Michaels talks to SiriusXM’s Hair Nation about the band’s formative years

Poison frontman Bret Michaels recently stopped by SiriusXM’s Hair Nation (ch. 39) to chat with host Tommy London about the his newly curated summer 2023 Parti Gras Tour plans.

During the in-depth conversation, Michaels shared stories about how music was his salvation during “a crazy time” in his life, helping him through his parents’ divorce and living as a teen with Type 1 diabetes. He also told London about Poison’s early days, including how one of their first touring vehicles was actually an ambulance, how the band routinely snuck around Los Angeles late at night to hang flyers for their shows, and how they self-funded their first album. Bret also revealed that Poison made a business decision early on that turned out to be “the gem” for them – they retained control of their publishing.

“It was hustle,” Michaels said of Poison’s early drive to find success. “There’s this thing inside you that you find. There are so many talented bands. You know what stops a lot of people? I call it the wall. You hit that wall or that door and every time we hit a door or wall, we either climbed over it, punched our way through it, kicked a door open. And we found a way. It was never exactly like you wanted it to be, but you found a way to get it done. Like raising the money, convincing people we were gonna have a hit record. We had to believe it before they were gonna believe it. And I always told people, no matter what it is you want to do in life, bet on yourself. You gotta. I have to bet on me before anyone else is gonna bet. So what happened is we go in to do this album [Look What the Cat Dragged In] and we had hit so many walls that we just decided we were gonna make this happen. One of the biggest blessings that came from that is we held all of our publishing. I didn’t know that was the gem. We had been offered these really small offers and we’re like, ‘We’re already poor. Let’s just stay here and just hold on to controlling our career.’ I go back to this now and that ended up being the biggest gem for Poison is we kept all the publishing and just did an administration deal.”

Bret Michaels’ 2023 Parti Gras Tour with special guests Night Ranger and Jefferson Starship with special appearances from former Journey frontman Steve Augeri and Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath, plus a nightly surprise guest, kicks off July 13th in Clarkston, MI.

Michaels broke the news on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk last month in which he also performed acoustically. During the two hour appearance, Michaels also shared that he has a new solo single, “Back in the Day,” coming in mid-January with a video that he’s also directing and co-editing.

“We now are about every two years go back out on the road,” he says of Poison. “I hope to at least if not make a complete album, you know, just go in there and right a song or two together, and just a fun great — I write with the solo band, we write all the time, every day. I’m always dumping music into my phone. I’ll come up with a beat. I’ll be like (beatboxes) always writing something in my head. And I’m hoping with Poison we’ll get to do that. We with the band, Pete [Evick], and myself, wrote a brand new song called ‘Back in the Day.’ It’s just a through back road trip anthem and when people here this, it’s just a great good feeling party song. It’s a great rock song.”

Fans can hear the entire interview with Bret Michaels exclusively on the SiriusXM app on Hair Nation.

Videos courtesy of SiriusXM’s Hair Nation.