Bret Michaels

Bret Michael Sychak (born March 15, 1963 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is best known as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison. Besides his career as lead singer, he has several solo albums to his credit, as well as one chart single. He has also starred in the VH1 reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and its sequels, and as a judge on the talent show Nashville Star.

The band Paris began in 1983, with Michaels forming the band in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1984. The original lineup for Paris was Leighton Zema on lead vocals, Bret Michaels on guitar, Brian Bircher on drums, Jonathan Combs on synthesizer/gong, and Patrick Bircher on bass.[citation needed] All original members, except Michaels, were from Steelton, PA, but they were all replaced by the members of what later became Poison. The band moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to begin touring clubs there. Poison became one of the biggest of the 80's hair metal bands in the world and also recording several hit albums such as the 8 million seller Open Up and Say...Ahh!.

Michaels recorded his first solo album in 1998 A Letter from Death Row the soundtrack to the same-titled movie he directed, wrote, and starred in. In 2003, he released the studio album Songs of Life. Michaels also served as a judge during the 2005 season of reality television singing competition Nashville Star and released a country rock album in the same year called Freedom of Sound. Michaels released Rock My World in June 2008 which featured music from his reality television series Rock of Love including the new singles "Go That Far" (Rock of Love theme), "Fallen" and "Start Again", the first 2 also featuring music videos with clips from the series and the album charted at #40 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the top independent albums. In December 2008 Bret released a single version of "Driven" (rock mix) which also featured a music video with preview clips for Rock of Love Bus and he also re released the "Fallen" single with acoustic, piano and demo versions included.

Bret Michaels released a 30-minute DVD from (Time Life) in 2008 called "Hard & Heavy confidential featuring Bret Michaels" which included acoustic versions of "All I Ever Needed", "Driven", "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" and "Something to Believe In", it also included in depth interviews. The DVD was included in the Hard & Heavy cd/dvd collection from (Time Life) advertised on TV by Bret Michaels. The same 4 acoustic performances were also released on CD which was titled "Bret Michaels Acoustic Sessions."