In a recent interview with Gardner’s Mattress & More, Poison frontman Bret Michaels credited his blessing and curse for creating his band. Michaels, speaking up about his motivation and determination, said:
“I’ve always had this drive and determination. There’s this storm that’s inside you, and then it’s about focusing it because we go through adversity, highs, lows, it’s taken that, and when you get knocked down, that’s another log of fuel on the fire for me.”
He added:
“In other words, some people are like, ‘That’s it, I give [up], rightfully’ and so on. They are like, ‘My threshold of pain is there’. So I’m going to give you one of the keys of what worked for me.”
The frontman revealed what he called a blessing and a curse, and described how it affected and started his music career:
“Part of it is my blessing as well as my curse of being diabetic. I just had a higher threshold of pain than a lot of people. I was willing to suffer the pain longer of being turned out, put down. Going to New York with demos, told, ‘[You are] never gonna make it, good luck.’ And then taking that as fuel on the fire and finding a way, and that ended up loading up a band, a windowless Chevette. I think there was three of the five windows in the hatchback left and a green Ford barely running pickup truck.”
The lead singer recalled how the band navigated the process of figuring things out and mentioned the night he could never forget. He said:
“I’ll never forget the night we played in Fishing Creek community building, I think it was along ’83, right? It was like a VFW hall, and we loaded up our van, we looked at each other and said this was it. We threw our stuff into the car. It was March of ’84, and in the truck, we said, ‘Let’s go, let’s figure this out’, and all of us made it together.”
Even though the frontman calls his diabetes both a blessing and a curse, he has been performing non-stop, and evidently, he’s energetic and grateful. In an earlier interview, talking about gratefulness, Michaels said:
“I feel more passionate and just as excited as ever. I went back and pulled out a photo of me and my sister Nicole on a motorcycle (as kids) and I haven’t changed. It’s like me riding my wheelie during The Stadium Tour. I feel more energetic and grateful. With all of the crazy diabetes and the brain hemorrhage, I’ve been through a lot of adversity, and I’m still here.”
While checking one’s health every morning may seem dull to some, this routine has become enjoyable for the rocker. During the same interview, he described:
“I know this is the opposite of what you’d think from a rocker, but I love the morning. If I’m off the road, I’ll get up first thing in the morning on the ranch (in Arizona), check my blood sugar, take my insulin, hang out with my family. I love to go out and jump on my mountain bike. I need to kick out the rust and the dust. I like having a good time, but I don’t fool myself.”
Michaels was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was six years old. Holding onto his parents’ pieces of advice, he created Poison at the age of 20 and has remained with the band ever since.
See the latest interview below.
