
Bret Michaels
Date of Birth | : | 15 Mar, 1963 |
Place of Birth | : | Pennsylvania, United States |
Profession | : | Singer |
Nationality | : | American |
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Bret Michaels is an American singer and musician. He is the frontman of rock band Poison which has sold over 65 million albums worldwide and 30 million records in the United States.The band has also charted 10 singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and a number-one single, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Early life
Michaels was to Wally and Marjorie Sychak, north of Pittsburgh in the town of Chicora, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.He attended Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School. He has two sisters, Michelle and Nicole.He claims that his parents had originally intended for him to have the middle name "Maverick", after the title character in the popular James Garner TV Western series Maverick. He is of Carpatho-Rusyn (from his paternal grandfather), Irish, English, German, and Swiss descent. Bret's great-uncle Nick Sychak fought at Omaha Beach in the Invasion of Normandy and was killed in action in France in 1944.
Music career
Michaels began playing the guitar as a teenager, forming a band with drummer Rikki Rockett, bass player Bobby Dall and guitarist David Besselman. Shortly thereafter, Besselman left the band due to creative differences and in 1983 the band hired Matt Smith to form a new band named Paris in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. In early 1984 the band tired of playing the Pennsylvania bar circuit, changed their name to Poison and moved west to Los Angeles to seek fame on the Sunset Boulevard scene. That same year, Michaels met 16-year-old Tracy Lewis, who would become both his girlfriend and the muse for one of his most memorable songs. Eventually, Matt Smith tired of the band's struggle to find fame and returned home. He was replaced by C.C. DeVille, who would become both Michaels' friend and a source of conflict.