Bret Michaels

Bret Michaels is a singer, songwriter and reality television personality best known as the frontman of the rock band Poison and star of VH1’s Rock of Love. Michaels was raised in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he developed an interest in music at a young age and began playing guitar as a teenager. He attended Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School, where he played sports and performed in local bands before pursuing music professionally.

Michaels rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of Poison. The band became one of the era’s biggest metal acts with hits including “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” “Talk Dirty to Me” and “Nothin’ but a Good Time.” Poison has released seven studio albums and sold more than 40 million records and DVDs worldwide. Michaels later launched a solo career and became a reality TV star with Rock of Love, which premiered in 2007. He also won the third season of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2010.

Michaels has released several solo albums, including Songs of Life (2003), Freedom of Sound (2005) and Custom Built (2010). He has also starred on the reality docuseries Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It in 2010.

Michaels has two daughters with longtime on-again, off-again partner Kristi Gibson: Raine Elizabeth (born in 2000) and Jorja Bleu (born in 2005). The couple began dating in the 1990s, became engaged in 2010 during Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It and called off their engagement in 2012. The pair later reconciled.