BRET MICHAELS Says POISON Retaining Its Publishing Rights Turned Out To Be 'The Biggest Gem'

POISON frontman Bret Michaels stopped by SiriusXM's Hair Nation (ch. 39) recently to chat with host Tommy London about his summer 2023 "Parti-Gras" tour plans. During the in-depth conversation, Bret shared stories about how music was his salvation during "a crazy time" in his life, helping him through his parents' divorce and living as a teen with Type 1 diabetes. He also told Tommy about POISON's early days — how one of their first touring vehicles was actually an ambulance, how the band routinely snuck around Los Angeles late at night to hang flyers for their shows, and how they funded their first album themselves. And, Bret revealed that POISON made a business decision early on that turned out to be "the gem" for them — they retained control of their publishing.

"It was hustle," Bret said of POISON's early drive to find success. "There's this thing inside you [that] you find. There are so many talented bands… You know what stops a lot of people? I call it the wall. You hit that wall or that door. And every time we hit a door or wall, we either climbed over it, punched our way through it, kicked the door open. And you found a way. It was never exactly like you wanted it to be, but you found a way to get it done. Like raising the money, convincing people we were gonna have a hit record. We had to believe it before they were gonna believe it.

"I always told people, anybody, no matter what it is you wanna do in life, bet on yourself," he continued. "I have to bet on me before anyone else is gonna bet. So what happened is we go in to do this album ['Look What the Cat Dragged In'], and we had hit so many walls that we just decided we were gonna make this happen. One of the biggest blessings that came from that is we held all of our publishing. I didn't know that was the gem. We had been offered these really small offers and we were, like, 'We're already poor. Let's just stay here and just hold on to controlling our career.' And I go back to this now. That ended up being the biggest gem for POISON, is we kept all the publishing and just did an administration deal."

Joining Bret on his 2023 "Parti-Gras" tour will be special guests NIGHT RANGER and JEFFERSON STARSHIP with special appearances from Steve Augeri (former lead singer of JOURNEY) and Mark McGrath (SUGAR RAY).

Presented by Live Nation, the 12-city run kicks off on Thursday, July 13 at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, going on to make stops across the U.S. including at The Pavilion at Star Lake, in Bret's birthplace of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania),Holmdel (New Jersey),Tinley Park (Illinois),Tampa (Florida),and more before wrapping up in Charlotte (North Carolina) at PNC Music Pavilion on August 6.