Bret Michaels became one of rock & roll's most recognizable frontmen during the 1980s and early '90s as the lead singer for the hard rock group Poison. The band was integral to the hair metal scene, mixing feel-good party anthems and sensitive ballads, including the number one hit "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," into some of the era's top-selling singles. In addition to his work with Poison, Michaels has maintained a successful solo and acting career, releasing the country-rock album Freedom of Sound and appearing in films (A Letter from Death Row) and television programs (Rock of Love, The Celebrity Apprentice, and The Masked Singer). In 2023, he issued the anthemic standalone single "Back in the Day."

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Bret Michael Sychak migrated west with friends and bandmates David Besselman (guitar), Bobby Dall (bass), and Rikki Rockett (drums) in 1984, trading the blue-collar ambiance of his native Pennsylvania for the seedy gloss of Los Angeles. Adopting the moniker Poison, the band honed their earworm-friendly blend of glam-metal and hard rock on Sunset Boulevard. Besselman, weary of the band's struggle to find a foothold in the burgeoning hair-metal scene, elected to return home. C.C. Deville replaced him, and the firebrand guitarist helped propel Poison into the limelight.

The band issued their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, in 1986 via Enigma Records. It took nearly a year to gain traction, reaching number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 on May 23, 1987 -- the LP was certified three-times-multi-platinum in 1990. 1988's Open Up and Say... Ahh! proved to be even more successful, spawning four hit singles, including the group's only number one, the Michaels-penned ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." In keeping with the era, the group's offstage antics were growing considerably more volatile, with personal differences and various drug addictions taking their toll. After the release of 1990's chart-topping Flesh Blood and 1992's Swallow This Live, Deville was out of the group. New guitarist Richie Kotzen helped to steer Poison in a more blues-rock direction on 1993's Native Tongue, but the advent of grunge music (not to mention the band's unstable lineup) resulted in sluggish sales.

Poison continued to record sporadically, but Bret Michaels also took time to focus on other projects, eventually launching a film company with actor Charlie Sheen. He also made his solo debut in 1998 with Letter from Death Row, the soundtrack to a movie that Michaels wrote, directed, and co-produced with Sheen. Poison reconvened the following year, and Michaels balanced his continued frontman duties with his growing singer/songwriter career, releasing the solo efforts Songs of Life and the country-rock LP Freedom of Sound during the first half of the 2000s. He also participated in the 2005 season of Nashville Star and later returned to reality TV with his own dating competition series, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. The Rock My World compilation, which also featured several new tracks, appeared in 2008.

As the new decade began, Michaels continued his reign as a reality TV star: Rock of Love faded away after 2009’s Rock of Love Bus; then, in 2010, he won the NBC game show Celebrity Apprentice 3. In between these two programs, he released Custom Built, which combined songs from his previous solo albums and new cuts. Bret Michaels: Life as I Know It, a reality program following the lives of Michaels and his family, began airing later that year. 2013's aptly named Jammin' with Friends saw him deliver a set of four new original songs, two new cover songs, and eight re-recorded Poison and solo tracks, all of which featured guest musicians. True Grit, a compilation of three new original tracks and 18 previously released country-rock cuts, appeared in 2015, and in 2020 he published his autobiography, Bret Michaels: Auto-Scrap-ography Volume 1: My Life in Pictures & Stories. The nostalgic road trip anthem "Back in the Day" appeared in 2023. ~ James Christopher Monger & Andrew Leahey, Rovi