Bret Michael Sychak (born March 15, 1963 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is best known as the lead vocalist of the glam metal Rock band Poison and for starring in the VH1 reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels.
Michaels formed the band Paris in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1984.The original lineup for Paris was Leighton Zema on lead vocals, Bret Michaels on guitar, Brian Bircher on drums, Jonathan Combs on synthesizer/gong, and Patrick Bircher on bass. All original members, except Michaels, were from Steelton, PA, but they were all replaced by the members of what later became Poison. The band moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to begin touring clubs there. Poison became one of the biggest of the 80's glam 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 2008 which featured music from his reality television series Rock of Love.
Bret Michaels singing "Talk Dirty to Me" in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
Bret Michaels was portrayed in video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which features him singing "Go That Far" and Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me".
Michaels' song "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" appears in the Sony PlayStation game "Sing-Star".
Michaels and actor Charlie Sheen established a film production company, Sheen/Michaels Entertainment, which produced the movie A Letter from Death Row (1998) which Michaels wrote, directed and starred in, as well as releasing a soundtrack album. They also produced No Code Of Conduct in the same year. Their company also produced the feature film Free Money, starring Marlon Brando and Mira Sorvino.
Michaels appeared in an episode of the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear.
The cable-TV network VH1 announced on February 14, 2007 that Michaels would star as the bachelor in the reality television dating-competition series Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. Jes Rickleff was the winner of the series; however, she also had a boyfriend outside the show and claimed that the casting directors chose her off of the street. She announced during the reunion show that she and Michaels were not right for each other and that he should have chosen the runner up, Heather Chadwell.
Michaels went on to star in the second season of Rock of Love, which premiered on January 13, 2008. On April 13, 2008, Michaels selected Ambre Lake as his "Rock of Love". Ambre and Michaels have since broken up, and Rock of Love 3 is in talks.
On May 1, 2008, Michaels appeared on a special celebrity edition of Don't Forget the Lyrics!, where he raised $200,000 to donate to charity.
Michaels was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of six (as Michaels later attested in the Behind the Music special, backstage photos of the singer injecting insulin led many to think that he was a heroin addict). As a child, his family relocated to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended Mechanicsburg High School.
Bret Michaels was associated with singer Susie Hatton during the early 1990s. He has two daughters with Kristi Lynn Gibson. Raine Elizabeth Sychak was born on May 20, 2000, and Jorja Bleu Sychak was born May 5, 2005. As of 2007, Michaels and Gibson are separated and share custody of their children. There are rumors that they still have a live in arrangement.
Michaels had a short but notorious relationship with Pamela Anderson. An abridged version of an explicit sex tape the couple made appeared on the Internet and was released on DVD on September 7, 2005 by Metro Studios. Michaels later stopped the sexually explicit tape from being distributed, although the "teaser" version of it is still widely available on the internet. Word of another sex tape, this time with unnamed girls from Rock of Love surfaced in early 2008. Michaels is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. He has a personalized guitar bearing the team's logo, and played the national anthem at Three Rivers Stadium. His favorite player was Jack Lambert, and Michaels has been a member of fan club "Lambert's Lunatics."
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