They crossed paths at the Seagull Inn and Hammerjacks over the years, but Nestor finally got to discuss a football feud from Baltimore to Harrisburg with the lead singer of Poison.
Bret Michaels, a Steelers fan, discussed his upcoming solo tour at the Thunderdome, which will conclude on Friday. He reflected on his passion for music, which has kept him on the road for eight months. Michaels highlighted his new album “Songs of Life” released through Sony. He reminisced about the 80s music scene, comparing it to today’s loyal fanbase. Michaels also shared his love for sports and his motocross track. Nestor Aparicio, the host, humorously bantered with Michaels about their past interactions and the Steelers’ poor record. Michaels promised to wear a Ravens hat on stage and offered tickets to his fans.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Brett Michaels, Steelers fan, Ravens game, solo tour, Songs of Life, Thunderdome show, music passion, Poison band, 80s nostalgia, loyal fans, new music, Sony label, sports fanatic, motocross track, concert tickets
SPEAKERS
Bret Michaels, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:05
All right, it is celebrity rock star hour here. And why not Brett Michaels be appearing down at the Thunderdome on Friday night. He’s a Steeler fan. We figure no better time to bring out good old fashioned Baltimore ass kicking for any Steelers fan, especially celebrity Steelers fan, than to bring the one and only rock star extraordinaire, Brett Michaels on the program. Brett, welcome in. How are you today?
Bret Michaels 00:37
I’m doing awesome. How you doing?
Nestor Aparicio 00:39
And you know, I’ve never been better, man, you’re coming to town. The Steelers are four and eight. You know, I
Bret Michaels 00:44
know you’re killing me. You just, I couldn’t even defend myself when you were killing me. I’m like, wait a minute. I can’t even defend my it’s all right, the Ravens. Look the Ravens this year are on. What can I say? They got it going on? You got Ray Lewis, you got the you got it going on.
Nestor Aparicio 00:59
You lost to the Bengals, dude, you know, Stop, please.
Bret Michaels 01:02
Why do you have to rub this in at home? Don’t you guys have the Bengals this weekend?
Nestor Aparicio 01:08
Yeah, and we said Marvin on a little while ago, I’m right. He told me to not underestimate him in any way, and that we should fear the Bengals. And they beat us couple weeks ago. But at least they beat us out there. You know what? I mean, it’s, yeah,
Bret Michaels 01:20
I understand you. It’s huge. They’re coming on. I don’t know what, what is going on.
Nestor Aparicio 01:25
Can take souls. We’re playing a game that matters this week. And you guys are, you know, playing for draft position, and that makes us, it just gives us a little fuzzies. It really does. Being a Baltimore guy, you
Bret Michaels 01:35
know what I’m going to make up for next spring, next summer, when training starts, I’m going a little Trove with the Steelers, I’m telling you now, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna whip them into shape. I got a bunch of buddies on the Steelers. I’m gonna whip them into shape. Here’s
Nestor Aparicio 01:46
what I want you to do, as you know, you know how, like, if you’re a Christian, you do Hail Mary’s and our fathers Friday night in a show of concession for you and for all your kind, I want you to wear a Ravens hat and a purple shirt at the Thunderdome on Friday night. What do you
Bret Michaels 02:04
think? Oh, my God. You know what? I’ll tell you, what you’ve always been good to me. I may find myself in a Ravens took on stage.
Nestor Aparicio 02:12
Nice. Okay, all right, fair enough. We’ll take it. We’ll take it. How are you, man? What’s the Rockstar? Now, you know, I should tell you, I was the music critic at the Sun back in the 80s. And you and I had, you know, had a round or two Jill Deville back in the day. The whole bit, absolutely
Bret Michaels 02:25
we loved. I just saw Jill Deville when we were there to poison through their Nissan pavilion a few times over the summer. But we that poor was about five months and I’ve been back solo. I was at the record theater, then we were down at Jack’s. And now I come back to wind the solo tour down to Thunderdome on Friday night. Is it the end of the tour? It’s, it’s going to be the last weekend? Yep, it’ll Mark eight months. For me, it’s going to be eight months I’ve been on the road.
Nestor Aparicio 02:50
Dude, how do you you separate one from the other? I mean, because, you know, I look up, most people look it’s either solo gig or it’s the band gig. You know, Vince Neil comes in or and then as Molly creates one or the other. But like you come in one week it’s poison. The next week it’s Brett Mike, only one I know that does it? Don Henley does that. He’ll roll in solo. Two months later, the Eagles are doing, you know, it’s, it’s an amazing gig you got going there and, and how do you keep yourself on the road all this time? It’s crazy. Well, I love, you
Bret Michaels 03:16
know, first of all, it’s really simple for me. I love making music and, and that’s and I’m still passionate about it. So the best thing about it is it’s never become a job to me. I just like doing it. I like making music. Anyone that’s around me knows that, and it’s great to get on stage and have a lot of great friends and people I met over the years, and, you know, and and so going out on the road and playing, and especially when I’m doing these shows like the record theater and going down to Jax. Those were sold out, Rowdy fun shows, and then all of a sudden you come back and do thunder dome on a Friday night. It’s going to wind down the tour, and we’re just going to make a party out of it’s going to be
Nestor Aparicio 03:51
great. You know, every time you come in, I know, like Joel Deville is a dear friend of mine, and Notre many years and the whole hammer Jack’s crew, and you know, the guys from like SR 71 morphed out of Child’s Play and all that stuff those guys in mind. And it’s just amazing anytime a guy like you comes back, and you’re a PA guy, whatever, you come back, and you can’t help but think about the old days, you know, Jackson, and it makes us like we’re, like, easing you know what? I mean, we’re, like, getting older. We don’t discuss that, though, but we talk about the old days. So we know we’re getting older. You know,
Bret Michaels 04:21
only because me and you have just recently turned 21 do we know all this? You know, since we’re just hitting that drinking age
Nestor Aparicio 04:27
19 and holding on, man, still in 1986 to me every day, I’m
Bret Michaels 04:32
telling you why. Let go. I love it. And we have no but we come back there and we we’re at the record theater, like I said. And it was great. And then Jackson, now thunder dome and the solo shows awesome because I mix up the show’s intermixed. The whole show is intermixed, half poison, half solo, just intermixed. It makes everybody now knows the solo songs, plus they like to hear new stuff, along with the hits and some poison stuff that we don’t do anymore. And like I said, I make a party out of it. It keeps me rock and roll, keeps me young. You. Know,
Nestor Aparicio 05:00
back in the day, I mean, you talk about your contemporaries. We’re talking to Brett Michaels from poison. He’s got his new album, Songs of life. He’s gonna be down at the Thunderdome on Friday night. He’s pretty good friend of the station to the show calls him from time to time, even though he is a Steeler fan. But this a perfect week for you to come in four and eight. Did I mention that? Yeah, I
Bret Michaels 05:15
know. Yes, you did. And believe me, I’m unfortunately, well aware of it. Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 05:19
it’s well, you but you know, next year you might come in and be 84 you know, we’ve taken our lumps with with the Steelers thing. But for you, back in the day you had the contemporaries. You mean, I can name the bands. I mean, you know, hammer Jackson, Merriweather and a capital center, and, you know, Motley Crue, a bunch of it’s funny that 1520, years later, so many of you branched off. Do I mean, Bon Jovi pops up in movies. He pops up on TV. You know, we see you guys still tour as a band. You tours a solo thing. You wind up on VH one with the behind the music and a good news. Bad news thing. You got CC cleaned up. He looks great, playing great. Last time I saw you guys down at the pier last summer. It’s just amazing the way life takes, kind of its turns. I knew CC was in shape. I’m walking into Ruth Chris on the way down there. He’s jogging by me, you know, he’s jogging like 28 miles a day or something, right?
Bret Michaels 06:08
Yeah, absolutely. The guys, you know, he had to get himself sober, and then, you know, like I said, once in a while, it just happens, he gets back off that wagon and gets back on and that’s his battle. But that’s part of, you know, being out on the road. And I think that a lot of bands, if you really we’ve been fortunate. We have 10 records on capital, our 10th one coming out this last summer, and we just been one of those bands, if you want you and you’re passionate about it, you work hard at it, and especially being a sports fanatic, as you know, I am. I mean, I got a motocross track on my property for God’s sakes. I mean, it’s, you know, I’m that that keeps you young man, he keeps you coming back and and I think some of the really good bands, like all genres, have a few good bands to stick it out. Through our genre. There was, you know, there was poison, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Def Leppard, we all managed to stay around and just make good tunes. And we have very loyal fans. That’s a good feeling.
Nestor Aparicio 06:58
Well, I think back in the day, did you ever give a thought at all but all the girls and all the backstage and all the party and did you ever give a thought to what 2003 would be like for you? Because I’m sure many of you thought, especially with the makeup and the hair and the lipstick and all that, you probably thought at some point this is going to end, you know, that you’re going to be relegated to Bobby Sherman, Sean Cassidy day, you know, the oldies been type thing clearly. You know, 1718, years later, all of you and look, I saw leopard out at the Hard Rock in Vegas about three months ago. Saw Vince Neil when he came through. You know, I saw, I’ve seen you guys three or four times in the last couple of years that you guys are still doing it. But I’m thinking back in 8687 88 in a heyday, you probably weren’t given a whole lot of thought to where you were going to be in 2003 right? Yeah, I
Bret Michaels 07:47
don’t. I pretty much lived, and I say it like this, I’ve lived in the moment of being excited about making music and new records. Fortunately for us, you know, when grunge came around, we took Allison chains in a row with us. When that scene disappeared. The alternative scene came up. We took some of these bands out with us on the road. I just say this, you know, like an Aerosmith, like an ACDC, I think you get better with time if you’re really into what you did, if you did it for just the moment of glory. In other words, if you’re living for just that second, and that’s it, only that then, then it’s going to fade. But I live for making music and continuously wanting to make good tunes and and putting on a better show each year. So although I’m living in the minute, also in 2003 I still feel like I’m 20 years old. I’m still excited about doing it, and I think not becoming jaded is what’s kept me in the
Nestor Aparicio 08:35
game. Is it inspirational for you to see a band like Aerosmith that right when you guys were climbing up, they were at rock bottom. Mean, Tyler was strung out. The band had broken up, you know, du Fe and Crespo were in the band, and Perry and Whitford weren’t in the band. And then they kind of had to come back right along with you guys at that particular period of time. And now, you know, they’re Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They’re legend. I’m like a kiss. They take the makeup off. They’re doing the animalized Lick It Up thing, playing it probably half empty halls. Everybody wants them to put makeup on. And now these two bands, 30 years, you know, after Toys in the Attic and alive when I was there out on the road doing this stuff and still selling tickets and still making people happy more than anything else, people come to shows. They have a good time.
Bret Michaels 09:18
That’s it. You nailed it. That’s what it’s all about and and I say this, people like yourself and me, we grew up in an era where, and I still believe in this. I’m still a loyal fan. Not only do I like new stuff and I get into some of it, but I’m really I’m a loyal supporter of bands I grew up with. I’m talking Aerosmith, ACDC, kiss, you know. And these bands are still around, still. I went to see ACDC, and they were better now than I’ve ever seen them. I mean, it was, it was great. And I’m saying that that’s one of the things about our genre that still happened to be great. And the new fans, you know, look at all the new high school and college kids at the poison shows. They’re coming out because they want to see a big show. They want to be excited, you know. And they don’t want to, they don’t want to pay a lot of money to see a band staring into. Sneakers with their back turned towards them anymore. I think they just, they’re kind of got over that, and they’re going, Hey, I don’t mind if you play some good tunes, but make it exciting again. You know, you know, they
Nestor Aparicio 10:09
don’t have an association with, you know, talk dirty to me or unskilled pop like I do. Drink a beer at my buddies in the summer, 88 down in Ocean City, you know? Yeah, those
Bret Michaels 10:17
are good day. Those weren’t bad days.
Nestor Aparicio 10:19
They’re, they’re the residue. They’re the product of what happened back in the 80s at some point with some of these young people, right? And
Bret Michaels 10:25
I think just filming, I think a lot of them had the record young, you know, maybe young to go to the shows then. But now they’ve come up and and in the good thing is, in your life is you’re still there, you’re still making music. And, like, I look at a guy like Jerry Rice, right? I mean, this guy, this guy’s that. This guy’s a veteran still out there as viable today as they were when they started, if not better. And I think that that’s what it’s all about. If you love what you’re doing and you’re going for it, and with music, obviously, you’re not getting knocked down quite like a flute or Jerry Rice is in your bones and joints can handle a little bit better. You know, although poison live and myself live, we’re pretty, pretty athletic, running around up there on the stage, you know, giving it all we got. And that’s Brett
Nestor Aparicio 11:08
Michaels from the rock band poison as a solo act, going out right now, songs of life. I could pick this up anywhere, right? I mean, I just go to anywhere grab this thing. What’s the label
Bret Michaels 11:17
It’s on? It’s on, poor boy, through Sony.
Nestor Aparicio 11:20
Okay, through Sony. No problem. So if you want to go out, check out Brett’s new music, it is always going on, and he’ll be down at the Thunderdome on Friday. You know, Brett, here’s I’m gonna do. I’m gonna extend a special wnst invitation to you. We’ve got two seats for you. Great seats up in a nasty section. You come down and watch the Steelers and their season and hit the golf clubs at the end of the month, it’s Sunday night football national TV. You
Bret Michaels 11:41
know what I mean? I might be able to just handle that, you know? You might be able to say, I got to sing the national anthem at three river stadium the day before they blew it, the weekend before they blew it down. Really, we beat the Raiders, yep, and, and I took a chunk of the Astro Turf with me. So, you know, maybe, maybe we’ll work something great out. But I’m telling you now, if you get me the Ravens took out where it
Nestor Aparicio 12:03
Friday night, come see it. We will have it waiting for you. I
Bret Michaels 12:06
will be there. I’ll have it in a glass case. I’ll break it in case of emergency, put it on my head.
Nestor Aparicio 12:11
You know, no true Steelers fan would ever put anything purple on man. I gotta be honest with you, you
Bret Michaels 12:15
don’t know. You know, it might disappear before I get to it,
Nestor Aparicio 12:18
I see how this is going to work back in the mail after Christmas, a little damaged, Hey, man, and look, I forgive you. And publicly, I’m going to make this consider a true story. I was a music critic at the sun and I, you know, I probably did some things backstage at hammer Jacks I shouldn’t have done. Certainly, did some things in the parking lot that my press pass allowed me to do that, you know, some unmentionables, probably some stuff that was going on the back of your tour bus. Probably same stuff was going on with me. Yes, exactly. I mean, you know, I was riding the coattails, you know. I mean, all the shows, I mean, la guns would come to not even like LA guns Brett, but they used to bring the hottest chicks when la guns played at hammer jacks. You needed to be backstage. You
Bret Michaels 12:55
just did, and I hope that you took full advantage of it in every
Nestor Aparicio 12:59
way shape or form. Tommy Conwell shows were always off the hook. Deal with the chicks, but the college girls. So let’s say summer. I want to say 88 Merriweather Post, it’s the rat poison tour, and I meet these two chicks, and I get them in, and we get right up in the front that the fourth row, right center, you know, right off. And we’re enjoying rat. They’re doing their thing round and round, you know. And then you come on stage with your boys, and you got the makeup going, and you got the high flying, unskinny Bobs running on top of the charts, and something to believe in, old thing. And you point down to these two chicks next to me, and the next thing I know, one of your handlers comes up and slaps backstage Wrangler. They were from Fredericksburg, Virginia, and I never saw these girls again. I stole two chicks from me. I mean, can’t did you have enough? You know what I mean, you need to be stealing another guy’s trim. You know what I mean,
Bret Michaels 13:55
if I would have known it was you, I would have stolen them much earlier. I mean, no, I would have never taken them, is what I meant to say. Hey, bread, my wife, if I bring my wife, can you steal
Nestor Aparicio 14:08
her? You got some tickets to give away for the show? Is that correct? Yeah, what I want to do
Bret Michaels 14:12
is I always do take care of some of the fans and the listeners. If they want to come out Friday nights at Thunderdome, it’s going to be an awesome show. There’ll be lots of hot, hot, hot chicks here, as always and and we’ll bring them out there, and you give some tickets away, and we’ll take good care of the fans. All
Nestor Aparicio 14:27
right, Brett will do that. Next five people call for it. 115, 70. Brett’s gonna hook you up with a couple tickets for the show on Friday night that thunder. Hey, man, it’s always a pleasure to have you around, even though you are still phones are
Bret Michaels 14:37
not one of these days me and you were gonna sit down and forget about all the music and shows. We’re going to talk nothing but sports one of these days, just we’ll get into everything. You
Nestor Aparicio 14:45
know what we’re going to do one of these days, you’re going to come in here and bring those two broads from Fredericksburg back with you and give me back what you stole from me 15 years ago. Is what you
Bret Michaels 14:53
think I remember who they are going to look them up right now in the computer, dude,
Nestor Aparicio 14:57
is your black book kind of like. Fonzie’s was, you know, the Fonzie had A through M and one and then N through Z in the other. Or what?
Bret Michaels 15:06
It’s a computer. Now,
Nestor Aparicio 15:10
get your palm. Pilot out. Brett, take care of yourself. Good luck the old Friday night. Thank you guys. Steelers still suck, but we’ll invite Ravens. Game rock, come take your punishment. Man, see you later. Brother, you.
