Biography of Bret Michaels (a.k.a.: Bret Michael Sychak)

Bret Michael Sychak , professionally known as Bret Michaels, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor. He gained fame as the frontman of rock band Poison who have sold well over 45 million records worldwide and 15 million records in the United States alone. 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".

Besides his career as frontman, he has several solo albums to his credit, including the soundtrack album to the 1998 film A Letter from Death Row in which Michaels starred, wrote and directed, and a rock album, Songs of Life, in 2003. Michaels has appeared in several films and TV shows, including as a judge on the talent show Nashville Star which led to his country influenced rock album Freedom of Sound in 2005. He starred in the hit VH1 reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and its sequels, which inspired his successful solo album Rock My World. He was also the winning contestant on NBC's reality show Celebrity Apprentice 3 and also featured in his own reality docu-series Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It, which inspired his highest charting album as a solo artist, Custom Built, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Hard Rock list. He is also known for hosting on the Travel Channel. In 2006, Hit Parader ranked Michaels at #40 on their list of greatest heavy metal singers of all-time.

Michaels was born Bret Michael Sychak on March 15, 1963, to Wally and Marjorie Sychak, north of Pittsburgh in the city of Butler, 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 , 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.

At the age of 6, Michaels fell ill, and during a three-week stay in the hospital, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

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 in 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.