Nice Guy Bret Michaels Says He Simply Refuses to “Carry Bitterness With Me”
In the pantheon of hair metal frontmen, you’ve got a wild range of potential outcomes: either you’re insanely super mega rich and famous like Bon Jovi, you’re playing state fairs like Stephen Pearcy, or you’re demolishing your legacy like Vince Neil. And somewhere in the comfortable middle of it all seems to be the unflappable, nice guy Poison frontman Bret Michaels.
We’ve already highlighted his niceness when he decided he was going to be charitable to Mötley Crüe by saying everyone sounded great during their tour together last year. But it goes further back — think about his time on VH1’s slate of reality shows. Michaels just always seemed chilled out and nice, right?
Well, it turns out that’s all a concerted effort. While speaking on the “Lancaster Connects” show, Michaels revealed what’s kept him inspired for more than 40 years in the band. In his conversation (transcribed by Blabbermouth), the main thing has always been to treat his rock stardom as a job.
“Your brain, when you’re in a business like the entertainment business, it’s moving parts. So the first thing I start with, and I say this, is my passion. I have to want to do this — to be on a tour bus, to travel, to be away from your family, your kids, your friends, you have to have a passion that drives you, so you have to have that drive. That’s number one. But when I use the word ‘bet on yourself’, it is so important, over and over again, that I say what that means is you find everything that comes at you. You’re standing at the plate or out in the field… I’ll give you an example of a baseball game. You have to feel the ball if it’s hit as a line drive, a pop-up, a grounder, be able to adapt and adjust to everything. That doesn’t mean lose who you are. I wanna be careful… I don’t mean just jump at every music style. We didn’t do that. We stuck to our guns, and when things were going great, that’s awesome. And when they got tough, we were prepared.
“One of the lessons I learned is I refuse to carry bitterness with me. And I’m telling you, I have been kicked, pushed, picked back up, pushed back down again, and I just refuse to carry the bitterness with me. And that bitterness is like a jail cell. And let me tell you, you think you’re doing great, then something comes in that just rocks your world. And sometimes you get stabbed in the back from somebody you thought you trusted. But rather than carry that bitterness, honest to God, it’s not easy, but I just said, you know what? It’s a log on the fire. Fuel my fire. And I’m, like, ‘All right. Here we go. Game on.’”
If all of that sounds like it was spoken by a motivational speaker, that’s probably because he’s currently working on finishing his inspirational book, “Bet On Yourself: Don’t Crash & Burn… Crash & Learn” that’s apparently set for a Fall 2023 release.
You can check out the full conversation in the video down below.
