party

the way a party should start.

[cheering]

Poison!

♪ When I hear the music ♪

♪ I'm gon' let it play ♪

I'll tell you straight out, it was no surprise

that C.C. had a huge drug problem,

and C.C. was a mess.

♪♪♪

Whoo!

♪ Just to see you ♪

Whoo!

♪ And I know you cannot wait ♪

And he was so high and so drunk,

and he had no clue what he was doing.

♪ 'Cause, baby, we'll be ♪

His guitar cord comes out. He doesn't know it.

I'm singing "Talk Dirty To Me," looking over.

I gotta tell you something. It was a moment in time

when I wish I could just stop it and--and just start over.

-[song ends] -Thank you!

-[cheering] -Whoo!

Poison!

It ain't perfect, but it's rock and roll.

We should have walked right up there and said, "You know what?

We are in no shape to do this."

We'd been on the road for almost a year.

All of us were partying too much.

C.C. happened to be doing one substance.

I happened to be doing another.

And I'm not sure what Rikki and Bobby were doing.

It was a perfect storm, and it was a disaster

coming from north, south, east, and west, and it just hit.

♪♪♪

We walk off the stage, and me and C.C. are in a fistfight.

When you take someone that's your friend,

and you're physically punching each other in the face,

it is an awful feeling.

There's nothing good comes from it.

And, you know, that was that.

That was the last time Bret and C.C. spoke for years.

Me and C.C. had knocked some teeth out.

He broke my nose. He got a good shot in.

He did a great shot. I got two back, though.

So I evened it up a little bit.

But just like all the great, um, rock and roll bands

and great head butting

I think goes on between singer and guitar player,

uh, we took it up a notch.

That energy, that dichotomy was for real.

After six years together, C.C. left the band.

His departure and decline into drug addiction

served as another major heartbreak in Bret's life.

C.C. was literally killing himself,

and it's painful to watch your friend go through it,

knowing that you can't help him.

♪♪♪

As Poison soldiered on without C.C.,

the bottle became Bret's new best friend.

♪♪♪

We were out hitting the bars almost every night,

bringing home, you know, party after party after party.

We were having, like, little backstage Poison parties

in his living room.

I had fallen into a period of my life--

I call it a dark period of the most awesome partying.

And I was filling a void

of feeling that things were changing.

Bret's hard partying would nearly cost him his life.

In May of 1994, after a night of drinking on the Sunset Strip,

Bret hopped into his Ferrari and started speeding home.

He lost control of his car

and crashed head-on into a telephone pole.

I still look at the photo sometimes,

and I look at that car bent back over itself

where my head went through the windshield,

I think, man, it was-- it is amazing I'm alive.

For me, no doubt, the defining moment of my life,

and I realized that my partying

and my lifestyle at that point was completely out of control.

♪♪♪

Bret wasn't the only one going down a dangerous path.

♪♪♪

After his break with Poison,

C.C. DeVille holed up in his Hollywood Hills mansion,

indulging all his worst habits,

found himself addicted to alcohol and cocaine.

It became the house of horrors

because I-I just, like, it was almost like a psychosis set in.

It was dark, dark, dark, dark times. Very dark.

When you're proverbially in the gutter,

morally in the gutter, death is almost welcome.

There's been many times where I'd be like, boy, you know,

to die here would be a lot easier

than just having to go on.

Poison replaced C.C. with guitarist Richie Kotzen.

♪ Lately I can tell that something ain't right ♪

But as they toured for their fourth album,

"Native Tongue," Bret couldn't help but notice

that the onstage magic was missing.

♪ I just want to know if we've got anything left at all ♪

♪ And I say ♪

I was looking over at Richie and saying, man,

I just wish C.C. was there.

It always felt awkward.

It feels awkward with anyone but C.C.

♪ Tell me what to do, I cannot make it right ♪

Poison is Bobby, Rikki, Bret, and C.C.

That is Poison. That will always be Poison.

We had ourselves a hell of a run.

We were also falling apart

in every way that you could imagine.

Just give me that fucking camera. I hate it.

♪♪♪

As the band struggled to bounce back

from the loss of C.C.,

changing trends in the music industry

moved Poison out of the mainstream.

The media and a lot of the video programs turned their back.

They told us, "Don't send us another video."

That was the exact words. They were like,

"You don't need to send this to us. We're not gonna play it."

A year later, Capitol Records

rejected the band's "Crack a Smile..." album.

It was just a bad omen for Poison

that they had a whole album of material. It never came out.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

As a musician, when you hear people talking about you

like you're a product, like you're a can of soda,

and, "Yeah, they're not worth this much,"

or "They're great,"

these are the same people that loved you,

but all of a sudden, the media changed,

and the trends changed,

and now you weren't hip or cool anymore.

♪ Please take the demon from my head ♪

With Poison on hold, Bret became

a Nashville songwriter, actor, and independent filmmaker.

♪♪♪

While Bret shifted his career...

ex-band member C.C. DeVille was waging a private battle

against his old enemy, cocaine.

The tricky thing is as you do drugs,

the quality of your life goes down to the point where

living and dying is almost level.

And that's what's scary,

because it knocks you down like that.

In 1996, at the age of 34,

he finally decided to get clean by going cold turkey.

There's no great ending to the story.

I mean, I just got sick of being sick,

and I just said to myself, "That's it.

You gotta get better," and I waited long enough

that when I said it was time to get better, I meant it.

The fact of the matter is that C.C.'s alive.

C.C.'s alive today to tell about it.

Maybe the man upstairs has a grand scheme. I don't know.

Lately, I'm trying to make the most of while I'm here.

I'm scared to die only because I'm scared to not be--

to be not be part of tomorrow.

♪♪♪

By 1998, Poison was ready to get back together again.

Now that C.C. was clean and sober,

the band decided to tour America.

We started talking about going back out on the road

and making music again, and for me,

that was an incredible feeling.

It just was a time in my life

where I was just ready to go back out.

♪♪♪

[humming guitar riff]

It's like, even I get sick of it.

For the first time in eight years,

Bret and C.C. were reigniting their chemistry.

The reason the people are here is to hear you play that.

The last time we toured, it was like,

my solo was 25 minutes long.

Back then, you were high, and when you're high,

you know what I'm saying? You're...eh.

I know. We'll--We'll see.

Whatever was happening with Poison,

trying to make a band work, there's gonna be drama.

But when it's time to go onstage...

changes completely.

You all come together for that one moment,

and you go, this is everything that we've been through.

This is everything that we are,

and this is everything that we're going to be,

so let's go give it to that audience.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Poison!

♪ When I hear the music, let it play, I'm-a let it play ♪

♪ When I hear the music ♪

♪ Sure as darkness I can see the day ♪

♪ When I hear the music, let it play, I'm-a let it play ♪

There's a bond with Poison that--it's unbreakable.

As much as we've beaten the hell out of each other,

there's still a love and a bond there.

♪ ...the music, let it play ♪

-Whoa! -♪ Let it play ♪

Look, I got chills. Like, it's incredible.

For real.

♪♪♪

Your true fans don't go away.

What they play on the radio, whether it moves up or down,

uh, sideways, your true fans are there with ya,

and they showed up, and I love 'em for it,

but it felt amazing to be onstage with my buddies again,

and I look at these clips, and I go, this is awesome.

And same exact party.

You know, four buddies that grew up together.

It was incredible.

[shouts indistinctly]

[cheering]

The music's real. We work hard at it.

And without Bobby, Rikki, C.C., I would not be sitting here

having this conversation with you.

[cheering]

After Poison's triumphant 1999 reunion,

Bret Michaels spent the next few years

splitting his time between the band and his solo career.

♪ When everyone turns to go, I won't leave you ♪

♪ When everything new gets old ♪

♪ I won't listen ♪

Creatively, he was firing on all cylinders.

♪ All I ever needed was you ♪

And in 2007, Bret got a phone call

that would bring him continued success.

VH1 asked him to headline a dating show

called "Rock of Love."

"Rock of Love" tapped

into the perfectly symbiotic relationship

between rock stars and the women who love them.

Are we ready to rock each other's worlds?

[cheering]

And when the cameras began to roll,

Bret was ready to rock.

♪♪♪

What did you need?

Oh. Would you like me to arrange it?

Yes.

♪ Please let me introduce myself ♪

♪ I'm gonna get you off like there's no one else ♪

Being one of the first people to step into reality TV,

especially as a musician, you have to see the big picture.

♪♪♪

We love Bret Michaels! Whoo!

♪♪♪

The show revved up the rocker's music career,

turning him into a pop culture icon

for a second time.

♪ My ring back ♪

♪ Bittersweet, bittersweet ♪

All of a sudden, that new realm,

that new world of reality TV and being an artist or a musician,

it just collided.

♪♪♪

But I was about to go through a pretty low moment in my life.

♪♪♪

In 2000, Bret found a new experience

that rocked his world--

fatherhood.

♪ When I hold you in my arms ♪

Daughter Raine Elizabeth was born to Bret

and girlfriend Kristi Lynn Gibson.

They welcomed a second daughter, Jorja Blue, five years later.

♪ Give you love, give you strength ♪

♪ Get you through your darkest days ♪

♪ You are my flesh, you are my blood ♪

♪ And I will always stand by you, I will ♪

The love that I have for my two daughters,

Raine and Jorja, is it's truly unconditional love.

♪ Give me your hand, I'll pull you through, I will ♪

There's no words that quite describe the emotion

of what you feel when you have a child.

I truly understand what it means, too,

when you say, "I will die for you."

No words spoken.

Don't need to say anything. I would die for my kids.

♪♪♪

My family, Kristi and Raine and Jorja,

it's a big part of who I am.

Kristi and I, we are extremely close.

She is an incredible, incredible human being,

not just as a mom, but as a great person,

and so we just, every day make it work.

♪♪♪

Bret strived to balance family life

with his time on the road.

♪ World keeps turning ♪

♪ A lesson you keep learning ♪

♪ Sometimes things don't turn out like they should ♪

♪ But it's all good ♪

♪♪♪

But one night before a show in Texas,

things began to go horribly wrong.

I'm in San Antonio,

and I have this unbelievable pain in my lower stomach.

And I thought, uh, for sure, that it was just the flu.

I'm like, I can get through this.

♪♪♪

Next thing I know, I ended up in the emergency room

with an emergency appendectomy.

[monitor beeping steadily]

After successful surgery to repair his burst appendix,

Bret was forced off the road and sent home to recuperate.

I get home, sit down on my couch,

and I'm flipping channels, and it was instant.

There's a...

...into my brain.

I had a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage.

The appendectomy blood clot floated up, shot through

up into my brain and exploded.

Literally, it explodes in your brain,

and there is no pain like that pain,

and there's no way to get rid of it.

[siren wailing in distance]

I end up in ICU

on the verge of living or dying, you're not sure.

And I'm thinking, "Isn't this gonna kill me?"

FEMALE REPORTER: After complaining

of a severe headache Thursday, the 47-year-old suffered

an apparent subarachnoid brain hemorrhage.

From the pain, you sort of go into your own form of a coma.

♪♪♪

And...I woke up three days later.

Yeah, this is-- this is a big deal,

and thankfully, Bret Michaels is conscious at this point.

NARRATOR: After undergoing brain surgery,

Bret was confined to a hospital bed for weeks.

While recuperating, he lost his ability to walk and talk.

I was driven to walk and talk again.

I crawled onto that hallway, up and down,

driving everyone crazy 'cause middle of the night,

I just kept going.

Started to feel strong. Went home.

And the first thing I did when I got back

is I picked up my youngest daughter JJ.

♪♪♪

And I have a TIA, which is a stroke.

[siren wailing]

Left side of my body completely went numb.

Back in the emergency room,

and I'm like, this can't be happening.

♪♪♪

While running tests, Bret's doctors discovered

another very serious issue.

They said, "Something else is wrong."

I'm like, "Oh, no. Please don't--what's wrong now?"

They come back in with a specialist,

and it ends up I have a hole in my heart.

♪♪♪

Talk about a low moment in your life.

That's a low moment.

♪♪♪

Talk about trying to dig in and find that inner faith,

inner strength, whatever you wanna call it.

That's--That's when you gotta dig in deep.

-[monitor beeping steadily] -When you're laying there,

and it's gonna take you and the help

of the great people around you to--to survive.

♪ I felt so cold and empty ♪

♪ Like a lost soul out of place ♪

I can't let fear creep in. It's there.

It's always knocking at the door,

but I don't wanna spin in that direction.

♪♪♪

I said if I get a chance...

♪ And give me something to believe in ♪

I've always been grateful, but you're gonna see

a mega level of gratefulness.

♪ Something to believe in ♪

A gear I never even knew was in the car.

♪ Give me something to believe in ♪

I got that chance again,

and I just let it rock from there.

♪ Something to believe in ♪

After surgery to repair his heart,

Bret was back on his feet.

♪♪♪

I am grateful to be here.

You talk about adding on to "Behind the Music,"

I am grateful to be here on many different levels.

[laughs]

♪♪♪

Are you ready?!

-[cheering] -Please welcome...

Bret...Michaels!

♪♪♪

Just months after leaving the hospital,

Bret was ready to take the stage once again

with Poison and his solo band.

♪ I remember ♪

I still have the pain in my brain.

Still got body not quite working right.

♪ Doctor told me I've got a disease ♪

♪ That's gonna keep me sick ♪

But I know one thing about me. I have to go out and try.

♪ So damn depressed ♪

And it was the most incredible show,

but I couldn't move like I like to move.

I couldn't quite talk like I like to talk.

But it was an incredible, unbelievable moment in my life.

♪ Play me good time music ♪

You know when some people say, "I'm grateful for fans"?

♪♪♪

I am beyond grateful, because they were life-saving to me.

Their good will and good spirit was--was a big part

of why I'm sitting here today.

♪♪♪

My love of the fans is always the same.

I will be in that parking lot throwing a football,

partying with people, having a great time,

and it's about the fans.

♪♪♪

[cheering]

Thank you!

♪♪♪

Bret has never stopped writing and producing new music,

evolving into one of rock's most consistent forces.

♪ Love and pain and sacrifice ♪

The cool thing about Bret--

he does stuff that's a little outside

of what he would do with Poison.

It's about being able to share music with your fans

and challenge the way they hear you.

Nobody does it better than him in a lot of ways.

All right, let's go.

♪♪♪

Bret has worked with Loretta Lynn and Miley Cyrus.

♪ Won't you fall down on me ♪

♪ So close I can feel you breathe ♪

♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪

And he had a profound musical connection

with Stevie Nicks.

To be able to work with someone like Stevie Nicks,

everything I dreamed about what music would be like

if I went to Los Angeles came true.

We went in the studio, and we sat there,

and it was one of the most magical nights of my life.

♪♪♪

But Bret's most impactful collaboration

was with his daughter Jorja...

♪ Broken ♪

...who is following in her dad's footsteps

as an aspiring singer and songwriter.

♪ Choking ♪

I was having a tough time with my diabetes,

and, uh, was having some severe highs and lows

and trying to get it into control,

so I was fighting with that. I was getting a little down.

And my daughter was going through what--what

everybody's going through with social media.

And I could tell that Jorja was really down.

And we just started writing lyrics.

And together, we wrote "Unbroken,"

and it is truly about perseverance.

♪ On broken wings, I shall fly ♪

♪ And from these ashes, I shall rise ♪

♪ Unbroken ♪

I love my daughters, and you hope that you set an example

and lead by that example.

I have a fighting spirit.

I don't want them to think that every day you wake up

and it's, oh, man, everything's going great.

What I try to teach 'em is how to handle

when adversity comes at you.

♪ I shall remain ♪

♪ Unbroken ♪

♪♪♪

All those ups and downs that he had,

he's still just Bret Michaels, man,

giving everything's he got-- that's so infectious.

You have to have perseverance.

That determination, that energy that defines who you are...

♪♪♪

...you have to take that risk if you wanna succeed.

♪♪♪

You just have to stay in the game.

You have to constantly face the challenges.

You gotta love what you're doing.

♪ Mama's fallen angel ♪

But the most important thing-- you gotta bet on yourself.

♪ Win big, Mama's fallen angel ♪

♪ Lose it all, rolling the dice of her life ♪

[song ends]

[cheering]

♪ Never coming back until I touch the midnight sun ♪

♪ Ride the wind, never coming back again ♪

♪ Ride the wind ♪

♪ Never coming back until I touch the midnight sun ♪

♪ Ride the wind, never coming back again ♪

♪ Ride the wind ♪

♪ Never coming back until I touch the midnight sun ♪