I have always been a Poison fan. For those of you who don’t know, Bret Michaels was the front man (lead singer) for Poison. In fact, they still tour and are going on a huge tour next year to celebrate their 25 year anniversary (I believe it’s 25). Anyway, Bret primarily focuses on his solo music now with the Bret Michaels band. Aside from that he has played in the Rock of Love and Love Bus reality show series’s and has made several appearances on talk shows and other hit shows such as American Idol and America’s Got Talent. Most notably, however, was his winning Celebrity Apprentice–a very difficult task.
Bret suffered a brain hemorrhage and was in the hospital for a bit getting emergency surgery. The Doctors didn’t think he would make it. Miraculously, he made it out alive and has been doing quite well. He still has some things to go through including more surgeries, but things are looking up. In fact, most of what he did above was during that time he had the hemorrhage. He has a new hit reality show coming this fall called “Life as I Know It” where it takes you through his life of traveling and being at home with his girlfriend and two kids. It will be on VH1. In fact, I was at one of the concerts where VH1 was there filming the crowd and Bret’s performance.
He is currently on his roses and thorns tour, which has been going on for probably six months or more so far. This tour is the Bret Michaels band, not Poison, although they play many of Poisons songs during their concert tour. I made two of his concerts on this tour–one at Darien Lake (along with 38 Special), and one at the Clearfield County fair.
I have followed Bret since the middle of his first Rock of Love television show. Although I knew him from Poison, I wasn’t familiar with his personality until that show. I have followed him ever since and have grown to really like who he is as a person.
I went to both concerts with a friend of mine and his son. I would have never went without all his work. He had informed me that we could look into getting meet and greet packages to get the opportunity to meet Bret after his concert. With a lot of work, we got the packages for the Clearfield County fair venue.
Although I wanted to meet him and talk with him, my goal was to promote my studio and do a little networking to possibly get a body guarding opportunity in the future. When I met Bret I told him who I was and that I was a martial arts instructor. He said, “Next time I’m in town we should get together and work out.” Bret seemed intrigued with the martial arts and he is in pretty good shape. I presented him with one of my Kenpo Karate school T-shirts, which you can see in the attacked picture of Bret and I (at the bottom of the post).
It was an honor to meet him and he was probably the nicest celebrity I have ever met. He was sincere in our conversation, made constant eye contact, and called me by my name 3-4 times. That’s pretty good considering he had 50 people to meet that night and I was number 14.
Look for Bret’s new series (probably starting in Oct.) and maybe you’ll see him wearing the shirt I gave him. Hard to say. All in all, it was an awesome experience.
Michael Miller presenting Bret Michaels with
a Miller’s Dojo T-Shirt.