New life as he knows it
No groupies. No after-parties. No stage diving.
These aren’t typical doctor’s orders, but Poison frontman Bret Michaels is no average patient.
Despite suffering several recent medical maladies, the “Celebrity Apprentice” champion is moving forward with his tour, album and a VH1 reality series.
“Honestly, I’m taking every precaution,” Michaels says. “I’m not doing anything stupid. I’m going on stage and telling the fans that I’m going to give 100 percent of everything I’ve got, but if it’s only 75 or 80 percent, I think they will understand.”
Michaels underwent an emergency appendectomy in April. Days later, he was rushed to the hospital after complaining of a headache and was found to have had a brain hemorrhage.
While recovering, he suffered a warning stroke and was diagnosed with a hole in the heart.
“I don’t want my legacy to be that I had a brain hemorrhage,” Michaels says. “I want it to be that I rocked, I treated people with respect and I made a lot of good friends along the way.”
After winning the third season of Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality competition, Michaels surprised “American Idol” viewers when he joined finalist Casey James on “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”
Production on Michaels’ new VH1 series, “Life As I Know It,” stopped when he was hospitalized. Unlike his tawdry dating series “Rock of Love,” this one focuses on his relationship with his daughters and their mother, Michaels’ on-again, off-again girlfriend.
The pilot episode, featuring candid footage of Michaels before his health scares, aired Monday and new installments are scheduled for the fall.
VH1 exec Jeff Olde said “Life As I Know It” wouldn’t turn into a medical show, but viewers should expect to see a different side of Michaels.
“I’ve never heard him sound better and happier,” said Olde. “I think he’s genuinely happy to be alive and happy for all the things he has in his life, but he’s really always been that way.
“Bret is not a different person now than before his health issues. I think maybe his priorities have shifted, but they were already shifting.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Gary “U.S.” Bonds is 71. Actor Robert Englund is 61. Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein is 56. Actress-comedian Sandra Bernhard is 55. Actor Paul Giamatti is 43. Singer Uncle Kracker is 36.