Original subtitles

["Talk Dirty To Me" by Poison]

Bret: My life is a series of roses and thorns.

A series of great moments

and humbling experiences all collide.

When you get to Madison Square Garden,

you have succeeded.

Even if it's for a night.

My family, everybody, you name it,

was there to see the show.

New York City!

[audience cheering]

Bret: I'll never forget walking out on that stage

and I already knew I didn't feel great.

Woo!

New York City!

And we got to about maybe the fourth song, the fifth song,

everything went blank.

[dramatic music]

Rikki: I could see in his face he kept turning around

like looking at me weird and I'm like,

am I going too fast?

Like what, what's up?

Bret: My mouth went numb.

Everything's spinning for real.

Rikki: And then he goes running out to grab the mic

and he just, straight down.

That was it. I collapsed

and I'm thinking, "it's over."

["Nothin' But A Good Time" by Poison]

♪ Don't need nothing but a good time ♪

Lyndsey: Bret Michaels is a rock star with all of the boxes checked

for what a rock star is:

handsome, rich, successful,

living this hedonistic dream.

Rikki: We were definitely rock and roll pigs at that point.

Riki: Bret is a really good performer,

but he became a major celebrity because of 'Rock of Love'.

[upbeat rock music]

Bret: The craziest, most out of control debauchery

of my dating life.

Ladies, are we ready to rock the house?

[cheering]

[acoustic guitar music]

Bret: I've looked death in the face a lot of times.

I've paid some prices for less than good decisions.

Lyndsey: I remember the meeting where it was like

we should probably write an obituary for Bret Michaels.

♪ Every rose has its thorn

Raine: We went and saw him and he was hooked up to everything,

it was like, it was scary, yeah.

Yeah I look back and I'm like, oh God.

Yeah, very scary.

♪ Just like every cowboy

Bret: Sometimes you have to go to the edge and you go,

you know what?

I need to step back from that edge.

♪ Every rose has its thorn

[energetic rock music]

[upbeat rock music]

♪ One, two, three, four

♪ Summertime, the windows down

♪ In my old car, we drive around

♪ Small town life

We are in the borough of Mechanicsburg.

This neighbourhood was my world.

That was John, right there,

lived up there and his family.

They were the only ones in the neighbourhood

that had an inground pool,

so we thought they were billionaires.

The rest of us were above ground,

usually a Doughboy.

We could throw a Doughboy pool together

and we could party all summer.

♪ Back in the day, the radio played

♪ We rocked the world back in the day ♪

This is the family home right in front of us

that I grew up in.

Those trees that we planted right there,

they weren't even a foot high.

[light music]

My mom and dad loved people.

My dad served in the military,

he loved making people feel good.

They'd come to the house

and whether they were downstairs playing poker, drinking,

having a great time with everyone from the naval base,

he really liked to treat people great.

My mom, the same way.

And my sisters, Michele and Nicole.

They would have people over all the time.

There were just kids running around.

It was social. I'd say they were social people.

Michele: Yeah, our house

was the party house for sure.

[light music]

Bret: I grew up loving sports.

[twangy music]

We shot BB guns, right?

Bow and arrow in our basement.

I'm out playing every day, riding my little mini bike

and all of a sudden, I started to get really sick.

Michele: Bret just going to the bathroom all the time

was starting to lose a lot of weight, um,

you know, just was real fatigued.

Bret: And my parents, they were convinced I had

just a really bad flu.

They took me to the emergency room

and they said, you know, to my mom and dad,

"Your son is a Type 1 diabetic."

And they were floored.

So I'm doing the four or five injections a day, right,

and-and this was six years old.

There's no one in my school that's diabetic.

And in school, I went into insulin shock,

so I'm in the middle of the cafeteria and I'm face down,

which also looks like an epileptic seizure.

And they take me to the emergency room,

saved my life.

You can take on this victim mentality

or take in that this was the card you were dealt.

And you just have to work twice as hard,

which also paid off in my work ethic.

[soft acoustic guitar music]

Michele: My mom played the guitar to us to go to bed at night.

She would play and sing.

And I think he just started picking up her guitar.

We had an acoustic guitar and I learned to play music

from listening to albums.

Everything from Johnny Cash,

the early Jim Croce,

Harry Chapin.

And then falling into the rock vein,

Skynyrd, KISS.

[rock music]

Bret: So me and my buddy Marlin,

we would just go back and forth and jam.

Yeah, he, um, wanted to play guitar,

wanted to sing, even at age 12,

and so he got me to basically buy a bass and take lessons.

Bret: We had a whole concert figured out down in the basement.

In my brain, I wanted us to be the biggest rock show ever.

We decided during a performance

that Marlin was gonna play the bass

while his arm was on fire.

Marlin: Seeing Gene Simmons for the first time on television,

that was, you know, a plan.

Bret: Marlin took a whole bottle of alcohol

and I believe it may have been Hai Karate cologne...

Commercial VO: Hai Karate, regular and oriental lime.

Bret: And we lit his arm on fire,

which we were sure couldn't go bad.

[light music]

Bret: These weren't smart decisions.

But it looked badass.

His arm on fire looked great,

you know what I mean?

But looking back, I'm pretty sure that

Gene Simmons didn't set himself on fire

with Hai Karate cologne.

Woo!

Commercial VO: Hai Karate,

be careful how you use it.

Bret: Here I am, 16 years old and then the next big step,

I came over and met Rikki.

[rock music]

The band that I was in at the time, the bass player,

he was a short order cook at a place called the Amity House.

And he said, "Look, this new guy,

"his name is Bret, I think, and he's a singer.

"He's got long hair,

"he looks cool and he has his own PA."

I went, "We need him to come over like ASAP."

And he did.

Bret: I pull up in the driveway and I'm unloading my Peavey amp.

You know, clogs were big back then, right?

He's like bringing, like, a PA column down the steps

of my basement in clogs.

And I'm like, wow, that's commitment, you know? [laughs]

Rikki was a badass drummer.

I was like, this guy's the [bleep].

This guy can play the [bleep] drums.

Rikki: We just set up and play

and Bret would start singing along.

[light music]

Bret: Rikki and I's chemistry,

the drums, the guitar jamming,

we immediately start talking about the dream.

I feel like when Bret came into my life,

I feel like, um, now I had a partner in crime.

Now I had somebody that really was willing to do

whatever it took to get where we needed to go.

Michele: The two of them in cahoots was a very powerful duo.

And then they found Bobby, he played bass.

Bret: We met Bobby Dall.

We sat down at the Dairy Queen.

I'll never forget, he grabs a sandwich,

he goes, "Yeah, do you two wanna make it or not make it?"

I go, "Yeah, we wanna make it."

And that was it, and he could play.

[guitar music]

Bret: We were looking for guitar players, right,

so we went through some people that let's just say,

had all the heart

but maybe not the chops.

And that's when we found Matt Smith

and Matt Smith could play.

He was good.

[rock music]

Rikki: We started with a slew of cover songs.

Bret: Zeppelin, Aerosmith, AC/DC.

I could do them all good

but I never could get it quite right.

And what this message was to me,

was go create your own style.

We come up with the name Paris.

Now we're all in a small basement

in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania,

but in our brain, the name Paris

meant we had travelled the world.

Rikki: We started to write our own stuff.

We wanted to get a record deal.

I mean, we were crazy enough to think

that we were gonna get a record deal

at 17 years old, you know.

[upbeat rock music]

Bret: When we'd go into those bars

and then throw one or two original songs in.

[rock music]

We'd go play the "Paradise" in Mechanicsburg,

literally had to pick the pool table up

and move it a few feet

so people could still play pool,

see the TV

and listen to our band play.

People think the Blues Brothers and Spinal Tap are funny,

I lived that [bleep].

Rikki: The more we honed it, the better we got at it.

And we just started to build our audience

and our ability to connect.

Michele: But I mean,

that was as far as they were gonna go in Pennsylvania.

You know, they all had sort of that, you know,

I think you had to go west, you know,

in order to make your dreams come true.

Bret: We knew we were going with no plan B.

We're going to Los Angeles.

The very last show that we did in Mechanicsburg,

we gave the fans everything.

We had kegs of beer, pyro, and the place was a party.

I sold my motorcycle, my mini bike, my skis,

whatever stuff all of us had,

we were putting the money into the kitty.

And the very next day, we were leaving to go to California.

There was no chance we were gonna give up and go home.

[rock music]

[upbeat rock music]

Bret: Los Angeles to me,

I thought there's a big scene out there,

we would be brand new on the market

and if we were starving to death, it was warm.

We had played as many different names

from Spectres to Paris, which we loved.

And in the long trek across the country,

I said I just want something that's a household word

but yet badass sounding.

So then all of a sudden,

we come up with the name Poison.

[rock music]

Bret: My exact memory of driving into Los Angeles,

we're coming up Santa Monica

and I'm thinking, guys,

I don't think we're in Mechanicsburg anymore.

Sunset Strip.

The Rainbow parking lot between the Roxy and the Rainbow,

thousands of people out on the streets.

Riki: The scene was absolutely incredible

because there was so much talent.

So it would be like,

let's go to The Whisky on Friday night,

let's go to The Roxy on Saturday,

let's go to The Cathouse on Tuesday.

People were going out to see bands.

You had your Motley Crues, you had your Ratts,

you had your Quiet Riots.

Hollywood was where all the bands were going

to get record deals.

[rock music]

They're in a band, wait, they're in band.

Those girls, they're all in a band.

This is competition,

so it was time to rock her up.

Our first gig was the Troubadour

and this was like a Wednesday night,

when the place is probably half filled.

We were third on the bill.

You can either get defeated by it

or you can come out and kick ass.

[energetic rock music]

Bret: But we went in with the attitude

that we were playing this like we were in

Madison Square Garden.

[energetic rock music]

Rikki: First thing Bret always liked to do

is buy like twenty beers

and sit them on the riser.

And then if people weren't coming up front, he'd be like,

"You come up front, you get a drink."

You make your move up here, I'm gonna give you a beer

but you gotta stay.

I literally had these conversations from the stage.

[rock music continues]

Rikki: So people would come up front to get the drink,

and once you're up there, you're like,

you're not going back, right,

so you just stay up front.

Bret: And then eventually you got people going, this is great.

Now, whether it was the drunkenness

or they actually loved the songs,

I didn't care.

We had a great show and it was happening.

Rikki: So that's when we started to promote our own shows.

You know, people would go to The Rainbow

and go inside and hang out and try to be cool.

We were out in the parking lot passing out flyers.

Riki: Everybody was passing out flyers

and everybody was out there hustling,

trying to get people to come see their bands at the clubs.

And there was always like a good rivalry.

Bret: We had to count about 62,000 flyers

of different bands trying to make it.

Most of the flyers were white paper or canary yellow, right?

We had no money.

Rikki: And we're like, hey,

we can get this really cheap.

What is it?

It's like neon green, nobody wants it.

And I'm like, "We do!"

[Rikki laughs]

Rikki: So, that's what we did and that became our colour.

You know, we'd dress up, you know,

try to look cool.

Go hand out flyers,

change into sweatpants and grab our glue

and just go glueing our flyers all over Hollywood.

Already like our minds were going, like, okay,

they're putting their flyers up at one in the morning,

that means we gotta do ours at two in the morning.

People would go, "I'm gonna cover yours up,"

to the point where we're like at 4 o'clock in the morning,

we're flyering stuff and people were just like,

I'm not doing that, you know,

and we're like, we are.

Riki: Poison, those guys were hustlers

and they worked their asses off.

They knew the formula of getting people

to go to their shows.

The rock and roll scene here is great.

I mean, like, like I was saying is, is that there's-there's,

what makes it fun

is there's still that friendly sense of competition

that makes you work hard to become, you know,

if all of a sudden I said, ah, nothing...

nothing matters like the light burning out or anything.

[Bret laughs]

Bobby, Bret and myself were really the core.

We were out all the time promoting the band

and Matt, he wasn't quite as involved.

It was hard to get him to wanna engage.

Bret: We're having a minimal amount of success.

We're playing places, but there's no money here.

There's no-there's no paycheque yet,

this is just pipe dreams, right?

I knew there was a sadness in Matt.

I knew that there was something really conflicting him

and he just wouldn't talk about it.

His girlfriend was pregnant, right,

and she was living back in Pennsylvania.

And I think he really had a tough time

because he wanted so bad to make it.

Rikki: We're living in a warehouse in downtown LA,

cockroaches coming in

and people breaking our windows to steal [bleep].

It was the first time I had a knife pulled on me

it was right outside the front door, you know.

Bret: He looked around and he knew there was no way

you were bringing a child up where we lived, no way.

He played the Troubadour with us, right,

we finished the show, we couldn't find him.

And he literally got in a cab

and drove to LAX and flew home.

He left a letter.

He said, "Guys, I'm so sorry.

"This was my dream."

But he was a good dad.

He went back and he did the right thing.

For us, it's a crossroad in your life

and you could give up and pack up and go home.

There was no give up in any of us.

[light music]

[light piano music]

Bret: It was a really tough moment

and Matt knew that he's not coming back.

We started looking for another guitar player

probably a couple weeks later...

[rock music]

Rikki: We had fifty-two guitar players come in.

There was a guy that played with Joe Perry

for a little bit

and Slash and C.C.

Bret: I liked Slash.

I wanted Slash in the band.

Slash is just, he's got this vibe and this low slung guitar

and this slinky, sleazy awesome guitar playing.

He was Slash.

And then C.C. came in.

I'm here for the music, ladies and gentlemen,

not for the money.

I'm here. I'm a musical genius.

I'm very, ah, very loyal to my music.

But if someone's gonna make money,

might as well be me.

[C.C. laughs]

I love having a great time.

[rock music]

Rikki: He was from Brooklyn, New York

and I knew he was the missing piece right away.

This guy came in loud, crazy, mostly loud,

didn't learn a single one of our songs.

Rikki: This guy's got so much character

that it's gonna come through

and it's gonna complete this circle.

Bret: I think Slash is amazing, but I never looked back.

Once I said yes to C.C.,

I was a thousand percent devoted.

If you think of some of the greatest rock and roll bands

in the world,

there's characters in those bands

and each person plays a character.

You've got Mick and Keith,

you've got Steven and Joe,

you've got Slash, Axl,

and Poison had a C.C. and Bret up there.

C.C. worked in that band.

And then we decided we need a look.

[upbeat music]

Bret: We wanted something that stuck out.

We had a lot of talks

about how we wanted to be over the top.

We used to cut things out of magazines

and like put them in this scrapbook.

You know, I like that guy's hair but I like this guitar,

and I like that makeup.

They were looking at what the New York Dolls were doing,

maybe what Bowie was doing,

maybe what, you know, T. Rex,

with the makeup and with the-the glam thing,

which was really cool in my opinion.

Bret: We'd go to thrift stores and find whatever we could afford.

This cool street gypsy glam look you didn't forget.

Yeah, I'm like, it looks badass.

Riki: That was their uniform to go onstage,

that was their battle gear.

They wore makeup and they put on a show.

Everybody right now, we're gonna do that shot.

So get your [bleep] hands up, all right?

Rock and roll, Los Angeles!

I saw Poison in Los Angeles

before they were signed

and what really set them apart were the songs.

♪ I went to bed too late and got up too soon

♪ My poor head's still spinning from too much booze ♪

And I was just blown away by Bret Michaels' energy.

And of course the amount of girls screaming

and going nuts for him.

Bret: We having a good time tonight?

[cheering]

Women like men who dress like women.

I don't know if it makes them less threatening?

Man: Thanks a lot, man.

Ooh, God.

It's rough life but somebody's gotta lead it

and it might as well be me.

They were just a lot more youthful, less decadent seeming

than some of the bands.

♪ Ain't seen home in three days

♪ Oh my God, look what the cat dragged in

♪ Living my life sin after sin ♪

They were the best at that upbeat,

hey, let's party atmosphere,

as opposed to, you know,

don't mess with Poison. You know?

Nobody ever said that.

[rock music]

Bret: The best thing we did after our first shows at The Troubadour,

The Roxy, The Whisky,

we threw a big party,

stayed up the whole night after the show.

♪ Living my life sin after sin ♪

Rikki: We'd say when we're done with our set,

we're gonna get cleaned up and go to this hotel.

Everybody would leave

and the headlining band would be playing to like ten people.

We did that over and over again until like the club's just like,

"No, no, no, you guys should be headlining."

♪ In, out, in

♪ Look what the cat dragged in ♪

Rikki: And then people wanted us to have a party every night,

so we did [laughs].

[energetic rock music]

Riki: The first time I ever saw them,

my roommate was like,

"Do you wanna go see Poison?"

And I go, I don't know.

He goes, "Dude, there's so many girls at their show."

So we go see Poison.

[rock music continues]

Rikki: We were doing really well, actually,

I mean, in terms of local success,

you know what I mean?

[rock music continues]

Bret: Forty fans turned into eighty fans, turns into, you know,

it just goes from there.

[fans chattering] [rock music continues]

Rikki: We still didn't have a record deal.

We were having too much fun to realize

that we were just like at poverty level.

Bret: I'm not gonna lie to you,

there was some really bleak times.

Here I am a diabetic,

you hadn't eaten in a day or two,

struggling to get insulin.

Sometimes you would have to go in and prove

that you were a diabetic

at some Hollywood upstairs medical and urgent care place.

They weren't gonna give you a syringe, right,

and they would give you just enough insulin

to get by that day.

Michele: I remember my mom and dad would send some money.

I would send him what I could

just so he could get insulin,

you know,

and food.

I mean, you know,

you can't be diabetic and not eat.

Rikki: Girls we'd befriend we'd say, look, you know,

if you don't hook up tonight, stay at our place,

just bring some groceries.

And they'd bring groceries.

A lot of guys in those early glam bands

did live off of women.

I love Poison, they're my cyanide trip.

Katherine: Sometimes they were just ordinary women

who were legal secretaries, had regular jobs

and fed the guys, others were, you know,

mud wrestling was a thing at the time in LA,

maybe they were mud wrestlers,

maybe they were dancers at, you know, the Body Shop.

Female Fan: They're good. I think they're great, yeah.

Sexy guys and good music.

Rikki: They kind of saved us, you know what I mean,

back then.

But we were dead serious about what we were doing.

Bret: Emotionally and mentally, I just said,

I'm gonna stay here

and find a way to survive if I wanna continue to try,

try to live this dream.

Poison! Whoo!

Bret: Listen, everybody!

This [bleep] place

is the biggest turnout they've ever had

in the Los Angeles street scene!

[upbeat rock music]

Bret: So here we are, Poison, as an independent band

and we're out there kicking ass,

we're selling out all these venues, right.

Not one single record label wanted to sign us.

Wesley: At that point,

they were almost certainly, um,

the biggest unsigned band in Los Angeles.

Poison, yeah!

They're the greatest!

[cheering]

Rikki: We had grown enough

that we could play, um, The Country Club,

which was a big venue.

Poison are number one!

[cheering]

Poison!

Bruce: It was the place where all us Valley kids got to go

to see great rock bands.

You just felt like there was a buzz around the band.

If you were in the club,

you were onboard to this journey.

[upbeat rock music]

Wesley: Everywhere I looked I started to see Poison

on telephone poles,

but even more important than that,

our staff would come and say, you know,

"I saw this band last night.

"They're called Poison. You should go see them.

"You should go see them."

♪ Oh my God, look what the cat dragged in

♪ Living my life sin after sin ♪

Bruce: It was just like,

we're never gonna see this band in this small place again.

You could just tell the rocket ship was lit.

♪ Look what the cat dragged in ♪

Wesley: They worked the room,

they had the control of the audience

and I think there were probably lots of girls went home saying,

"Bret was looking at me."

Interviewer: What do you like most about Bret?

He's sexy. He's everything.

He's really hot, especially when he takes down his pants.

Wesley: He has a talent for converting concert goers into fans

and fans into superfans.

♪ Oh my God, look what the cat dragged in

♪ Living my life

Bret: I give full credit to Enigma Records

for seeing the light in us at The Country Club.

They were like, "I've never seen it,

"this is three nights sold out at The Country Club?

"National acts aren't doing this."

["Look What The Cat Dragged In" by Poison]

I think Poison are [bleep] great!

Wesley: What they wanted to be is they wanted

to be on a major label.

We were an independent label,

so we were not gonna be their first choice.

We would have loved to have signed a big record deal.

It just wasn't in the cards,

so we didn't give up.

It was probably almost a year

between when we first met them

and when we ended up signing the contract.

I think the advance was somewhere around 30 or $40,000,

and about $25,000 had been earmarked for the album.

It was a lot of money for us and not a lot of money

for, ah, probably what the producers were looking for.

I think it was only a couple of weeks of recording.

Bret: I was so excited to be in that studio that I slept there

for probably the first,

probably the first four or five nights.

Like I didn't wanna go home.

I'm like, I'm just gonna stay here and they let us.

Get Poison's album. May 16th!

This is it.

Poison is the next major band out of LA.

Bret: There was no big release party.

We were sitting in El Segundo, California in a warehouse

on the floor boxing our albums.

And I believe there was a few bologna sandwiches,

if I'm not mistaken,

you know, 'cause we were living high on the hog.

We're on the scene at The Country Club-

Heavy metal 1986!

And just your average girl on the street loves Poison,

so will you!

Go out and buy it now!

Hell yeah!

We loaded that stuff up

and the first place we drove to was KNAC.

["Cry Tough" by Poison]

Lyndsey: The very first song,

"Cry Tough",

is all about making your dreams come true.

["Cry Tough" continues]

Lyndsey: Poison really did believe in themselves.

They really did cry tough.

They really believed that it was going to work.

♪ Remember the nights we sat

♪ And talked about all our dreams ♪

So KNAC's the first one to play "Cry Tough".

And we were listening on the Chevette.

That was the world to me.

I was like,

if it ends right now, which I hope it didn't,

but if it ends right now,

I just got to hear "Cry Tough"

on real radio airwaves.

Can we see this cover here?

Can we get a close up of ah...

the first thing that people ask,

you know, when they see you guys because-

Are they girls? -Yeah, that's right.

Are they girls on that cover?

Riki: When I first saw the "Look What the Cat Dragged In"

album cover, I was like, wow, who are these girls?

We were trying to decide

which one we thought was the prettiest.

Um, Bret was the prettiest.

Rikki: We wore makeup,

but not to that degree that you see on that cover.

C.C. had this massive breakout that day.

They put this really heavy stuff on C.C.

to try to cover up he had this massive outbreak, right.

We're like, oh, it'll be fine, you'll cover it up.

Well, when we got the pictures back,

it was like, ah, that didn't work too well.

I think that record may have set, ah,

broken a record, at least at Enigma,

for airbrushing.

So they airbrush one guy,

they gotta airbrush everybody or it doesn't match, right.

So before you know it,

it's like this perfect looking Maybelline ad almost.

Wesley: The number one thing is to be noticed

and that album cover was noticed,

it was talked about.

It's never been changed.

I want everybody to go out and buy it

because I wanna be responsible for making Poison number one

in the United States.

I want, I want people to say

that we did it here on the Lloyd Thaxton Show.

And thank you, Poison!

[upbeat rock music]

Wesley: "Cry Tough" did okay.

It was definitely not meeting their expectations,

wasn't meeting our expectations.

Bret: It only moved so far.

I'm not gonna lie to you, it was a bittersweet moment.

Wesley: We really thought we had given it our best shot

with "Cry Tough"

and so then the question was what do we do?

Bret: We never knew anything was a sure hit.

We didn't have that capability

because we're an independent label.

You know, you didn't have a bunch of people saying

this is the right song, not this.

From what I heard from people,

"Talk Dirty to Me" got played on KROC and all of a sudden,

KROC got great reaction to "Talk Dirty to Me".

["Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison]

♪ You know I never

♪ I've never seen you look so good ♪

And that was the absolute best second single to me.

So I go, okay, let's scrape together some money.

What do we do to make this video look like the party

that we are?

We thought it was a gamble.

I think the budget was thirty or forty thousand dollars.

Not a lot for videos for a lot of people,

a ton for us.

We said if we could just get people to see this band,

they would get it.

Video Vixen: Oh, Bret, I just can't wait to get my hands all over you.

Hit it, C.C.

["Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison]

Bret: For Poison, without a doubt,

"Talk Dirty to Me" is a defining moment in our life.

"Talk Dirty to Me" captured the insane wildness

of what Poison was.

♪ You know I never

♪ I've never seen you look so good ♪

Rikki: We didn't have much of a budget,

so we're like let's throw continuity out the window.

Like, let the camera guys in, let's make it one big party.

♪ And I know you like it too ♪

Bret: Couple bottles of Jack,

ah, a lot of beer,

cheap warm beer

and a party of biblical proportions.

♪ I never, I never ever stay out late ♪

Everything, over the top, over the top.

♪ Just to see you

Bret: Rikki at one point was hammered,

falls off the back of his drum riser for real.

And I try to hold on.

And I remember all the camera guy,

every director,

everybody came running up and goes, "Are you okay?

"Can we use that?"

And I said, "You better [bleep] use that!"

♪ Lock the cellar door

♪ And baby, talk dirty to me ♪

By some video standards, it was simple.

You know, there was no narrative.

There was no acting. There was no storyline.

They were showcasing what they do best,

which is playing live.

♪ And whisper so softly

No other band had a song

that sounded like "Talk Dirty to Me"

in any way, shape or form.

It was the song of the summer.

♪ At the drive-in

♪ In the old man's Ford

Bret: All of a sudden, this song is breaking into the Top 20,

then Top 10,

Number One at MTV.

Host: We're talking with Poison obviously getting quite a bit

of press most recently

through, ah, music video stations as ourselves.

"Talk Dirty to Me".

Here's Poison on Much Music.

"Talk Dirty to Me" on Power Hour.

And we shall leave with...

[in unison] "Talk Dirty to Me".

[Poison laughs]

["Talk Dirty to Me" continues]

We were in Texas doing a record signing.

All of a sudden there was 2,000 people in line

and I was like, what's happening?

♪ Behind the bushes

"Cat Dragged In Tour"

they were, ah, the opening act for Ratt.

Rikki: When we first started that tour,

there'd be like 1,000 people in there.

And then as that song got bigger

and people knew we were on the bill,

now there was 5,000, 6,000 in the seats.

♪ At the drive-in

♪ In the old man's Ford

And people were singing to these songs

and "Talk Dirty To Me" and wearing stuff

that we wore in the videos,

and that's how we were gauging our success.

And then of course the record sales were going up as well.

♪ Talk dirty to me

Los Angeles and their debut album,

"Look What the Cat Dragged In",

has just racked up its first million sales.

Yes.

[Poison laughs]

["Talk Dirty to Me" continues]

♪ And baby, talk dirty to me ♪

Bret: It is the absolute collision of your dreams coming true.

It's an incredible, unbelievable, surreal feeling.

♪ That's the way I like it, baby ♪

The happy excitement of any brand new rock and roll band

as they're just beginning to make it,

it really is contagious, to me anyway.

The sudden success of Poison, for example.

Twenty-year-old kids with a kind of a rebellious streak,

bored with small town life back east,

but believing their music would impress

the record company big shots in Hollywood.

And you know what?

It actually happened.

Bret: At this point now we're working with Capitol Records, right?

Independent band, but still, now we're working with Capitol.

I think walking into Capitol Records

when you knew The Beatles were on Capitol,

you know, all that kind of stuff.

I brought my record home and I took it out

and it didn't say The Beatles on it,

it said Poison on it.

I think it's a philosophy. It's sorta,

our philosophy is if you can't do it right, do it anyway,

you know what I mean? So...

[upbeat music]

Rikki: We were definitely living the rock and roll lifestyle

without a doubt.

We were definitely rock and roll pigs

at that point.

We're Poison and we're just four rock and roll dudes

in a loose partying mood.

Awoooo!

We had this director, you know,

that would direct the after-show affairs.

We always wanted it not to be sleazy

but more of a fun atmosphere.

We carried pools with us,

like literally like little kid pools

and fill them up and stuff.

And girls would strip down and start jumping in the water.

I mean, literally we had committed

to the rock and roll lifestyle.

Bret: The girls,

the crazy moments,

everything,

it just took it to a whole other level.

What a rollercoaster ride.

Rikki: Bret wanted to party like everybody else,

but, you know, he can't.

I mean, it's just it's not okay.

He passed out having sex with a girl one night

in the bedroom,

so I had to like pop him off of her.

Yeah, he passed out and I had to check his blood sugar.

Bret: I never wanted to feel ever held back by anything.

The diabetes, as much as it is a burden,

I dive in,

I live life and then you hit that wall.

[cars honking] [sirens blaring]

Bret: When you grow up on the East coast,

when you get to Madison Square Garden,

you have succeeded.

Even if it's for a night,

you go this is an incredible place to be.

[light music]

Bret: My family was there,

everybody, you name it, was there to see the show.

Adam: This is huge,

this is that Madison Square Garden story

about being a kid

and playing in our basement

and then on Madison Square.

So, it was such a big day for him.

Just talking to him on the phone it was [talks rapidly].

You know, going and going and going and then I said, um,

all right, so we'll catch you after show

and that never happened.

And he end up in the hospital again.

New York City!

[crowd cheering]

Bret: I'll never forget walking out on that stage

and I already knew I didn't feel great

but I was giving a thousand percent.

Woo! New York City!

Everything was great, we're all on cloud nine.

And we got to about maybe the fourth song, the fifth song,

everything went blank.

[soft music]

Rikki: I could see in his face,

he kept turning around like looking at me weird.

And I'm like,

am I going too fast? Like what-what's up?

You know, what are you-what are you...

What's going on?

Bret: My mouth went numb.

I didn't know where I was at.

Everything's spinning for real.

He's just trying to tell everybody

and like and he didn't know like he was starting to

like not hallucinate exactly I guess, but, um,

starting to just not make sense in his head.

Michele: I could tell by the way he was acting on stage

there was something wrong.

And of course I knew what it was.

Um, so I got backstage

as quickly as I could

and when he came in to change clothes,

he was barely able to communicate, like I-I...

he was forgetting words and kinda stumbling.

And then he-he goes running out to grab the mic

and he just straight down.

And then I collapsed on the stage

and woke up in the emergency room.

That's all I remember.

Adam: It's the scariest [bleep] thing I've ever seen

'cause you can't get there.

You know, it's one thing to see,

be right next to somebody that's falling and you can say, hey,

you all right, what's up, what's up?

But in this case, you couldn't get to him.

A million people were on him, you know,

the lights went up for a second,

then they went down.

I mean, it was just it was a crazy moment.

Adam: So we didn't know if he was okay,

nobody was telling anybody anything.

His blood sugar was like 36, which should've killed him.

Probably a week later when everything started coming out,

they went into the heavy duty,

was Bret Michaels a heroin addict?

Is, how much drugs are involved?

Is this where his life's going?

[light music]

Nicole: I remember a lot of negative press around it

and oh, wait, he was drunk or he was having a drug overdose

and just how angry I was about that

because I knew the truth.

They found syringes a couple times in his trash cans

and they would report him to the police.

Bret: Here he is at a pivotal moment in his career

and he collapses on the stage from drugs

and that's when I came forth and told everyone,

look, I'm a Type 1 diabetic,

this is what happened to me.

I just never thought of addressing it

because I didn't want to make that the focal point of Poison.

Rikki: But at one point I'm like,

look, man, you know, we'll just be supportive of whatever,

whatever you wanna do.

I don't think it's anything to be embarrassed about,

maybe you can make a difference.

[light music]

Bret: The blessing that comes out of this

at Madison Square Garden is,

you end up owning it

and it forced my hand to own it

and that's what made me even more connected to the fans.

Now I'm massively connected to people

that go through adversity,

and not just diabetes,

any adversity in your life.

Since I was a kid to right now today,

the advances they have made in the field of medicine

with being diabetic are incredible.

I'm gonna check my sugar as we speak.

I'm driving and checking.

Look at that,

you brought me good luck.

A 112.

That's good sugar right there.

The truth of the matter is it's a tough disease

with no cure yet, but it's manageable.

What I'm fighting for now is the Affordable Insulin Act.

Everybody should be able to afford insulin.

It's going through the House,

the Senate, Congress.

It's quite a battle,

but all the diabetics I talk to,

it's about they need a chance to live.

You're never out of the fight.

You just gotta keep going.

That's the constant in my life.

[audience cheering] [light dramatic music]

Bret: My life is a series of roses and thorns,

a series of great moments

and humbling experiences all collide.

I'm living out my dream.

I'm on the road,

I'm getting to play music.

We ended up in Dallas,

so we played our set

and I went back and called my then girlfriend Tracy

and I hear another voice in the background

and it's not another girl, it's a guy, right.

And I'm asking who it is, they're not saying anything.

[acoustic guitar music]

["Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison]

Rikki: I think that was the first person

that Bret really felt, like, love for,

so it's a harder pill to swallow,

I feel like.

Really cuts.

Bret: So that moment of knowing my first big Los Angeles love

at this point obviously is broken.

So I write this song, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".

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

♪ Although we both lie close together

♪ We feel miles apart inside

Pete: It was written in real time.

He hangs up the phone

and he writes the song that minute,

so it's very, very real.

♪ Though I tried not to hurt you, girl

♪ Though I tried

♪ I guess that's why they cry ♪

Pyro right there. Pyro.

[crowd cheering]

♪ I guess every rose has its thorn

♪ Just like every night

It was this perfectly written pop rock ballad.

♪ Just like every cowboy

It has this country crossover, starts with an acoustic,

that wasn't going on then.

♪ Every rose has its thorn

♪ Yeah, it does

Rikki: And the record company was like,

man, this is too in the saddle,

like this isn't you, this isn't Poison.

They're like, this is gonna be

definitely not your first single.

This'll be your, you know,

maybe third or fourth throwaway single, right.

So we went in, I convinced them,

I think this song is gonna be a hit.

Finally, after pushing and pulling, you know,

they released it as a single.

And all of a sudden this song, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn",

did exactly what you pray.

People related to it.

♪ Let me hear you ride out this ♪

♪ Just like

[guitar music] [audience singing]

Pete: Within days of that song coming out,

every band from every genre in the world

had to have a song

that started with an acoustic guitar in G.

Every band had it.

♪ Every rose has its thorn

Bret: Number one pop song,

number one rock song.

It really took the-the band to another level.

["Nothin' But a Good Time" by Poison]

♪ Wooo!

♪ Mmm, yeah

Things went wonderful for you.

The first album did so well

and you must've had a lot of heat on you

with the second album.

And it's done really well for you,

like 5 million, 6 million copies.

You put out your singles

and hope that people hear them on radio

or see them on the video program, you know.

When you have a song like "Every Rose"

that did as well as it did,

they come out and see

and that's when you get to prove yourself.

♪ Locked out, I cannot pay my rent

♪ I can barely make it through the week ♪

There's no-there's no press,

there's no hype.

It's either people see it and they say that was great

or they say that was horrible

and they never come back and see ya,

so that's why it's so important

to be a great live rock and roll band.

♪ Don't need nothin' but a good time

♪ How can I resist

Bret: We've got the songs,

we've got the things that we wanna do

and that's a great feeling.

♪ And it don't get better than this ♪

Commercial VO: Get yourself a dose

of the best good time rock and roll around.

Poison. Open Up and Say... Ahh!

Rikki: By now, we're like in our mid-20s

watching this success sort of happen.

Our developmental years had been in Poison,

in this cocoon.

I feel like some of our maturity was arrested.

[light music]

Bret: When you're starting to try to succeed,

you've got common foes, so your band's tight together.

As you start to succeed,

your common foes starts to go away

and then you start to take it out on each other.

Rikki: Yeah, I mean, I think we all got better at our craft,

you know, but we also were starting to grow apart

a little bit.

Then you start to get in, let's just say,

alcohol and heavy duty substance, right?

And you mix that in, it's a lethal dose.

You got one guy that likes to smoke up a little,

you got one guy that's doing blow,

you got someone drinking too much.

Even me and Bobby,

we were arguing over what songs to go in a set.

We got in a knock down drag-

he threw his bass,

the sharpest bass ever made, the Warlock,

at my skull in Atlanta.

Luckily, it only hit my knee and I got a few stitches.

And then I took my microphone in full baseball fashion

and whipped it past his head pretty close

and then we fought and they separated us,

in front of the audience.

This [bleep] was real.

We're headstrong and when it goes bad with us,

it goes really bad.

In hindsight, I understand the always tension

between C.C. and I.

[guitar music]

Bret: You gotta remember,

Poison started out with me wanting Slash

and Rikki and Bobby wanting C.C.

We're not a gee willikers,

let's just discuss this around the table.

It's a, "What'd you just say to me?"

It's a chest butt, then a thing,

then a throwdown.

[gentle guitar music]

Lyndsey: It's kind of the tail end of the hair metal era

that Poison were at the forefront of.

But MTV wanted them to play

on their biggest event of the year,

The VMAs.

But it was an opportunity that, like, didn't quite work out.

Bret: We get to the MTV Awards,

we'd been on the road way too long.

You know, and C.C. and me, there's tension there.

C.C. was wasted, for sure.

Now, listen, this is your last chance.

What time is it?

I'm listening!

The last chance for the Viewers Choice Awards.

So if you haven't voted,

you better get to it now or else that's it!

You don't get to vote!

That's it, the number.

Yeah, that's it!

Um, but it wouldn't have been the first time

he performed wasted.

For some reason,

something was a little different that night.

["Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison]

Bret: We're excited,

fans are hyped up.

In his, in our, let's say substance

or whatever else was going on,

the guitar came, chord comes out.

♪ 'Cause, baby, we'll be at the drive-in ♪

I'm like, "Your [bleep] cable's not plugged in!"

Rikki: C.C. wasn't paying attention

as things were happening technically.

My gut in a knot, trying to sing,

keeping the audience engaged

and get him to plug his cable in.

So he grabs it, truly trying,

he's like down on one knee trying to plug his guitar in

and keep playing.

And I'm thinking this is MTV, this is the world.

♪ At the drive-in

♪ In the old man's Ford

Come on!

We weren't connecting the way we needed to.

You know, we finished the song and then,

then we got to the side of the stage.

I said, "C.C., your [bleep] cable."

He was sure I'd said other additional words.

And, um, and then we threw down.

I was literally punching

and like looking up at Cindy Crawford.

I think it was Arsenio, he's stepping to the side.

He's like what the hell's going...

We're boom, boom,

Sorry about that, I knocked his tooth out.

Sorry to get blood on ya.

And boom boom and we went back to it.

And then we separated and that was that.

It was a heartbreaking moment.

Riki: I think the Poison

MTV Video Music Awards

might go down on record

as one of the worst ones ever.

It was a full blown trainwreck.

Rikki: At that time, I think people really wanted to judge us

on that one night.

Like, see?

They really can't play worth a [bleep].

C.C. wasn't taking it seriously

that there was those issues, I think, that night.

I think Bret had just hit the wall with it.

Bret: So we tried to talk with C.C.

Ah, needless to say,

that wasn't gonna work at that moment.

Rikki: The next day Bret was like,

"I don't want him in the band."

"I'm not gonna continue.

"I can't do this. I can't do it."

I said, "I don't know if that's the right thing to do, um,

"but we gotta keep this band together."

And so we started looking for somebody else.

Bret: So we went on,

found a kid from Pennsylvania,

great guitar player named Richie Kotzen.

Went in to do "Native Tongue".

[light music]

Bret: I think that in order for this band to work

and to work great,

is that Richie and Bobby and Rikki and myself

have to, you know, you have to be there mentally

and-and with your heart, you know,

and-and C.C. kind of lost some of that

and, ah, you know,

that's the reason for the departure

and the reason Richie's here now.

It's fate, you know what I mean?

Rikki: The first year was great.

He's an excellent player, um, and he's a good songwriter.

I think we made a really great record.

But it wasn't the ten million,

15 million, you know, one that the "Cat Dragged In"

and stuff was, you know?

Bret: We're in the early part of the 90s,

music is changing.

The world wants to separate us and make this big fight.

They're selling a new genre.

In order to sell a new genre,

you gotta get rid of an old genre.

Rikki: I think Bret was feeling a little bit lost

for a minute there.

And he was partying more and he shouldn't have been,

you know, because of the diabetes.

Bret: I was out partying with everybody.

I had just opened up a restaurant in Beverly Hills

called Sanctuary.

We went from there up to the Rainbow Bar & Grill.

Lo and behold, there was an afterparty.

And in all defence of everyone up there,

they were like, "You know what?

"You've been having a great time,

"you don't need to be driving."

But I just kinda took my keys out of the box thing

and I got in my car

and luckily everyone was smart enough not to drive with me.

I'm taking full responsibility for this.

Rikki: Once your blood sugar goes wacky,

your judgement does too.

He shouldn't have been driving a Ferrari

at a high rate of speed, you know, drunk,

but he didn't care.

Bret: I remember getting in the car

and I'm following a bunch of people

and then it was just a matter of going way too fast

in way too tight of a corner...

and then all of a sudden, boom.

[car crashing]

I hit a telephone pole.

[car crashing]

Bret: Head through the windshield,

now I've broken my thumb,

my ribs, head's split wide open,

nose is over here,

no teeth, not a pretty sight.

Michele: The car was totalled, I don't know how he survived.

The insurance agent that did it said,

"When's the funeral?"

Bret: Grace of God,

I didn't hurt anyone but myself.

I do think it was a wake up call for him.

I think he did take it seriously, too.

Next thing I know,

I gotta go out to his house and look at him with,

you know, you know, missing teeth, you know?

I'm like, wow, you're a hockey player now, you know?

[Rikki laughs]

Rikki: I think he was happy to be alive,

you know what I mean?

So he was like,

"Wow, I got through that one."

Bret: I've looked death in the face a lot of times.

Sometimes you have to go to the edge

and there you stand and look down

and you go, you know what?

I need to,

I need to step back from that edge.

And then you say those words, I'm just gonna cut it off.

Rikki: But he wasn't ready for a while.

But at that point in time we weren't really doing much.

[guitar music]

The band continued on, ah, with Richie Kotzen

and then Blues Saraceno.

♪ We all carry the cross

♪ And speak what we're taught

♪ Lies and money become the white man's god ♪

Lyndsey: I was like, "This isn't Poison."

They became more pedestrian, I guess.

They became a little less colourful?

♪ You know you got to stand, stand

♪ A stand for what you believe ♪

Bret: You're supposed to have highs and lows in your career.

[stammers] No career goes like this and straight up.

♪ Stand for what you believe ♪

[soft guitar music]

Bret: We're doing an album called "Crack A Smile".

Halfway through recording it,

a gentleman named Gary Gersh

takes over at Capitol.

Rikki: It's a whole new regime,

different president,

and I don't think he was a huge fan of us to begin with.

[light music]

Bret: And we go in to play the record for him, he's like,

"It's good songs, great music."

Didn't know if there was an outlet for it.

Rikki: They were just shelving us.

We're not putting no money into the future of this

because we don't see it.

Bret: The chemistry,

something in the chemistry

was just slightly off.

It taught me C.C. makes up what is Bobby and Rikki

and myself, that is Poison.

You know, that is the original Poison

and is the way it should be.

Rikki: And it just put us in a predicament that it was like,

you know, what are we gonna do?

We had had too much success to just throw it away.

Riki: And I knew C.C. had a bad reputation.

C.C. was wasted on drugs.

Rikki: I think we were all waiting for the call

that C.C. was found dead.

From what I heard from people,

he was up at his house

right above Sunset Strip and he needed a friend.

I knew he was going through a tough moment in his life

and I wanted to make sure that he was safe and okay.

And we busted that front door down

and it was, ah, it was quite a,

quite a scene in there.

Everything was busted, glasses.

I'm like, the pool table, this, this was flipped over

and it's this beautiful house.

We finally went to the, where the bedroom was

and he was just passed out in there.

And we had a great conversation

and when it was done,

it sparked finding that rebirth

of getting back together, not just as friends,

but putting the band back together.

We just got him help and that brought us all back together.

[light music]

Eric: I've heard you guys are getting the band back together

and are you gonna do an album?

I don't know about an album,

but I think a Memorial Day tour.

We wanna just tour big.

[dramatic music]

Bret: So we're doing this reunion,

we're kicking off in Detroit,

which I love,

and we're going to Pittsburgh and Cleveland

and all places I love.

They put tickets on sale

for the first Poison comeback show, right.

Bret and I,

we're on the phone for a couple hours the night before, going,

"Do you realize that tomorrow at this time,

"we're gonna know if we have any value at all."

And it was really scary.

And the next day at that time,

we had sold out our first show and it's like,

people really do want us back as a band,

they really do.

[upbeat rock music] [crowd cheering]

It was completely sold out and it was insane.

♪ Don't need nothin' but a good time

♪ How can I resist

Bret: We got back on that stage and nothing stopped us.

It felt like we had never missed a beat.

C.C. was extremely excited to be back on that stage

and he played un-[bleep]-believably great.

[guitar music]

Bret: He was on fire.

From that almost tragedy,

something truly great came from it.

♪ And it don't get better than this ♪

Bret: When you're within the band, you just keep on going.

There's never a moment of losing the fight.

We'll see you soon!

Get it up! Get it up!

[audience cheering]

Excuse me.

I'm not a groupie or anything,

and I've never asked for this before

[whispers] but I'll do anything for a backstage pass.

So what do you want?

Ooh, let me tell you what I want.

[light rock music]

Lyndsey: In the 90s,

Bret Michaels is a hot property,

an eligible bachelor.

Good looking, charismatic, nice guy.

There were so many women

that really wanted to date this golden god.

Look who we have this week, Bret Michaels, you know,

super sexy guy.

So, now why haven't you ever gotten married?

Um, I've been engaged several times

and I just, I don't know what it is.

I got cold feet at the end.

Doesn't mean I can't be a good commitment,

it just means I get-

yeah, I get a little,

I get a little paranoid right at the very end.

[light music]

Bret: I'm in a nightclub in downtown Los Angeles in Hollywood, right?

Just off the Sunset Strip.

Great night.

Everyone's out partying, having fun.

So I'm looking across the room and she was standing there

and she had her back to me at first.

And then she turned around

and it was like one of those crazy movie moments, right?

Where I just went, wow, she is beautiful.

I went up and said, "Hey, you wanna come over for a drink?"

Came over, started drinking.

We hit it off

and then eventually it ends up being

a unbelievable relationship.

And then we had Raine and that was incredible.

Then we had Jorja, that was incredible.

Kristi is an incredible, incredible woman,

incredible human being, incredible mom.

This is one of my favourite roads to drive on.

And my daughters,

they got their driver's licence on the first try.

This is where I'd bring them on these curvy, twisty roads.

I try to tell them over and over,

"Look, life is gonna come at you both great and not so great,

"but enjoy the journey. And-

[phone rings]

Hold on. Let me do this.

Give me one minute. - Yeah.

Raine, how are you doing, kid?

We are driving along and filming.

Raine [on phone]: Okay, um-

Don't say anything [bleep] about anybody,

they're all in the car.

Raine [on phone]: Okay, well, in that case...

Okay. [laughs]

When I had my daughters I knew one thing,

I wanted to be a great dad.

Being able to take them on adventures

and bond on every level.

I took them on the road. They sang on stage with me.

Jorja: I remember when I was little

I'd wear headphones

because the music was so loud

and they were, like, way bigger

than my head.

But I remember going out and singing

"Nothin' But a Good Time" with him.

I think the first time I went out on stage with him,

I, like, loved it.

And then as I've gotten older,

it's like, wow, there's, like-

Too many people! -A lot of people out there.

Yeah.

I would never be able to just go out there

and sing or talk in front of this many people.

Bret: Those moments you can't,

you-you can't replace those.

They're incredible.

[light music]

C.C. and Rikki, Bobby and myself,

all of us have kids.

All of us are going in different directions sometimes.

My creativity doesn't stop.

You just go out there and start working in different areas

and apply that creativity into everything that you wanna do.

[light music]

Bret: So where we're driving now out here,

I have a ranch in Malibu.

So Charlie Sheen and I,

we both live near each other.

And Charlie was using the song "Something to Believe In"

in a feature he was doing.

And we went up to the house,

we met, we hung out.

And you know in life you have people that you just click with,

you click right off the bat and Charlie and I just clicked.

[light music]

Bret: Both of us are sports fanatics.

So we flew down to the Super Bowl,

we did a bunch of stuff,

go see concerts, hang out.

And he was talking about doing a film

and we formed a company together

ah, just simply called Sheen Michaels Entertainment.

And I went down to Tennessee to film

"A Letter From Death Row".

My name is Michael Raine.

I'm a struggling songwriter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I thought moving to Nashville would give me a chance

to start over.

I was wrong.

I said, look, I've directed a lot of our videos,

but when you jump to the world

of actually trying to make a film

that's gonna be an hour and a half or two hours long,

it needs to connect,

it needs to relate to people.

It was a darker movie.

It went in the vein of those movies like "Usual Suspects",

"Dead Man Walking".

He's gone!

This state's gonna get an execution

if I gotta fry you myself!

You hear me? You hear me?

Bret: If anyone thinks making a film was easy,

they're crazy.

Charlie was great, he did a cameo.

Martin Sheen did a cameo.

And some loved the movie and some were like,

I don't get it.

But it ended up being a successful first film.

And in doing that, I wrote a soundtrack to go around it,

so the music could be part of the movie.

It was a good time in my life

to really go out there creatively

and just start to write music and go play

and take all the great stuff I've done with Poison

and just take it into my own level.

[rock music]

♪ When I hold you in my arms

♪ I can feel you breathe

Bret: I live to be in the studio.

I love to be creative.

I love to write stuff.

If you're a songwriter

and you go in there and you're producing yourself,

you just get to add and try a few more things.

I wanna try this piano.

I wanna put a Hammond B3 on there,

which if we were in Poison,

we wouldn't be using it.

And rightfully so.

♪ Give me strength

♪ Get you through your darkest days ♪

As a solo artist, the last decision is yours.

But as much as you can have success in a band like Poison,

there wasn't one part of me

that knew I wasn't starting over.

I was going back into clubs,

back into small theatres,

back into small venues.

I had to go back out there and prove myself.

Prior to playing with Bret,

I'd been the lead singer

and frontman of my own band

for many years,

and I thought I was a powerhouse.

I thought I was a machine.

And then the first night I ever stepped onstage with Bret,

we had a shorter set, a 50-minute set,

and I walked off of that stage exhausted

just from his energy alone.

Bret: Now getting to play amphitheatres, arena,

the Stagecoach in front of 80,000 people,

huge festival,

and I'm headlining that as Bret Michaels.

But I get to walk on that stage and am grateful

that I can go out there and have the time of my life,

whether solo with The Bret Michaels Band

or Poison,

I give a thousand percent.

♪ I'll be your sun you be my Raine ♪

["Raine" by Bret Michaels]

[upbeat rock music]

Riki: Bret Michaels,

he's a brand and he's always that brand.

He's like apple pie raunch.

You know, it's like,

it's accessible decadence.

But Bret Michaels became a household name

and a major celebrity because of "Rock of Love".

♪ Please, let me be your flesh and blood

♪ Your dirty little secret

♪ Your rock of love

["Rock of Love" plays]

[upbeat rock music]

Bret: "Rock of Love" was meant to be a fun, awesome,

crazy dating show and that's what it was.

Lyndsey: The kind of elevator pitch for it

was it was the rock and roll bachelor

with groupies or fans,

whatever you wanna call them,

as the bachelorettes.

I do believe the woman who is the mother of his two children,

his daughters,

was in his life at that time.

Bret: Kristi understands my free spirit,

but never broke our bond and especially our bond as parents.

I know, shocker, reality TV isn't real,

but let's suspend our disbelief for a minute.

Let's ride.

[engines revving] [upbeat rock music]

Bret VO: I'm gonna give these girls challenges

to see which one fits my lifestyle the best.

I wanna [bleep] on you!

It was the best hot mess ever.

Absolutely love motocross.

Go! Come on!

The girls were the true rock stars of that show.

The craziness, the insanity.

I didn't wanna like "Rock of Love"

when it came out but my God,

it was a great trainwreck!

Lyndsey: You had lots of interesting girls

who were very willing to really go there.

Contestant: I want to [bleep] Bret Michaels and I'm not afraid of it.

I'm gonna get me some rocker ass.

Riki: Bret was just Bret,

like he just sits there and lets it all happen

and let them take care of the fireworks.

[upbeat rock music]

Lyndsey: It was believable that they would do that for this guy

who not only was a rock star with all of the boxes checked

for what a rock star is,

handsome, rich, successful,

but actually seemed like a nice, fun, personable guy.

He's kind of America's sweetheart in that way.

I'm a pretty lucky guy and I know most guys would kill

to be here right now.

And I said please don't set me by a jacuzzi

and make me have fake arguments.

I said, just let me be me.

["Rock of Love" music plays]

Even though he's making out with all of them,

he didn't necessarily come off as a scumbag.

There's something about Bret

that despite all of his rock and roll antics,

unlike someone like a Tommy Lee

or a Nikki Sixx or Axl Rose,

has kind of a softness to him.

There's a lot of people that have nostalgia for this era,

this Sunset Strip era

that seems more carefree,

more un-PC.

When "Rock of Love" came on,

you stopped what you're doing,

you got the popcorn out

and you went to look at what the cat dragged in

on "Rock of Love".

♪ Please let me be your rock of love ♪

Riki: And that show made Bret Michaels

way bigger than Poison even.

[upbeat music]

Bret: So, you've established yourself in the music world

and then all of a sudden,

you establish yourself in a reality TV world,

which opens up a whole other bunch of doors.

So while I'm doing "Rock of Love",

I asked to go on "Celebrity Apprentice".

And everyone's like, "Why would you do that?

"You're the number one show.

"Why do you wanna go on a show

"that may cut your throat the first day you're on the show?"

And I said, "Because that's what I love, the challenge."

When I went in to-to do "Rock of Love",

I had no clue what I was doing

and, ah, I just had fun doing it and was myself.

This is gonna be a real challenge for me,

and I'm with some real competitors,

so this will be a lot of fun to show another side.

Lyndsey: He did it in a way that never seemed like pathetic,

like, oh, poor Bret,

like having to resort to reality TV

to zoom or reboot or maintain his career.

He was everywhere.

He became this icon in a way

that a lot of his peers did not.

[light music]

I've had so many different crossroads in my life

and how you handle them

has helped to develop what I've done in my life.

Here we are coming off "Apprentice".

It's airing.

As it's happening, I then have emergency appendectomy

and then I flew back home.

I'll never forget that night sitting in my house,

the couch,

and I'm watching TV.

My kids were asleep.

And I'll never forget that sound.

It was a...

[loud clap]

Bret: It was technically called a thunderclap.

It sounded like my brain exploded.

The pain is undescribable.

I mean, I thought someone had broke into my house

and had shot me in the back of the head.

The pain felt like an elephant standing on my head.

My mouth was drooping.

I thought about my kids, my wife, my family.

I'm like, I need to live.

This is the first thing I thought.

And then the pain became so insanely overwhelming.

I knew that I was in trouble,

like really in trouble.

Raine: When it happened, my mom came in the bedroom and said,

"Your dad has a headache.

"We're going to the hospital."

And I was like, that's so weird.

I think I was nine at the time so like I understood,

but not like the severity of it.

Bret: Kristi immediately took me down to the medical staff.

So I'm begging them.

I was like, give me anything.

Give me anything for the pain.

I don't care what you shoot me up with,

you've gotta do something.

[siren wails]

Bret: And then they took me in for a CAT scan.

When you look up at everyone's faces

and you see how serious they are,

you know you're in trouble.

The doctor looked at me and said,

"You have a serious brain bleed."

And he said,

"Do you have children?" to Kristi and I

and we're like, yes.

He goes, "I would bring them down right now."

And that,

that moment was a,

that was a freaky moment.

[dramatic music]

Lyndsey: I remember when I heard about the brain hemorrhage.

I worked for Yahoo.

I remember the meeting where it was like,

we should probably write an obituary

and have it ready for Bret Michaels

'cause it's like not looking very good.

He's like, you know, basically in a coma at the moment.

That's some heavy stuff.

Raine: We went and saw him and he was hooked up to everything.

It was like, it was scary.

I look back and I'm like, oh God.

Yeah, very scary.

[dramatic music]

Bret: I don't remember anything for about three days.

And then about the third day I came to.

I, honest to God, I thought...

I asked, I said, "Am I dead?

"Is this heaven? Is this hell?

"Doesn't seem like hell, it seems like heaven."

[stirring music]

Bret: Seeing my kids and Kristi and all my friends,

my drummer Rikki Rockett from Poison was there.

He was the first one down there.

Rikki: That's a tough one, man.

When somebody's going through that, it's like,

some people know how to help you and some people don't.

And then me getting kicked out of the hospital

because I brought him a pizza.

[Rikki laughs]

That's a true story.

Bret: I've been through this trail a thousand times.

This is where I found myself going through all this stuff,

the brain hemorrhage,

makes this incredibly special for me.

Throughout my life it's what I love to do.

You just stepped in horse[bleep].

That's the best day ever.

[Bret laughs] That was, I don't...

I want to save ya.

I go, "That's my horse's [bleep]."

[light music]

Bret: When I woke up

out of sort of this semi-coma I was in, right?

In between MRIs and CAT scans,

I was walking along the hall learning to walk again.

And because of the TIA and the stroke,

obviously the mouth, everything,

I was learning to talk again.

You know, retraining your brain.

I was walking along the hallway, pulling along the IV bags

and even if it was a step at a time,

I gave a thousand percent.

The thought of staying there in that bed and not moving,

it was driving me crazy.

But then, I don't even know how many weeks later it was,

when he was on "Celebrity Apprentice".

The finale that he had made it to was live

and he showed up for it.

Bret: After three weeks in ICU,

I do exactly what I'm not supposed to do,

which is have physical activity.

The doctor said, "I'm gonna have to go with you

"because going on your plane and flying back there

"in that altitude could cause another bleed,

"a stroke of some kind."

The discussions with my family were the same as always.

They-they asked me not to do it.

They didn't think it was a great idea.

I didn't understand the severity of it then.

But now looking back I'm like,

he probably should've taken like at least a year or two off.

And he was like, "Nope, can't."

Bret: And I didn't feel great.

I felt awful.

You know, my head was throbbing.

It was horrific.

It's been a little bit of a rough last month

and a half for me.

Even though I know I'm a little beat up inside,

I was gonna do anything I could to get here.

He was still limping because of the brain injury he had,

he had not fully recovered from it.

That's the thing, he keeps showing up.

And he won.

[light music]

Bret: You can see in my face when I got called out,

I was like, yes!

It was just a great feeling showing people

that I didn't get here by being lucky.

Holly Robinson-Peete: You can't compete with that.

This is a man who was on the brink and came back.

Even my son got up this morning,

put on a bandana and said,

"I love you but I'm feeling Bret to win tonight."

Fan: Bret! Bret! Bret! Come here!

Can you sign?

I'm slowly making my way over there.

Raine: He definitely has a lot of health scares

but he bounces back from them pretty fast.

We call him a cat 'cause he has, like, nine lives

and he's only used, what, like five or so?

So he's got a few more left.

Let me get this 'cause I gotta go take some pain meds

'cause I'm hurt.

Fan: Yeah, for sure.

Bret: I've probably spent a ridiculous amount of time

really soul searching how incredibly grateful I was

to be alive.

And music helped to address what was happening

when I couldn't address it or talk to someone about it.

[light music]

Bret: One of the most special moments in my life

was writing "Unbroken" with my youngest daughter,

Jorja Bleu.

She was going through a really tough time in her life.

Social media and the brutality that happens is crazy.

Any parent out there knows when you watch your children

go through pain of any kind,

that's tough.

I would tell him when I was feeling sad or like,

certain things and he'd be like,

"Well, let's write a song, kid."

I was like, okay.

["Unbroken" by Bret Michaels]

Bret: So, we sit down,

and music again was so therapeutic and bonded us.

Unbroken's a really, really special song.

♪ Broken, sometimes I feel like I'm fallin' apart ♪

Pete: Bret has let me

engineer and produce all the solo recordings,

so I'm there for this stuff

and I get to see it with my own eyes,

him and Jorja sitting on the floor writing these lyrics out.

Bret: It brought us together as a father,

as a daughter,

both of us letting all that out in the music.

♪ And from these ashes

♪ I shall rise

♪ Unbroken

Instead of a song about how everything sucks,

it became a song about how to beat what sucks

and triumphing.

Bret: We all face adversity, but what do we do now?

We know the problem,

find a solution as best you can.

Pete: That song is the definition of what he stands for,

don't let anything get in your way.

♪ Like a moth drawn to the flame

♪ I shall remain

♪ Unbroken

Jorja: People who are going through struggles

and feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel

and it's just like a song of reassurance

to let them know that there is.

I see people commenting that this song has helped me so much

or seeing how much it's influenced them

and it just makes me really happy

to know that, like, I helped someone.

♪ This is not my last song

♪ I will stand and carry on

It's about going through a difficult time

and trying to find a positive light at the end of it.

♪ I shall remain

♪ Unbroken

[audience cheering]

Bret: This is the one you helped us hit.

Let's go crazy and sing this one,

this is your party.

Hit it C.C.!

[guitar music] [audience cheering]

["Talk Dirty To Me" plays]

Are we ready?

Raise them up, let's go!

[audience cheering]

Come on!

Doing both Poison and solo both complement each other, right?

But for me,

I live to get back with Poison

and go out and do some great summer shows.

[audience cheering] [upbeat rock music]

The stadium tour was a four-artist package tour,

all artists that are headline worthy in my opinion.

Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett.

It was nothing but hits,

it was nothing but a good time.

♪ You know I never

♪ Never seen you look so good ♪

Lyndsey: There's still a huge audience for this type of music.

Like in LA it was SoFi Stadium

where, like, literally the Super Bowl took place.

♪ I know you like it too

Come on!

♪ The way that I want you

We hit that stage no different at the Stadium Tour

than we did when we did "The Cat Dragged In" record.

And you're looking on a stadium of three,

maybe even four generations of fans.

♪ Just to see you

Riki: People will talk about certain bands of that era

and how the singers look like crap

and how they can barely sing.

But you don't hear people saying that about Poison.

[rock music]

Lyndsey: They were so stoked to be there and that was infectious.

It was contagious.

And I think they stole the show.

♪ In the old man's Ford

Jorja: It's cool when he sings and stops singing

and has the crowd sing and you hear everyone there.

Yeah, the crowd singing back is really cool.

You're like, that's a lot of people

that know my dad's music.

Raine: That's insane.

Yeah.

♪ Lock the cellar door

Bret: Scream it to me!

♪ Talk dirty to me

His critics are the people that are paying $42

to sit in the seat.

That's-that's who he cares about.

His critics are did everybody walk home happy?

Bret: Being out there with C.C. and Bobby

and Rikki was the most incredible feeling.

No matter how many highs and lows we've had,

that is a bond of love that you can't break.

Scream it to me!

♪ Talk dirty to me

[audience cheering]

Bret: I'd like to say I've slowed down and have gotten smarter

and taken less risk, but I'd be lying.

I love to fly by the seat of my pants and have a great time.

And I'm talking about from being out on the road

to taking that dirt bike out and going from a double

to a triple jump,

none of which I should be doing,

but I love it.

I love those challenges and I think with it

there are some highs and there's been some mega crashes

in my life.

When people see me out there being a diabetic,

being through the brain hemorrhage,

the car crashes,

the craziness,

yet you're out there still doing this and living it,

they always are asking,

"Do you have some kind of death wish?"

And the answer to that is no,

I have a life wish.

It's really simple.

I just wanna fill up that moments that I'm given

and enjoy every single minute of it.