May 19, 2020 • 43 mins
Wells rocks out (from a safe distance) with Bret Michaels! There are few people in the world that have crazier stories than Bret, and Wells gets him to spill about some never before heard tales from the early days of Poison.
He opens up about his experience on “Rock of Love”, and he tells us about what it took to create a legendary rock band with no help, no connections, and no rules.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is a Wells Cast with Wells Adams and I
heart radio podcast. That is correct, Ladies and gentlemen. This
is the Wells Cast, the show where I interview your
favorite celebrities and I find out how the hell they
became well celebrities. Very excited about today's episode, and I'll
(00:23):
tell you why. Obviously, I came from the radio world.
At one point I was hosting a classic rock show
in Nashville in the afternoons. And if you ever listened
to a classic rock show, you know that there are
well a few bands that get played. I would say
at least once an hour, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones,
(00:46):
the Beatles, Guns and Roses, and Poison That's right. You'd
be lucky to go two hours listening to any classic
rock show without hearing the song every Rose has a
Thorn by band Poison Boy. He Rose and obviously from
(01:17):
being from the Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise is a
song that I have sung on many occasions. Whether it's
a rose ceremony, whether it's a one on one, whatever,
there's always a good chance that you'll hear Brett Michaels
were about some silky, sultry ballad esque goodness on Monday
(01:38):
nights on a VC from My House. Let's rewind the
reels just a little bit. Yes, Brett Michaels was the
lead singer of the gigantically huge hair metal band Poison,
but then he pivoted into the realm of reality TV.
Oh I know you guys remember Rock of Love, which
also inspired his successful solo album Rock My World. Then
(02:01):
the man went on to win Celebrity Apprentice three. And now,
if you've been following the mass singer, you know that
the banana was, in fact Bret Michaels. The man has
done everything. Number one hitting the Billboard charts. Yeah, he
got it on reality TV show, Yeah he did it.
Wrote a book. Oh it's out now. So today in
(02:22):
the Welles, guest, we're gonna sit down with the man
who made bandana's cool again, the one, the only Brett
Michael's don't go anywhere wells, Bret Man, how are you doing?
(02:53):
I'm doing great? Man? How are you I'm doing awesome?
I'm doing awesome. You're just coming up on the screen now, Man,
this is great. Man. Your your little studio room is
pretty dope. I gotta be honest with you. Thank you,
thank you. That's a lot of gold records behind you.
I'm gonna put behind me my j V Soccer Most
(03:14):
Valuable Player trophy, just so everyone else is a little
intimidated by what they're coming into. You have to you know,
I will help you put that up. I'm good with
I'm good with tools and handyman work. Brett. I know
that you know my fiance Sarah Highland from Modern Family
absolutely absolutely. By the way, congratulations to both you and
(03:34):
her on the absolute success of that show and the
great acting and writing and just I took them all
down some plaques just to say thanks you all all
the incredible years. And Eric has been giving me a
really hard time of whether or not I was the
banana the bandana banana on the Mass singer. Well, it's
funny because everyone thinks that Sarah is the kitty cat
(03:54):
or the kittie. I'm gonna tell you something. I'm not
gonna lie one thousand percent. I'm telling you I was
looking and I'm thinking, I'm just going that has to
be her, and then Kitty broke my heart. Broke my heart.
They booted me right out of there. But let me
just reset real quick on the Wells kind of today,
(04:15):
I have the man, the myth, the legend, Brett Michaels.
You were doing so well on the Mass Singer, but
then I feel like Sharon Osborne really came in there
and sucks the mare out of the room and new abscuse, like,
I know for a fact I have a terrible British section.
I know for the fact that's Brett Michaels. That's how
(04:35):
he sounds. I've known it for thirty years. And then
he did the thing with his hands and I knew
it was him, and I was like, Sharon, play a
cool dude, don't out him like thing. You were saying
exactly what I'm saying. When I'm standing that tunnel, and
I thought, man, we're rocking along here. I want to
be in the show. And I'm thinking I've done everything
to throw him off with the voice. Now the social
media you had me at one it was me, but
(04:56):
I'm like, I keep fooling him. And I got ken
fold and I walked out there and literally, you know
exactly what I'm talking about. My brain is looking up
there while I'm trying to be a human banana and
I'm thinking, although it's it's Sharon Osborne. I'm screwed. So
that was my first I'm like, she's gonna know this instantly.
(05:17):
And before I even got to the bench, I saw
Plan over and say something about the way I was walking,
and I'm like, oh, we're this, this is it, this
is it right here. Well, congratulations on how far you went.
I used to do a classic rock show in Nashville
for my Heart. I would play at least one Poison
song an hour because that's how classic rock stations work.
(05:38):
There's like fifteen bands that you play. I love that,
by the way, of course, thank you. And also like
every rose has a thorn. I came from the Bachelor World.
Do you know how many times I hear that damn
song every freaking rose ceremony. I'm so sorry for the
pain you had to go through a hearing at every
sports seconds And by the way, one oh five right correct?
(06:00):
I done the rock all right there? It is, well,
congratulations on doing so well. We've interviewed a bunch of
people that have been on the Mass Singer. We did
Paul Shaffer, and we did Victor Oladipo. I have a
good friend who's actually a choreographer on the show, and
she tells me, like, it's crazy the amount of work
that goes into hiding everyone's identity, even like offstage, off
(06:24):
camera offset. I mean, they've got you guys in like
hoodies and gloves and one can see like the color
of your skin. It's crazy. It's unbelievable. When I say this,
it is the most one of the most fun shows
I've ever done, hands down, really, but the secrecy, the
secrecy in that show from the time you leave your
house to get into the car, if they're taking you
(06:46):
down there, you've gone on Darth Vader outfit. You've got
the mass, the gloves. They couldn't even let my bird
sized ankles. They were like determined to cover up these
shame of ankles I've got. They were like, you got
to cover the ows everything. You walk around and it
is like literally like you're a ghost. Like I'm walking
by people I've known forever on shows, walking by crew
(07:09):
that were out with us on the road that were
light riggers, and they're walking by me. You're not speaking
to them, and you you're like a real life Avenger.
Like when I say that, I'm like Peter Parker, I
want to shout out I'm spider Man, and that you
there's nobody they go nuts on you. Man, They they
go crazy if you even start to talk to someone there.
I mean, hearing you say that this is one of
the like the most enjoyable and fulfilling shows, is kind
(07:33):
of bonkers because you've been on a lot of reality
TV sets and done a lot of television. So what
made this one so much more I guess fun or
interesting than the others. A couple of things, one all
of them. I'm I'm one of those guys. Well that's
I'm grateful for everything I get to do. True story.
I'm I'm grateful, glad to be on the good side
(07:54):
of the dirt all after all the craziness I've been
through my life. And and I said, just going on there,
everyone's at A two was awesome. Everybody was fun. Everyone
treated you great. There's a lot of respect, but there's
very few people that actually know what you so they're
just treating this figure whatever. This figure is really great,
positive vibe um. And of course I'm amused. Soundtrack. You know,
(08:16):
music is a soundtrack from everyday life. So being around
music was what made it a lot of fun, because
that's what we were doing, but it was a ton
I'm not gonna lie, a's a ton of work involved
the choreographers and music directors, everybody. But what made it
I think the most fun for me going down there
was it was such a positive vibe to the show,
(08:37):
and then when you get there, all of a sudden
that the fans that they're viewing it are in a
great mood. Everyone in the audience is in a great mood.
And then I watched the show with my kids and
they we love also playing amateur detective. You know, so
your part mass singer, your your part vocals part masks up,
crazy outfit, but then more than anything, you're playing amateur
(08:58):
detective and that makes it a lot of fun interesting show.
For a lot of the people that we've interviewed that
have been on the show, they talk about the mask,
the shrouding of oneself makes it easier to kind of
be on stage because it strips away a little bit
of the anxiety. You are a person who's totally used
to that and very comfortable. So what were the differences
(09:21):
between being on stage and people can see your face
and performing and being on stage and people can't see
your face in performing that is a great question. Number
one For me, I'm a how are you doing? Handshake,
big hug, run out to the front of the thrust
kind of guy. So the first few minutes of any
solo show or poison show, I'm out there for three minutes,
(09:41):
hitting everyone's hand, having a blast, and then we started
a song write. The song is chugging along and we
finally get to it. With this, there's obviously camera moves
and are doing all that stuff. The mask for me
because one, I'm coustrophobic, so going in there, there was
a whole moment of me trying to find my uh
inner happy place and za and then you got the
massive suit. I lost five shredded five good pounds every show,
(10:06):
uh off. They're put them back right back on after.
But during that thing there was sweat. The first song
I did first night, my Heart's pounding, the crowds chant
and banana Banana. I come running out. I got sweat
in years. There's there's no words, and I'm looking through
a banana hole that's this big. So I've got the
microphone which is blocking the already blocked view. I have
(10:30):
no prefield vision, and my eyes in the mouth are
the same little banana hole in the middle. It made it.
Can I say this when I say surreal? It was
a surreal experience. It was like I said, it was
the best time ever and the most crazy difficult thing
for me to do because I was completely in my
(10:51):
comfort zone but out of it because I'm also trying
to sing songs so no one knows my voice. I'm
trying to sing Elvis. I'm trying to sing all these songs,
low eighty, Breaky Heart, I'm doing Lean on Me, all
songs I love, but not songs in that I are
in my set. If you know what I mean, Does
this change your set now going forward? Like will you
throw in some Billy Ray Cyrus or after? I gotta
(11:14):
have a little Billy right, And I gotta make up
for it because I got so excited. I said, put me.
I begged them. I'm like, put me in with the fans,
put me in the crowd. I want to start there, like, well,
it gets a little confusing and people, and I said, no,
let them feel the peel. That was the whole thing.
So I get in there and everyone's touching, grabbing, I'm
slapping hands and the next this is before the coronavirus.
Now we're doing this whole thing, and the next thing,
(11:37):
I know, someone's looking in the little hole like bad
if you can imagine an old bad drug movie, you know,
whide wide angle vision fish is lens and they're looking
in saying bread is that you? And I'm going like,
I don't know what to do. And the song had
already started. I'm like, oh, crap, man, I better get
it together now. And I luckily went back to pull
(11:59):
it all together and uh and said get it together.
And I came back into the second half of the
first chorus and caught back up with the song and
it was say, let me tell you, it was a
wild ride, but a lot of fun. Well, Sara and
I had an amazing time watching and guessing and kind
of playing along and uh, it just it does seem
like a really fun, just production to be around. But
(12:22):
it's just gotta be like I've done enough television shows.
It's got to be so weird to not be able
to converse with crew. Um, I can't even imagine what
that's like. You know, one million percent and you, I'm
saying this to you have an incredible personality knowing and
knowing you but knowing you like this, but also seeing
other stuff, all the stuff you've done, your personality is
(12:45):
is engaging. And what I'm saying that for me, that's
I'm just saying that was the toughest part of this
whole show was being a ghost, like I'm walking by.
They literally had to set me down with all the
productions say you've got to stop shaking people's hands and talk.
You can't speak. I'm like, because they're gonna figure out
who it is, and then someone's gonna tell someone and
(13:05):
then you're gonna be off the show in the first episode,
you know what I mean. And I that for me
was the toughest because I'm friends with all of our
crew we work with. If I'm on the road, I'm
out there on my mountain bike hanging out with the
crew while they're setting stuff up. That was the toughest part.
I saw that you have a new autobiography out right now. Correct,
(13:25):
it's a brand new autobiography. It's called Auto scrap Bography,
and it just it's volume one. So I'm doing these
and volumes and really simply put it is it covers
all the pictures of their time stamp with every single
story we've got it in an E book, we got
it hard classic hard copy. And then what we're gonna
do is sit in this room and I'm gonna read
(13:46):
the book and as a master just as a track,
lay it down and then have still in moving images.
So it's like audible going up to the next level.
So it's an audio visual experience of the book. Does
it start the beginning like does this book showcase you
as a kid? Then getting to now everything? And it's fits.
(14:08):
So Volume one covers like I went through the Malibu fire,
I almost drowned in Caracas. We talked, we touched on
the brain hemorrhage, which, by the way, I didn't get
to talk to you about last night. No idea in
the world on my life, my kid's life. I never
knew I'd be finishing up April. So April, ten years ago,
I had my brain subracnoid brain hemorrhage. They were operating
(14:32):
on my brain West Coast time while I was playing
Knocking on Heaven's door. That that is no lie, that
is it was happening. It was so surreal for me,
like I get the chill now, like it was I'm thinking.
I had no idea that that universe would line up
like that, and so I had the brain hemorrhage and
it were properating ten years ago to almost a minute
(14:53):
of when I was singing the song, playing the piano,
singing knocking on Heaven's door, looking at Sharon into years
ago that night last night, they're operating on my my
brain bleed to save my life. Was there foresighting that,
were you like ten years ago, I may may or
may not have lived. I want to play a song
that showcases that none of that went into it. It
(15:15):
just happened to all line up. When I say for real,
you know, people say that, I mean it organically, it
all lined up like no one ever discussed that with me,
we meaning no one ever had that this is going
to go to there and know that it was a
Wednesday night like it. It just all lined up. And
then people started putting it together and I'm like, wait
a minute, this is unbelievable that this is happening. And
(15:37):
almost to the minute it went on, it was. It
was a wild It was a wild, surreal moment for me.
That's crazy, dude. And then in the book again going
back to that and I thank you for asking me
in this it covers everything. But I wrote it all myself,
handwrote it, wrote out the notes, did everything, and tried
to match every picture to take people on a real journey,
(15:59):
like a real you'll feel it. When I got held
up a gun point when I was sixteen years old,
me and my three buddies in the band went somewhere
to party and uh, and we are two people uh
that put rifles to my head, thought we had robbed
their house. True story, and all the guys verify it verbatim.
I said, just tell your version. And I talked my
(16:20):
way out of dying, literally like I literally negotiated with
and they thought we had our stuff in the trunk
of my car. I said, in his hand was shake
and you know, his hands like this on the rifle,
and I'm thinking that I know that gun and that
thing is going to go off, and his adrenaline was
jacked up. True story, and I said, I got I
don't want to say i'd be good in a firefight,
(16:41):
but I was good in a firefight. I got calm,
and I said, please put that gun out of my
head and set it down and look at everything in
this car. But all these stories in the book there's
pictures of the I hate to say it, but my
uh seventies style rocking wardrobe. You'll have to. I mean,
it's most of the book is a good laugh, a
(17:02):
lot of self deprecation and just funny stories and face
and adversity. It had been weird if you had started
singing Knock on Heaven's Door during that encounter with the
guy with the rifles. Yeah, no, that didn't happen. There
was a lot of other things going through my brain
sing right. I don't know if anyone told you, Brett,
but what the the idea for this show is. It's
an origin story show. So I think it's really interesting
(17:24):
how huber successful people were able to get to where
they are now. And a lot of people know kind
of the story. I would assume a lot of people
know the story from Poison to Rock of Love to
Apprentice to now doing mass singer. But I wanted to
kind of go through how did you get to the
poison days? I was wondering if we could go back
(17:44):
and and and hear that story. And I guess this
is gonna be probably like almost like a cliffs Notes
version of your book. So if you like any of
these stories. Then you might want to delve a little
bit deeper and by the book. But the deep dive
on this is thank you for asking us for real,
because that that's the moment I say to everybody you know,
back then again, and I'm saying this you when you're
(18:06):
coming out as a starving musician, when you're coming out
as a band, you have to make that commitment. I'm
a thousand percent guy, and you've got to bet on yourself.
People use that word, but I mean that word. You
have to bet on you. And at the same time,
you're an artist. Here I am on the East Coast
playing five sets and night three sets and night cover songs,
(18:27):
and we try to slip in a few originals, but
no one's playing the songs. No one's doing anything. So
we made our move to the West Coast, which at
that time on the Sunset Strip was given opportunities for
bands like us. But there was a lot of pay
to play and all this others. There's a lot of
stuff going on. I say this to everybody. One of
the big arcs is in the story, is you besides
(18:50):
betting on yourself, You've got to find a way surround yourself.
Hopefully with great friends, and you go out there and
the great people that all have the same mission if
you're not your solo art, had the same journey. And
then we found every way we would go. And when
a lot of the bands, a lot of the bands
in l A would worry about rent and a limo
to drive up to the true door, which is cool.
(19:12):
They're trying to make it look big. That's great, but
then you go inside the troubador or the rocksy and
there's seven people. And so we were the opposite of
what we would do. We lived behind a dry cleaner
and all of our many then went to making flyers,
and we couldn't afford the good colors like white and
canary yellow that were expensive, so they gave us boatloads
(19:34):
skids of green flyers. And that's literally where the poison
green merchandise that a lot of bands used. Now it
was called poison green merchandise color. We got flyers no
one wanted, and we put him everywhere, and it ended
up becoming our trademark. And when you drove by him,
you'd see him up and you knew we were playing.
So we would pull up in a windowless chevette and
(19:57):
when I say, a band that barely ran and push
our gear, and there we were our own crew, We
were our own catering and our own band. So but
never once during that struggle, never once during that struggle
that we ever think of given in. And I just
looked at it like these these are truly my college years.
This is paying my dues, and we just found a
(20:19):
way to get it done. When you look back, because
I have that same thing too. Obviously I wasn't in
a gigantic band, but I have those paying my dues memories.
And maybe we all have revisionist history. I don't know,
but I look back on those years when I was
like waiting tables and like moonlighting and radio stations making
like no money for whatever reason, I look back at
(20:40):
those as being the best years of my life. Absolutely,
And just add to that, I never knew anything was bad.
And I think that the attitude I'm a gratitude, I'm grateful,
I have gratitude is my attitude. I'm thankful, And I
think that with yourself, the reason for your success is
the same thing. I look back at those years and Nate,
(21:00):
although they were hard times, or you would consider I
was living if there was a below the poverty level.
I went one level below that. When I say we lived,
we lived at the back half of a dry cleaner
because our gear fit in there right on. We were
down on Palm Grove Avenue and down in Washington, and
we didn't care. We did everything we could to practice
(21:22):
in their rehearsing their We'd pick up on and end jobs.
And I can tell you what I learned all my
cooking skills by working at Bob's Big Boy. Yeah, you
know what, I'm not making that up. I can I
can cook up. I was good with the dishes and uh,
a good Friday cook. I wanted to go back a
little bit further. You grew up in Pennsylvania. Is it
true that you grew up either in or near a
(21:44):
town called Mechanicsville. Yeah, Mechanicsburg, I grew up. I grew
up in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. But I was originally born in
Pittsburgh and Butler and my dad was in I's a veteran.
He was in the Navy, and we got relocated to
the Inland Naval Depot after he came back for his
services overseas. And uh, and then we got relocated there
(22:04):
and made our life in in both Mechanicsburg and Pittsburgh
or Harrisburg. I should say Mechanicsburg sounds like a fictional
town from the movie Cars. I'm amazed that that place exists.
It seems very blue collar kind of assault of the
earth people living there. You decided to do something that
(22:25):
I assume not a lot of people in that town
decided to do, which was pursue music. Was that a
tough sell, like on your parents and in your family
and your friends. Yeah, there was a couple of things
going on. So six years old, I get diagnosed as diabetic.
I'm I'm insulin independent five shots a day since I've
been six years old till right here standing talking to you,
(22:47):
and we that was number one. My dad, naval depot
and all this to everybody there. Music wasn't a bad thing.
People love listening to it. But because a lot of
bands didn't make it. When you said, hey, I'm going
to become a musician. We're gonna go to l A,
We're gonna make a record, it's gonna be great and
a career of it, it wasn't like people go, oh
my god, that's great. They thought that's a great hobby.
(23:09):
But if you wanted a real job, you went down
and got a job on the docks, You went down
to the naval depot, got a job. He went and
worked at UPS or Kenny shoot, whatever whatever was available
for a job, right And and I think that that
is one of the true battles, is again not just
betting on yourself, but believing in it to receive it.
(23:29):
In other words, I had to vision it. And then
I went and sold everything I owned, every from skis
to I had. I loved motocross. I sold my favorite
dirt bike, you know, sold my car and that that
was worth all two hundred bucks, and you know, all
that stuff, But I never never had a doubt. We
loaded that stuff in the band and we drove to California,
(23:52):
figured it out piece by piece with Bobby and Ricky
and CC, myself and a guy named Matt Smith, and
we made our move. So you get out he year.
You're printing these flyers on this cheap green cardboard paper
from so Speedy, from Sir Speedy. You're you're a line
cook at Bob's Big Boy. Was there a paradigm shift?
(24:12):
It was there a point where you were like, oh,
this is working, this is gonna, this is gonna happen.
Was there a moment, I know, the moment you're looking forward,
but it goes a little further in. So here's what happened.
Here was the blessing of all of this. We played everywhere.
We would sell out everywhere. We played two nights at
the Palace Place, clubs that weren't heard of for a
local original band with no record deal. Then we play
(24:36):
a place called the Country Club out in Mecita, California.
We sign a deal as US as the record label
with an independent label called Enigma and Green World at
the time, and we make the album Look with the
catch rag game and we're talking no money. We slept
in the studio for the week that they would let
us there. Um, we recorded the songs just almost live
(24:58):
and are sign day. When everyone else was talking about
limos and jets and this and all this stuff, we
were setting in Elsa Gundo, California, on my but on
the ground, shrink rapping and packing our albums and cassettes
in the boxes. The ship off as an independent band.
(25:18):
Here was the beauty. We kept all of our publishing.
No one wanted any of the publishing for every rose
or any of our songs that none of them thought
they These are the exact words um from many labels.
We just don't hear the nucleus of any hit on
any of these songs. So here's talk dirty to me.
I won't forget you every rose something to believe in.
None of them. We're gonna make it. We were a
(25:40):
great band for the strip, but that was it, and
here we are thirty one years later. But the Beauty
we got to keep all of our publishing and we
owned our content and it ended up being a really
great blessing most bands. As an artist, you're starving, you'll
sign away for a limo ride and a good leather jacket.
Most deals got signed for that, and then they owned
(26:02):
all your stuff for us. We just again went back
to this. Bobby and Ricky see see myself sit down
and said, let's just bet on ourselves because the money
they're giving us as a bad loan anyway, we gotta
pay back, and we're starving already. Let's just starve until
we really make it. When you really make it, then,
are you guys like all right now we can get
(26:23):
the leather jackets and the limos or are you still
doing it pretty blue collar. No, we we ended up.
Ours was our dream wasn't so much a limo. Our
dream was more to get on a tour bus and
toward the country. Like, actually, I'm not selling you on this,
I'm telling you truth. Playing music to this moment is
still the most exciting thing for me. Man. I get
(26:45):
to play, and I got to travel, and then a
few leather jackets in There are a lot of insane parties.
But luckily, luckily along the way, we were traveling and
doing what we loved and and but our crossroad true
moment in life, and this is in the book. This
is the crossroad we played. We were playing nightclubs and
breaking we got to play Texas Stadium. It's on the
(27:07):
I Won't Forget You video by Poison. So here's Paul
Stanley on stage from Kiss playing with us, Steven Tyler
smacking me in the back, wishing me luck on the
way to the stage, the guys from Boston watching this show,
and we're filming the video for I Won't Forget You
in front of eighty three thousand people, and I'm like,
this is surreal. It took me three songs to even
(27:29):
get air into my lungs because I was so nervous.
And then when we got done, I partied like a
rock star. I'm not gonna lie. I threw down. It
was good. But I've never been rude anybody, always treating
the fans great. I partied with the fans like a
rock star. And probably twelve hours from then, we were
driving through I believe it was Carlson Corner, either New
(27:50):
Mexico or Texas is to another show. Not making this up.
We pull into a truck stop. I get out. I'm like, man,
we are rock stars. Eighty three thousand people, this is awesome.
We walked in like the Bob Seeker turned the page.
There was about five truckers in there, A couple maybe
a couple of people looked at us like, who the
(28:11):
hell are you guys, and what are you doing here?
And it was the best moment in my life. It
leveled it perfectly. It if there was ever a moment
of me thinking this is gonna happen every day, it
gave me a perfect balance to my life. And I
took that and that became every rose as its storm.
So it was a perfect moment. So that was the
moment that you decided to write that song that well,
(28:34):
that in a broken heart, But I'll get into that.
It was right at that time. It was the putting
the dimes into the old pay phone and waiting for
my three pieces of clothing I owned to dry, and
then that phone call was heartbreaking. Got on the phone,
I heard another guy's voice in the background in the
apartment we lived in, and that for me was my uh,
(28:56):
that was my true heartbreak moment. But from it came
a decent song. Was her name Rose? It was not
we have a connection. I lived in Nashville for a
very long time. I was in radio there and I
saw that you have a kid that goes to Belmont.
That's correct? Are they musicians? I assume we're working, are
(29:17):
doing music business? Yeah, A couple of things. First of all,
love Nashville. I bought a range there off a brick
church Pike, lived there for the longest time. It is
truly a music city. And um, I know a University
of Mississippi too, Am I not my that? So I'm
playing I'm just saying that mixed with Nashville. I love
it still down there all the time. My oldest daughter
(29:40):
Ray Elizabeth's now of all things you ready for. This
is my come uppings as a dad. She is now
Sports Illustrated, one of the models of the Swimsuit Models
of the Year. So mixing that with Belmont, she's very
intelligent young lady and uh, and so is my youngest daughter,
Georgia Blue as a songwriter. So we go back and
she wrote the on and Broken with me. If if
(30:01):
fans have a chance to check it out, it's a
beautiful song, especially right now facing the adversity we're going
through in the world. So they could check that video out,
just called Unbroken with Brett Michaels and my daughter Georgia Michaels.
But the truth of the matter is there, they are
great kids. I hope I've given them enough positivity and
strength to navigate through life, you know, because eventually you
(30:24):
gotta you protect them aspect as you can, but eventually
they've got to come into their own and I hope
I taught them with their gut to know what to
do if something goes bad. Listen, if you go to Belmont,
that means you are a phenomenal UH singer. But probably
more importantly, UH, it's it's a place that just creates
amazing songwriters. A lot of my friends went there looping
(30:48):
back to every rose. When you wrote it, did you
know it was going to be a hit. No, here's
the craziest thing. You're ready. This is why you're great
talking like this. This is the truth when we wrote
that song, when I sit there and wrote it, I
wrote it after playing I would tell our band never
never pigeonhole us, let's go play everywhere. And we went
(31:10):
and played a country bar. We played a honky tonk
in Dallas, and that's the night I made the phone call.
This is a true story, and we wrote this. We
wrote the place then was called the Ritz. It was
like a country bar, right, And we went and played
it and you played two stories up, so none of
the people on the grounding and saw us. We're just
up there playing rock music. And then when we finished
(31:32):
and they kind of looked up, waved and went on
about their way, and I went back made the phone call.
Broke my heart. That's a horrible feeling, by the way, heartbreak.
It's undescribable, man, that feeling of you know, and mixed
with your piste off. It's is a lot of stuff
going on. Luckily, music is therapeutic to me wrote it
(31:53):
on the acoustic guitar. No. Lie wrote every rose that night.
And then we took it to the label and they
bumped it down to maybe like a fifth singer. So
here's us as sweet signid music. We're taking it to
then Capitol. You know. Our first independent record blew up,
sold like three million copies. They're like, I don't know, man,
(32:14):
you're crossing country with rock and it's sad Poison's party band.
And then we said, no, we're not gonna be pigeonholed
and what to do? And so nothing but a Good
Time came out. First record sold two million, Fallen Angel
went to three million, and then we released every Road
Has Its Thorn as a role. It was just one
of those throwaway songs, and it became Dallas of All Places.
(32:38):
The Eagle and the country station played the song, and
then it became the number one of our first number
one songs. The people tried to have you recorded not
as a ballot. No, they tried that in our first
independent record. I got stories. I would put you to sleep,
but I promise you they're exciting. I almost got in
a fist fight with the guy trying to produce our
(33:00):
first album. He wanted to talk dirty to me to
become a ballot, Like, what are you talking about? This
song is just badass, straightforward groove hook, you know what
I mean, almost a little bit punkish in a sense, right,
And and that didn't go well. So he was out
and we just did it ourselves. And then but but
that fighting spirit is good. You gotta have it, you know,
(33:21):
and then we with every Rose. I don't even think
they cared. I'm not saying they did. They hated the song,
but I don't think they cared. They're like, it's kind
of a crossover country rock, like it's like a new Eagles.
We're not we don't know what to do with this thing.
And everything then was just straight up rock songs, you
know that we're going out and uh so that was it.
(33:43):
We put it out in the fans. I'm thanking them
for people everybody pop rock, country, relating to that song
and helping to make it our first number one song. Yeah,
I know. I think one of the takeaways of that
story is because it happens in every business, you'll have
people that are above you, that are supposed to quote
unquote no more than you do. People can give you
(34:05):
bad advice and think it's good advice. If you don't
stick with your gut and stick to your guns, then
you could miss out on I don't know that that
sounds massive. You could have missed out on such a
massive song, but you stuck to your guns. And here
we are, now here, we're having this conversation and sticking
to those guns. I'm gonna say this one time, when
we have like seven hours, I will tell you the
(34:27):
every moment of my life is a Roses and Thorn's moment.
It is a crossroads. So doing going from they are
jumping forward to to rock a love. I don't even
want to begin to tell you because I didn't know
how to do Hollywood speak. You know, I didn't know
run it up the flag, pull circle a wagon, put
a pin balloon, drop it. I didn't know what you
need that men, And I'm on a focus group conversation
(34:48):
about my show who Was Again? Everyone thought it was fun,
kind of funny. Great, we'll throw it against the wall,
see what happens. So I just took the same thing.
I took it by the horns. A nice said, let's
work with then Chris abrego and end them all and
everybody that was working on that show, Mark everyone. I said, guys,
(35:08):
please just let this be what it is. Let's not
focus group this thing, you know, my advertising. Instead of
going to the big stuff, they wanted me to go
along Jones Beach and hand out Beach House to people
to tell them to watch the show. I go, I don't.
I don't think that's a really good idea. I'm not
gonna do that. I don't. We just go and talk
to people, let them know what exists. And then it
(35:31):
took on a life of its own. Again like every rose.
I thank the viewers, but again I tell people, stick
to your guns. Just stick to your guns. Not that
they meant harm, but that that. I don't think handing
out beach towels was gonna break this wide open. I
(35:59):
mean you, you've played in front of you know, eighty
thousand people in Dallas or whatever it was, and then
you go and you make this this television show that is,
for lack of a better term, a cultural phenomenon, like
people love that show. Um, what were you at? What
what brought you more joy? Being a television star or
(36:19):
being a rock star. It's for number one, I say
this to everybody. Music is my first love, and I
am glad that it launched me into the ability to
do reality. My acting skills are never never My true
acting skills are never putting DeNiro out of work. I'm
just saying my acting skills like a lot to be desired.
The first night we did rock Love, I said, guys,
(36:42):
please don't make me script this, don't make me take
it over. Let's just make it a part me. I'm
not going to tell the girls I love them. I
don't love them yet. They don't know me, and they
don't love me yet. You know. So I pull up
in my heartley, I take the helmet off, I throw
it in the ground. I said, let's go in and
get hammered. Let's add a little tequila of this party,
and let's see what happens. First episode, night one. One
(37:04):
of the girls I liked. Her name was Laura I believe,
and she goes. She goes, I can see she won't
have many a good time. I said, is there a problem?
What can I do? She goes, I'm not really into this?
I go, you mean the show? She's like, no, no,
I'm not really I go into me. She goes, I'm
not India. I'm not I'm not attracted to you. It
can I be honest and she wasn't making it up.
I go heartbreaking, but okay, that's real life. And from
(37:27):
there of the show, I said, they literally said, you
want to edit that out? I go, no, this is
real life. Let's let it rock. I said, broke my heart,
but I'm good with it. Let's go what's happened any times? People? Yeah?
I said, let's just rock and she just goes, you're
not my taste. I got I got you, I got you.
So that was it and rock and Love was born,
and I said, let's do stuff the girls. They're fun,
(37:50):
they're intelligent, they're beautiful. Let's go race dirt bikes, lingerie, football's,
let's go ride horses. We went and did all this
crazy stuff to win a date and it made it
a lot of fun. I'm running out of time, unfortunately,
I could talk to you for you. Okay. So I've
now done both too. I've done reality where the prizes
is love effectively, and then I've done competition style shows.
(38:13):
It's a different beast. Your intentions and what you're trying
to do are completely different. You go on Celebrity Apprentice,
you win it. What was that experience like in contrast
to your own reality dating love show? A couple of things.
Great question going on to Apprentice, and I'll go straight
to this. I wanted to do the show. I wanted
(38:35):
to show people you don't get here by being lucky.
You you may get lucky one time, you may get
your foot in the door, but while staying in the door.
Staying in the door, that's the battle. Meaning I want
to stay at the party. I want to rock, I
want to continue. This is what I live to do,
to be creative and then turn it into something. In
other words, there's a lot of really really great people
(38:56):
out there have great ideas. I mean that the problem
is when they hit the all they give up. You
can't give up, man, You've got to stay in the fight.
And and so when I say that, I wanted to
do Apprentice. So we stopped down doing here I am
doing Rock a Love highest rated show on v H one,
and I said, stop this town, We're gonna go do this.
Then we finished that up. I came back. We got
(39:17):
to do rock my RV life as I know it
with my family and kids. You know what, I'm saying
it was a lot of craziness going on, but two
completely different battles. Like when you're doing Apprentice, you're you're
all smiling in each other, but at the same time
you're helping your team. But eventually that's gonna fold in
on itself. If you're there near the end, the people
(39:40):
you that were your friends you were fighting with, you're
now fighting against. You know what I mean to win it?
And and so that's what happened. And and I say this,
I'll leave it on this, I know well run out
of time. The true battle of staying in that is
and I say this, I'm the only Apprentice of all
those 's that ever still had a real product with
(40:02):
Tropic Rocket with Dr Pepper Snapple that's still on the market.
But that wasn't out of luck that was going there
discussing it. And what you want to do is surround
yourself with good people and good partnerships and and and
then in the end of the day, you don't want
to end this battle. But I ended up being bitter.
I don't want to be bitter, man. I want to
have a great time. If there's people my life that
(40:24):
are great, they stay. If those people in my life
aren't great. They're got to go and that's the only
way you can do it, and and surround yourself with
awesome people. Brett Michael's there's one common denominator of every
guest that I've had on this show, and it is
the energy that they bring into the room, or in
this case, the zoom is so tangible and electric that
(40:46):
it complete changes my day. And I know that's not
that important, but it is. You know, we're quarantine, we're stuck,
and everything is kind of weird. We're in this flux
and then I get to sit down with someone like
you and it complained eatly uplifts me and it gives
me all this energy and it it's one of those
things where like I totally get it. After all these
conversations and talking to you, It's like I totally get
(41:09):
why you're successful. It makes total sense. You're a wonderful guy.
You are super passionate, You're extremely energetic, and I think
that at the end of the day, if it's a job,
you want people to want to work for you or
with you, and I could totally see that. New Man,
So thank you so much for being on this show
and right back at you. Same thing to you, to
(41:30):
Sarah both your congratulations I mean that for real awesome
and thank you all for bringing a lot of great
laughs to my life and and their show. And you
and last and not least, I know this, you're a
pet fanatic like me. So let's on or off the air.
Let's figure out something to do with my Life Rocks
Foundation and you and I will make a donation with
(41:50):
you to somebody great. If you're still working with Nashville's
Humane Society or anything like that, let me know we'll
do something great together. I would love that. Man. Yeah,
let's let to keep the dialogue going after the show
before I let you go. Was there anything that you
wanted to talk about or promote that I didn't ask
you about. No, I just want to tell everybody stay safe,
stay healthy, and one thing, when we can get back
(42:12):
on the road, back out on the road, when it's
healthy and safe for the fans, the bands, the crew
will continue this stadium tour. We're gonna make it great.
And I am again I'm a grateful guy, So thank
you and thank all the fans all the awesome years
I get to do what I love to do. And
three generations, maybe even four generations of them now out
there rocking with us. So so thank you, Thank you
(42:34):
Brett Michael's. You rock, dude. Enjoy the rest of the
day and we'll talk to him. You do the same.
I'll talk to you soon. See you, buddy, bye, dude.
Could you like It's one of those things. It's just
so funny to me one night when after you talk
to these people and you're just like, oh, yeah, totally.
It totally makes sense why Brett Michael's is famous. It
absolutely makes a hundred percent sense that that guy was
successful and you know, like pull Away, the the headband
(42:57):
and the rocker. The guy got into a room with
him and he pitched me on something. I'm like, yeah,
let's do it right now. How much money do you need?
You know? Because he brings that energy and that was
just so cool man, super inspiring. So thank you, Brett.
I didn't get to do rapid fire question, but I
wanted to be respectful this time, so we built out early.
But um, I got a feeling that we're gonna have
Brett back on the show soon. Alright, guys, be safe
(43:19):
out there, and you know what, don't forget sometimes the
biggest heartaches. Getting cheated on by your lady and finding
out in a Texas roadside gas station can cause the
best things in the world to happen to you. Right
subscribe to Wealth cast on I Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts,
(43:40):
or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the Internet line.
This is a Wells Cast with Wells Adams and I
heart radio podcast. That is correct, Ladies and gentlemen. This
is the Wells Cast, the show where I interview your
favorite celebrities and I find out how the hell they
became well celebrities. Very excited about today's episode, and I'll
(00:23):
tell you why. Obviously, I came from the radio world.
At one point I was hosting a classic rock show
in Nashville in the afternoons. And if you ever listened
to a classic rock show, you know that there are
well a few bands that get played. I would say
at least once an hour, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones,
(00:46):
the Beatles, Guns and Roses, and Poison That's right. You'd
be lucky to go two hours listening to any classic
rock show without hearing the song every Rose has a
Thorn by band Poison Boy. He Rose and obviously from
(01:17):
being from the Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise is a
song that I have sung on many occasions. Whether it's
a rose ceremony, whether it's a one on one, whatever,
there's always a good chance that you'll hear Brett Michaels
were about some silky, sultry ballad esque goodness on Monday
(01:38):
nights on a VC from My House. Let's rewind the
reels just a little bit. Yes, Brett Michaels was the
lead singer of the gigantically huge hair metal band Poison,
but then he pivoted into the realm of reality TV.
Oh I know you guys remember Rock of Love, which
also inspired his successful solo album Rock My World. Then
(02:01):
the man went on to win Celebrity Apprentice three. And now,
if you've been following the mass singer, you know that
the banana was, in fact Bret Michaels. The man has
done everything. Number one hitting the Billboard charts. Yeah, he
got it on reality TV show, Yeah he did it.
Wrote a book. Oh it's out now. So today in
(02:22):
the Welles, guest, we're gonna sit down with the man
who made bandana's cool again, the one, the only Brett
Michael's don't go anywhere wells, Bret Man, how are you doing?
(02:53):
I'm doing great? Man? How are you I'm doing awesome?
I'm doing awesome. You're just coming up on the screen now, Man,
this is great. Man. Your your little studio room is
pretty dope. I gotta be honest with you. Thank you,
thank you. That's a lot of gold records behind you.
I'm gonna put behind me my j V Soccer Most
(03:14):
Valuable Player trophy, just so everyone else is a little
intimidated by what they're coming into. You have to you know,
I will help you put that up. I'm good with
I'm good with tools and handyman work. Brett. I know
that you know my fiance Sarah Highland from Modern Family
absolutely absolutely. By the way, congratulations to both you and
(03:34):
her on the absolute success of that show and the
great acting and writing and just I took them all
down some plaques just to say thanks you all all
the incredible years. And Eric has been giving me a
really hard time of whether or not I was the
banana the bandana banana on the Mass singer. Well, it's
funny because everyone thinks that Sarah is the kitty cat
(03:54):
or the kittie. I'm gonna tell you something. I'm not
gonna lie one thousand percent. I'm telling you I was
looking and I'm thinking, I'm just going that has to
be her, and then Kitty broke my heart. Broke my heart.
They booted me right out of there. But let me
just reset real quick on the Wells kind of today,
(04:15):
I have the man, the myth, the legend, Brett Michaels.
You were doing so well on the Mass Singer, but
then I feel like Sharon Osborne really came in there
and sucks the mare out of the room and new abscuse, like,
I know for a fact I have a terrible British section.
I know for the fact that's Brett Michaels. That's how
(04:35):
he sounds. I've known it for thirty years. And then
he did the thing with his hands and I knew
it was him, and I was like, Sharon, play a
cool dude, don't out him like thing. You were saying
exactly what I'm saying. When I'm standing that tunnel, and
I thought, man, we're rocking along here. I want to
be in the show. And I'm thinking I've done everything
to throw him off with the voice. Now the social
media you had me at one it was me, but
(04:56):
I'm like, I keep fooling him. And I got ken
fold and I walked out there and literally, you know
exactly what I'm talking about. My brain is looking up
there while I'm trying to be a human banana and
I'm thinking, although it's it's Sharon Osborne. I'm screwed. So
that was my first I'm like, she's gonna know this instantly.
(05:17):
And before I even got to the bench, I saw
Plan over and say something about the way I was walking,
and I'm like, oh, we're this, this is it, this
is it right here. Well, congratulations on how far you went.
I used to do a classic rock show in Nashville
for my Heart. I would play at least one Poison
song an hour because that's how classic rock stations work.
(05:38):
There's like fifteen bands that you play. I love that,
by the way, of course, thank you. And also like
every rose has a thorn. I came from the Bachelor World.
Do you know how many times I hear that damn
song every freaking rose ceremony. I'm so sorry for the
pain you had to go through a hearing at every
sports seconds And by the way, one oh five right correct?
(06:00):
I done the rock all right there? It is, well,
congratulations on doing so well. We've interviewed a bunch of
people that have been on the Mass Singer. We did
Paul Shaffer, and we did Victor Oladipo. I have a
good friend who's actually a choreographer on the show, and
she tells me, like, it's crazy the amount of work
that goes into hiding everyone's identity, even like offstage, off
(06:24):
camera offset. I mean, they've got you guys in like
hoodies and gloves and one can see like the color
of your skin. It's crazy. It's unbelievable. When I say this,
it is the most one of the most fun shows
I've ever done, hands down, really, but the secrecy, the
secrecy in that show from the time you leave your
house to get into the car, if they're taking you
(06:46):
down there, you've gone on Darth Vader outfit. You've got
the mass, the gloves. They couldn't even let my bird
sized ankles. They were like determined to cover up these
shame of ankles I've got. They were like, you got
to cover the ows everything. You walk around and it
is like literally like you're a ghost. Like I'm walking
by people I've known forever on shows, walking by crew
(07:09):
that were out with us on the road that were
light riggers, and they're walking by me. You're not speaking
to them, and you you're like a real life Avenger.
Like when I say that, I'm like Peter Parker, I
want to shout out I'm spider Man, and that you
there's nobody they go nuts on you. Man, They they
go crazy if you even start to talk to someone there.
I mean, hearing you say that this is one of
the like the most enjoyable and fulfilling shows, is kind
(07:33):
of bonkers because you've been on a lot of reality
TV sets and done a lot of television. So what
made this one so much more I guess fun or
interesting than the others. A couple of things, one all
of them. I'm I'm one of those guys. Well that's
I'm grateful for everything I get to do. True story.
I'm I'm grateful, glad to be on the good side
(07:54):
of the dirt all after all the craziness I've been
through my life. And and I said, just going on there,
everyone's at A two was awesome. Everybody was fun. Everyone
treated you great. There's a lot of respect, but there's
very few people that actually know what you so they're
just treating this figure whatever. This figure is really great,
positive vibe um. And of course I'm amused. Soundtrack. You know,
(08:16):
music is a soundtrack from everyday life. So being around
music was what made it a lot of fun, because
that's what we were doing, but it was a ton
I'm not gonna lie, a's a ton of work involved
the choreographers and music directors, everybody. But what made it
I think the most fun for me going down there
was it was such a positive vibe to the show,
(08:37):
and then when you get there, all of a sudden
that the fans that they're viewing it are in a
great mood. Everyone in the audience is in a great mood.
And then I watched the show with my kids and
they we love also playing amateur detective. You know, so
your part mass singer, your your part vocals part masks up,
crazy outfit, but then more than anything, you're playing amateur
(08:58):
detective and that makes it a lot of fun interesting show.
For a lot of the people that we've interviewed that
have been on the show, they talk about the mask,
the shrouding of oneself makes it easier to kind of
be on stage because it strips away a little bit
of the anxiety. You are a person who's totally used
to that and very comfortable. So what were the differences
(09:21):
between being on stage and people can see your face
and performing and being on stage and people can't see
your face in performing that is a great question. Number
one For me, I'm a how are you doing? Handshake,
big hug, run out to the front of the thrust
kind of guy. So the first few minutes of any
solo show or poison show, I'm out there for three minutes,
(09:41):
hitting everyone's hand, having a blast, and then we started
a song write. The song is chugging along and we
finally get to it. With this, there's obviously camera moves
and are doing all that stuff. The mask for me
because one, I'm coustrophobic, so going in there, there was
a whole moment of me trying to find my uh
inner happy place and za and then you got the
massive suit. I lost five shredded five good pounds every show,
(10:06):
uh off. They're put them back right back on after.
But during that thing there was sweat. The first song
I did first night, my Heart's pounding, the crowds chant
and banana Banana. I come running out. I got sweat
in years. There's there's no words, and I'm looking through
a banana hole that's this big. So I've got the
microphone which is blocking the already blocked view. I have
(10:30):
no prefield vision, and my eyes in the mouth are
the same little banana hole in the middle. It made it.
Can I say this when I say surreal? It was
a surreal experience. It was like I said, it was
the best time ever and the most crazy difficult thing
for me to do because I was completely in my
(10:51):
comfort zone but out of it because I'm also trying
to sing songs so no one knows my voice. I'm
trying to sing Elvis. I'm trying to sing all these songs,
low eighty, Breaky Heart, I'm doing Lean on Me, all
songs I love, but not songs in that I are
in my set. If you know what I mean, Does
this change your set now going forward? Like will you
throw in some Billy Ray Cyrus or after? I gotta
(11:14):
have a little Billy right, And I gotta make up
for it because I got so excited. I said, put me.
I begged them. I'm like, put me in with the fans,
put me in the crowd. I want to start there, like, well,
it gets a little confusing and people, and I said, no,
let them feel the peel. That was the whole thing.
So I get in there and everyone's touching, grabbing, I'm
slapping hands and the next this is before the coronavirus.
Now we're doing this whole thing, and the next thing,
(11:37):
I know, someone's looking in the little hole like bad
if you can imagine an old bad drug movie, you know,
whide wide angle vision fish is lens and they're looking
in saying bread is that you? And I'm going like,
I don't know what to do. And the song had
already started. I'm like, oh, crap, man, I better get
it together now. And I luckily went back to pull
(11:59):
it all together and uh and said get it together.
And I came back into the second half of the
first chorus and caught back up with the song and
it was say, let me tell you, it was a
wild ride, but a lot of fun. Well, Sara and
I had an amazing time watching and guessing and kind
of playing along and uh, it just it does seem
like a really fun, just production to be around. But
(12:22):
it's just gotta be like I've done enough television shows.
It's got to be so weird to not be able
to converse with crew. Um, I can't even imagine what
that's like. You know, one million percent and you, I'm
saying this to you have an incredible personality knowing and
knowing you but knowing you like this, but also seeing
other stuff, all the stuff you've done, your personality is
(12:45):
is engaging. And what I'm saying that for me, that's
I'm just saying that was the toughest part of this
whole show was being a ghost, like I'm walking by.
They literally had to set me down with all the
productions say you've got to stop shaking people's hands and talk.
You can't speak. I'm like, because they're gonna figure out
who it is, and then someone's gonna tell someone and
(13:05):
then you're gonna be off the show in the first episode,
you know what I mean. And I that for me
was the toughest because I'm friends with all of our
crew we work with. If I'm on the road, I'm
out there on my mountain bike hanging out with the
crew while they're setting stuff up. That was the toughest part.
I saw that you have a new autobiography out right now. Correct,
(13:25):
it's a brand new autobiography. It's called Auto scrap Bography,
and it just it's volume one. So I'm doing these
and volumes and really simply put it is it covers
all the pictures of their time stamp with every single
story we've got it in an E book, we got
it hard classic hard copy. And then what we're gonna
do is sit in this room and I'm gonna read
(13:46):
the book and as a master just as a track,
lay it down and then have still in moving images.
So it's like audible going up to the next level.
So it's an audio visual experience of the book. Does
it start the beginning like does this book showcase you
as a kid? Then getting to now everything? And it's fits.
(14:08):
So Volume one covers like I went through the Malibu fire,
I almost drowned in Caracas. We talked, we touched on
the brain hemorrhage, which, by the way, I didn't get
to talk to you about last night. No idea in
the world on my life, my kid's life. I never
knew I'd be finishing up April. So April, ten years ago,
I had my brain subracnoid brain hemorrhage. They were operating
(14:32):
on my brain West Coast time while I was playing
Knocking on Heaven's door. That that is no lie, that
is it was happening. It was so surreal for me,
like I get the chill now, like it was I'm thinking.
I had no idea that that universe would line up
like that, and so I had the brain hemorrhage and
it were properating ten years ago to almost a minute
(14:53):
of when I was singing the song, playing the piano,
singing knocking on Heaven's door, looking at Sharon into years
ago that night last night, they're operating on my my
brain bleed to save my life. Was there foresighting that,
were you like ten years ago, I may may or
may not have lived. I want to play a song
that showcases that none of that went into it. It
(15:15):
just happened to all line up. When I say for real,
you know, people say that, I mean it organically, it
all lined up like no one ever discussed that with me,
we meaning no one ever had that this is going
to go to there and know that it was a
Wednesday night like it. It just all lined up. And
then people started putting it together and I'm like, wait
a minute, this is unbelievable that this is happening. And
(15:37):
almost to the minute it went on, it was. It
was a wild It was a wild, surreal moment for me.
That's crazy, dude. And then in the book again going
back to that and I thank you for asking me
in this it covers everything. But I wrote it all myself,
handwrote it, wrote out the notes, did everything, and tried
to match every picture to take people on a real journey,
(15:59):
like a real you'll feel it. When I got held
up a gun point when I was sixteen years old,
me and my three buddies in the band went somewhere
to party and uh, and we are two people uh
that put rifles to my head, thought we had robbed
their house. True story, and all the guys verify it verbatim.
I said, just tell your version. And I talked my
(16:20):
way out of dying, literally like I literally negotiated with
and they thought we had our stuff in the trunk
of my car. I said, in his hand was shake
and you know, his hands like this on the rifle,
and I'm thinking that I know that gun and that
thing is going to go off, and his adrenaline was
jacked up. True story, and I said, I got I
don't want to say i'd be good in a firefight,
(16:41):
but I was good in a firefight. I got calm,
and I said, please put that gun out of my
head and set it down and look at everything in
this car. But all these stories in the book there's
pictures of the I hate to say it, but my
uh seventies style rocking wardrobe. You'll have to. I mean,
it's most of the book is a good laugh, a
(17:02):
lot of self deprecation and just funny stories and face
and adversity. It had been weird if you had started
singing Knock on Heaven's Door during that encounter with the
guy with the rifles. Yeah, no, that didn't happen. There
was a lot of other things going through my brain
sing right. I don't know if anyone told you, Brett,
but what the the idea for this show is. It's
an origin story show. So I think it's really interesting
(17:24):
how huber successful people were able to get to where
they are now. And a lot of people know kind
of the story. I would assume a lot of people
know the story from Poison to Rock of Love to
Apprentice to now doing mass singer. But I wanted to
kind of go through how did you get to the
poison days? I was wondering if we could go back
(17:44):
and and and hear that story. And I guess this
is gonna be probably like almost like a cliffs Notes
version of your book. So if you like any of
these stories. Then you might want to delve a little
bit deeper and by the book. But the deep dive
on this is thank you for asking us for real,
because that that's the moment I say to everybody you know,
back then again, and I'm saying this you when you're
(18:06):
coming out as a starving musician, when you're coming out
as a band, you have to make that commitment. I'm
a thousand percent guy, and you've got to bet on yourself.
People use that word, but I mean that word. You
have to bet on you. And at the same time,
you're an artist. Here I am on the East Coast
playing five sets and night three sets and night cover songs,
(18:27):
and we try to slip in a few originals, but
no one's playing the songs. No one's doing anything. So
we made our move to the West Coast, which at
that time on the Sunset Strip was given opportunities for
bands like us. But there was a lot of pay
to play and all this others. There's a lot of
stuff going on. I say this to everybody. One of
the big arcs is in the story, is you besides
(18:50):
betting on yourself, You've got to find a way surround yourself.
Hopefully with great friends, and you go out there and
the great people that all have the same mission if
you're not your solo art, had the same journey. And
then we found every way we would go. And when
a lot of the bands, a lot of the bands
in l A would worry about rent and a limo
to drive up to the true door, which is cool.
(19:12):
They're trying to make it look big. That's great, but
then you go inside the troubador or the rocksy and
there's seven people. And so we were the opposite of
what we would do. We lived behind a dry cleaner
and all of our many then went to making flyers,
and we couldn't afford the good colors like white and
canary yellow that were expensive, so they gave us boatloads
(19:34):
skids of green flyers. And that's literally where the poison
green merchandise that a lot of bands used. Now it
was called poison green merchandise color. We got flyers no
one wanted, and we put him everywhere, and it ended
up becoming our trademark. And when you drove by him,
you'd see him up and you knew we were playing.
So we would pull up in a windowless chevette and
(19:57):
when I say, a band that barely ran and push
our gear, and there we were our own crew, We
were our own catering and our own band. So but
never once during that struggle, never once during that struggle
that we ever think of given in. And I just
looked at it like these these are truly my college years.
This is paying my dues, and we just found a
(20:19):
way to get it done. When you look back, because
I have that same thing too. Obviously I wasn't in
a gigantic band, but I have those paying my dues memories.
And maybe we all have revisionist history. I don't know,
but I look back on those years when I was
like waiting tables and like moonlighting and radio stations making
like no money for whatever reason, I look back at
(20:40):
those as being the best years of my life. Absolutely,
And just add to that, I never knew anything was bad.
And I think that the attitude I'm a gratitude, I'm grateful,
I have gratitude is my attitude. I'm thankful, And I
think that with yourself, the reason for your success is
the same thing. I look back at those years and Nate,
(21:00):
although they were hard times, or you would consider I
was living if there was a below the poverty level.
I went one level below that. When I say we lived,
we lived at the back half of a dry cleaner
because our gear fit in there right on. We were
down on Palm Grove Avenue and down in Washington, and
we didn't care. We did everything we could to practice
(21:22):
in their rehearsing their We'd pick up on and end jobs.
And I can tell you what I learned all my
cooking skills by working at Bob's Big Boy. Yeah, you
know what, I'm not making that up. I can I
can cook up. I was good with the dishes and uh,
a good Friday cook. I wanted to go back a
little bit further. You grew up in Pennsylvania. Is it
true that you grew up either in or near a
(21:44):
town called Mechanicsville. Yeah, Mechanicsburg, I grew up. I grew
up in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. But I was originally born in
Pittsburgh and Butler and my dad was in I's a veteran.
He was in the Navy, and we got relocated to
the Inland Naval Depot after he came back for his
services overseas. And uh, and then we got relocated there
(22:04):
and made our life in in both Mechanicsburg and Pittsburgh
or Harrisburg. I should say Mechanicsburg sounds like a fictional
town from the movie Cars. I'm amazed that that place exists.
It seems very blue collar kind of assault of the
earth people living there. You decided to do something that
(22:25):
I assume not a lot of people in that town
decided to do, which was pursue music. Was that a
tough sell, like on your parents and in your family
and your friends. Yeah, there was a couple of things
going on. So six years old, I get diagnosed as diabetic.
I'm I'm insulin independent five shots a day since I've
been six years old till right here standing talking to you,
(22:47):
and we that was number one. My dad, naval depot
and all this to everybody there. Music wasn't a bad thing.
People love listening to it. But because a lot of
bands didn't make it. When you said, hey, I'm going
to become a musician. We're gonna go to l A,
We're gonna make a record, it's gonna be great and
a career of it, it wasn't like people go, oh
my god, that's great. They thought that's a great hobby.
(23:09):
But if you wanted a real job, you went down
and got a job on the docks, You went down
to the naval depot, got a job. He went and
worked at UPS or Kenny shoot, whatever whatever was available
for a job, right And and I think that that
is one of the true battles, is again not just
betting on yourself, but believing in it to receive it.
(23:29):
In other words, I had to vision it. And then
I went and sold everything I owned, every from skis
to I had. I loved motocross. I sold my favorite
dirt bike, you know, sold my car and that that
was worth all two hundred bucks, and you know, all
that stuff, But I never never had a doubt. We
loaded that stuff in the band and we drove to California,
(23:52):
figured it out piece by piece with Bobby and Ricky
and CC, myself and a guy named Matt Smith, and
we made our move. So you get out he year.
You're printing these flyers on this cheap green cardboard paper
from so Speedy, from Sir Speedy. You're you're a line
cook at Bob's Big Boy. Was there a paradigm shift?
(24:12):
It was there a point where you were like, oh,
this is working, this is gonna, this is gonna happen.
Was there a moment, I know, the moment you're looking forward,
but it goes a little further in. So here's what happened.
Here was the blessing of all of this. We played everywhere.
We would sell out everywhere. We played two nights at
the Palace Place, clubs that weren't heard of for a
local original band with no record deal. Then we play
(24:36):
a place called the Country Club out in Mecita, California.
We sign a deal as US as the record label
with an independent label called Enigma and Green World at
the time, and we make the album Look with the
catch rag game and we're talking no money. We slept
in the studio for the week that they would let
us there. Um, we recorded the songs just almost live
(24:58):
and are sign day. When everyone else was talking about
limos and jets and this and all this stuff, we
were setting in Elsa Gundo, California, on my but on
the ground, shrink rapping and packing our albums and cassettes
in the boxes. The ship off as an independent band.
(25:18):
Here was the beauty. We kept all of our publishing.
No one wanted any of the publishing for every rose
or any of our songs that none of them thought
they These are the exact words um from many labels.
We just don't hear the nucleus of any hit on
any of these songs. So here's talk dirty to me.
I won't forget you every rose something to believe in.
None of them. We're gonna make it. We were a
(25:40):
great band for the strip, but that was it, and
here we are thirty one years later. But the Beauty
we got to keep all of our publishing and we
owned our content and it ended up being a really
great blessing most bands. As an artist, you're starving, you'll
sign away for a limo ride and a good leather jacket.
Most deals got signed for that, and then they owned
(26:02):
all your stuff for us. We just again went back
to this. Bobby and Ricky see see myself sit down
and said, let's just bet on ourselves because the money
they're giving us as a bad loan anyway, we gotta
pay back, and we're starving already. Let's just starve until
we really make it. When you really make it, then,
are you guys like all right now we can get
(26:23):
the leather jackets and the limos or are you still
doing it pretty blue collar. No, we we ended up.
Ours was our dream wasn't so much a limo. Our
dream was more to get on a tour bus and
toward the country. Like, actually, I'm not selling you on this,
I'm telling you truth. Playing music to this moment is
still the most exciting thing for me. Man. I get
(26:45):
to play, and I got to travel, and then a
few leather jackets in There are a lot of insane parties.
But luckily, luckily along the way, we were traveling and
doing what we loved and and but our crossroad true
moment in life, and this is in the book. This
is the crossroad we played. We were playing nightclubs and
breaking we got to play Texas Stadium. It's on the
(27:07):
I Won't Forget You video by Poison. So here's Paul
Stanley on stage from Kiss playing with us, Steven Tyler
smacking me in the back, wishing me luck on the
way to the stage, the guys from Boston watching this show,
and we're filming the video for I Won't Forget You
in front of eighty three thousand people, and I'm like,
this is surreal. It took me three songs to even
(27:29):
get air into my lungs because I was so nervous.
And then when we got done, I partied like a
rock star. I'm not gonna lie. I threw down. It
was good. But I've never been rude anybody, always treating
the fans great. I partied with the fans like a
rock star. And probably twelve hours from then, we were
driving through I believe it was Carlson Corner, either New
(27:50):
Mexico or Texas is to another show. Not making this up.
We pull into a truck stop. I get out. I'm like, man,
we are rock stars. Eighty three thousand people, this is awesome.
We walked in like the Bob Seeker turned the page.
There was about five truckers in there, A couple maybe
a couple of people looked at us like, who the
(28:11):
hell are you guys, and what are you doing here?
And it was the best moment in my life. It
leveled it perfectly. It if there was ever a moment
of me thinking this is gonna happen every day, it
gave me a perfect balance to my life. And I
took that and that became every rose as its storm.
So it was a perfect moment. So that was the
moment that you decided to write that song that well,
(28:34):
that in a broken heart, But I'll get into that.
It was right at that time. It was the putting
the dimes into the old pay phone and waiting for
my three pieces of clothing I owned to dry, and
then that phone call was heartbreaking. Got on the phone,
I heard another guy's voice in the background in the
apartment we lived in, and that for me was my uh,
(28:56):
that was my true heartbreak moment. But from it came
a decent song. Was her name Rose? It was not
we have a connection. I lived in Nashville for a
very long time. I was in radio there and I
saw that you have a kid that goes to Belmont.
That's correct? Are they musicians? I assume we're working, are
(29:17):
doing music business? Yeah, A couple of things. First of all,
love Nashville. I bought a range there off a brick
church Pike, lived there for the longest time. It is
truly a music city. And um, I know a University
of Mississippi too, Am I not my that? So I'm
playing I'm just saying that mixed with Nashville. I love
it still down there all the time. My oldest daughter
(29:40):
Ray Elizabeth's now of all things you ready for. This
is my come uppings as a dad. She is now
Sports Illustrated, one of the models of the Swimsuit Models
of the Year. So mixing that with Belmont, she's very
intelligent young lady and uh, and so is my youngest daughter,
Georgia Blue as a songwriter. So we go back and
she wrote the on and Broken with me. If if
(30:01):
fans have a chance to check it out, it's a
beautiful song, especially right now facing the adversity we're going
through in the world. So they could check that video out,
just called Unbroken with Brett Michaels and my daughter Georgia Michaels.
But the truth of the matter is there, they are
great kids. I hope I've given them enough positivity and
strength to navigate through life, you know, because eventually you
(30:24):
gotta you protect them aspect as you can, but eventually
they've got to come into their own and I hope
I taught them with their gut to know what to
do if something goes bad. Listen, if you go to Belmont,
that means you are a phenomenal UH singer. But probably
more importantly, UH, it's it's a place that just creates
amazing songwriters. A lot of my friends went there looping
(30:48):
back to every rose. When you wrote it, did you
know it was going to be a hit. No, here's
the craziest thing. You're ready. This is why you're great
talking like this. This is the truth when we wrote
that song, when I sit there and wrote it, I
wrote it after playing I would tell our band never
never pigeonhole us, let's go play everywhere. And we went
(31:10):
and played a country bar. We played a honky tonk
in Dallas, and that's the night I made the phone call.
This is a true story, and we wrote this. We
wrote the place then was called the Ritz. It was
like a country bar, right, And we went and played
it and you played two stories up, so none of
the people on the grounding and saw us. We're just
up there playing rock music. And then when we finished
(31:32):
and they kind of looked up, waved and went on
about their way, and I went back made the phone call.
Broke my heart. That's a horrible feeling, by the way, heartbreak.
It's undescribable, man, that feeling of you know, and mixed
with your piste off. It's is a lot of stuff
going on. Luckily, music is therapeutic to me wrote it
(31:53):
on the acoustic guitar. No. Lie wrote every rose that night.
And then we took it to the label and they
bumped it down to maybe like a fifth singer. So
here's us as sweet signid music. We're taking it to
then Capitol. You know. Our first independent record blew up,
sold like three million copies. They're like, I don't know, man,
(32:14):
you're crossing country with rock and it's sad Poison's party band.
And then we said, no, we're not gonna be pigeonholed
and what to do? And so nothing but a Good
Time came out. First record sold two million, Fallen Angel
went to three million, and then we released every Road
Has Its Thorn as a role. It was just one
of those throwaway songs, and it became Dallas of All Places.
(32:38):
The Eagle and the country station played the song, and
then it became the number one of our first number
one songs. The people tried to have you recorded not
as a ballot. No, they tried that in our first
independent record. I got stories. I would put you to sleep,
but I promise you they're exciting. I almost got in
a fist fight with the guy trying to produce our
(33:00):
first album. He wanted to talk dirty to me to
become a ballot, Like, what are you talking about? This
song is just badass, straightforward groove hook, you know what
I mean, almost a little bit punkish in a sense, right,
And and that didn't go well. So he was out
and we just did it ourselves. And then but but
that fighting spirit is good. You gotta have it, you know,
(33:21):
and then we with every Rose. I don't even think
they cared. I'm not saying they did. They hated the song,
but I don't think they cared. They're like, it's kind
of a crossover country rock, like it's like a new Eagles.
We're not we don't know what to do with this thing.
And everything then was just straight up rock songs, you
know that we're going out and uh so that was it.
(33:43):
We put it out in the fans. I'm thanking them
for people everybody pop rock, country, relating to that song
and helping to make it our first number one song. Yeah,
I know. I think one of the takeaways of that
story is because it happens in every business, you'll have
people that are above you, that are supposed to quote
unquote no more than you do. People can give you
(34:05):
bad advice and think it's good advice. If you don't
stick with your gut and stick to your guns, then
you could miss out on I don't know that that
sounds massive. You could have missed out on such a
massive song, but you stuck to your guns. And here
we are, now here, we're having this conversation and sticking
to those guns. I'm gonna say this one time, when
we have like seven hours, I will tell you the
(34:27):
every moment of my life is a Roses and Thorn's moment.
It is a crossroads. So doing going from they are
jumping forward to to rock a love. I don't even
want to begin to tell you because I didn't know
how to do Hollywood speak. You know, I didn't know
run it up the flag, pull circle a wagon, put
a pin balloon, drop it. I didn't know what you
need that men, And I'm on a focus group conversation
(34:48):
about my show who Was Again? Everyone thought it was fun,
kind of funny. Great, we'll throw it against the wall,
see what happens. So I just took the same thing.
I took it by the horns. A nice said, let's
work with then Chris abrego and end them all and
everybody that was working on that show, Mark everyone. I said, guys,
(35:08):
please just let this be what it is. Let's not
focus group this thing, you know, my advertising. Instead of
going to the big stuff, they wanted me to go
along Jones Beach and hand out Beach House to people
to tell them to watch the show. I go, I don't.
I don't think that's a really good idea. I'm not
gonna do that. I don't. We just go and talk
to people, let them know what exists. And then it
(35:31):
took on a life of its own. Again like every rose.
I thank the viewers, but again I tell people, stick
to your guns. Just stick to your guns. Not that
they meant harm, but that that. I don't think handing
out beach towels was gonna break this wide open. I
(35:59):
mean you, you've played in front of you know, eighty
thousand people in Dallas or whatever it was, and then
you go and you make this this television show that is,
for lack of a better term, a cultural phenomenon, like
people love that show. Um, what were you at? What
what brought you more joy? Being a television star or
(36:19):
being a rock star. It's for number one, I say
this to everybody. Music is my first love, and I
am glad that it launched me into the ability to
do reality. My acting skills are never never My true
acting skills are never putting DeNiro out of work. I'm
just saying my acting skills like a lot to be desired.
The first night we did rock Love, I said, guys,
(36:42):
please don't make me script this, don't make me take
it over. Let's just make it a part me. I'm
not going to tell the girls I love them. I
don't love them yet. They don't know me, and they
don't love me yet. You know. So I pull up
in my heartley, I take the helmet off, I throw
it in the ground. I said, let's go in and
get hammered. Let's add a little tequila of this party,
and let's see what happens. First episode, night one. One
(37:04):
of the girls I liked. Her name was Laura I believe,
and she goes. She goes, I can see she won't
have many a good time. I said, is there a problem?
What can I do? She goes, I'm not really into this?
I go, you mean the show? She's like, no, no,
I'm not really I go into me. She goes, I'm
not India. I'm not I'm not attracted to you. It
can I be honest and she wasn't making it up.
I go heartbreaking, but okay, that's real life. And from
(37:27):
there of the show, I said, they literally said, you
want to edit that out? I go, no, this is
real life. Let's let it rock. I said, broke my heart,
but I'm good with it. Let's go what's happened any times? People? Yeah?
I said, let's just rock and she just goes, you're
not my taste. I got I got you, I got you.
So that was it and rock and Love was born,
and I said, let's do stuff the girls. They're fun,
(37:50):
they're intelligent, they're beautiful. Let's go race dirt bikes, lingerie, football's,
let's go ride horses. We went and did all this
crazy stuff to win a date and it made it
a lot of fun. I'm running out of time, unfortunately,
I could talk to you for you. Okay. So I've
now done both too. I've done reality where the prizes
is love effectively, and then I've done competition style shows.
(38:13):
It's a different beast. Your intentions and what you're trying
to do are completely different. You go on Celebrity Apprentice,
you win it. What was that experience like in contrast
to your own reality dating love show? A couple of things.
Great question going on to Apprentice, and I'll go straight
to this. I wanted to do the show. I wanted
(38:35):
to show people you don't get here by being lucky.
You you may get lucky one time, you may get
your foot in the door, but while staying in the door.
Staying in the door, that's the battle. Meaning I want
to stay at the party. I want to rock, I
want to continue. This is what I live to do,
to be creative and then turn it into something. In
other words, there's a lot of really really great people
(38:56):
out there have great ideas. I mean that the problem
is when they hit the all they give up. You
can't give up, man, You've got to stay in the fight.
And and so when I say that, I wanted to
do Apprentice. So we stopped down doing here I am
doing Rock a Love highest rated show on v H one,
and I said, stop this town, We're gonna go do this.
Then we finished that up. I came back. We got
(39:17):
to do rock my RV life as I know it
with my family and kids. You know what, I'm saying
it was a lot of craziness going on, but two
completely different battles. Like when you're doing Apprentice, you're you're
all smiling in each other, but at the same time
you're helping your team. But eventually that's gonna fold in
on itself. If you're there near the end, the people
(39:40):
you that were your friends you were fighting with, you're
now fighting against. You know what I mean to win it?
And and so that's what happened. And and I say this,
I'll leave it on this, I know well run out
of time. The true battle of staying in that is
and I say this, I'm the only Apprentice of all
those 's that ever still had a real product with
(40:02):
Tropic Rocket with Dr Pepper Snapple that's still on the market.
But that wasn't out of luck that was going there
discussing it. And what you want to do is surround
yourself with good people and good partnerships and and and
then in the end of the day, you don't want
to end this battle. But I ended up being bitter.
I don't want to be bitter, man. I want to
have a great time. If there's people my life that
(40:24):
are great, they stay. If those people in my life
aren't great. They're got to go and that's the only
way you can do it, and and surround yourself with
awesome people. Brett Michael's there's one common denominator of every
guest that I've had on this show, and it is
the energy that they bring into the room, or in
this case, the zoom is so tangible and electric that
(40:46):
it complete changes my day. And I know that's not
that important, but it is. You know, we're quarantine, we're stuck,
and everything is kind of weird. We're in this flux
and then I get to sit down with someone like
you and it complained eatly uplifts me and it gives
me all this energy and it it's one of those
things where like I totally get it. After all these
conversations and talking to you, It's like I totally get
(41:09):
why you're successful. It makes total sense. You're a wonderful guy.
You are super passionate, You're extremely energetic, and I think
that at the end of the day, if it's a job,
you want people to want to work for you or
with you, and I could totally see that. New Man,
So thank you so much for being on this show
and right back at you. Same thing to you, to
(41:30):
Sarah both your congratulations I mean that for real awesome
and thank you all for bringing a lot of great
laughs to my life and and their show. And you
and last and not least, I know this, you're a
pet fanatic like me. So let's on or off the air.
Let's figure out something to do with my Life Rocks
Foundation and you and I will make a donation with
(41:50):
you to somebody great. If you're still working with Nashville's
Humane Society or anything like that, let me know we'll
do something great together. I would love that. Man. Yeah,
let's let to keep the dialogue going after the show
before I let you go. Was there anything that you
wanted to talk about or promote that I didn't ask
you about. No, I just want to tell everybody stay safe,
stay healthy, and one thing, when we can get back
(42:12):
on the road, back out on the road, when it's
healthy and safe for the fans, the bands, the crew
will continue this stadium tour. We're gonna make it great.
And I am again I'm a grateful guy, So thank
you and thank all the fans all the awesome years
I get to do what I love to do. And
three generations, maybe even four generations of them now out
there rocking with us. So so thank you, Thank you
(42:34):
Brett Michael's. You rock, dude. Enjoy the rest of the
day and we'll talk to him. You do the same.
I'll talk to you soon. See you, buddy, bye, dude.
Could you like It's one of those things. It's just
so funny to me one night when after you talk
to these people and you're just like, oh, yeah, totally.
It totally makes sense why Brett Michael's is famous. It
absolutely makes a hundred percent sense that that guy was
successful and you know, like pull Away, the the headband
(42:57):
and the rocker. The guy got into a room with
him and he pitched me on something. I'm like, yeah,
let's do it right now. How much money do you need?
You know? Because he brings that energy and that was
just so cool man, super inspiring. So thank you, Brett.
I didn't get to do rapid fire question, but I
wanted to be respectful this time, so we built out early.
But um, I got a feeling that we're gonna have
Brett back on the show soon. Alright, guys, be safe
(43:19):
out there, and you know what, don't forget sometimes the
biggest heartaches. Getting cheated on by your lady and finding
out in a Texas roadside gas station can cause the
best things in the world to happen to you. Right
subscribe to Wealth cast on I Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts,
(43:40):
or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the Internet line.
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