Bret Michaels

A glam rock front man and later a reality television personality, Bret Michaels was the lead singer of the popular band Poison, which rose quickly to become one of the best-selling rock acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With Poison, Michaels saw multi-platinum success with their first three albums, Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986), Open Up and Say Ahh! (1988) and Flesh & Blood (1990), which helped make his band one of the biggest acts in the world. But drug use and a violent crash in his Ferrari nearly derailed Michaels, though he and the band recovered enough to reunite in the late 1990s. He branched out on his own with his first solo album, A Letter from Death Row (1998), which was also the title of his feature directorial debut that same year. But Michaels found new life in reality television as the star of the series, "Rock of Love" (VH1, 2007-09), in which where over 20 women competed to be his girlfriend. He later became the sentimental favorite on the third season of "Celebrity Apprentice" (NBC, 2004- ), during which he suffered a massive subarachnoid hemorrhage and miraculously made a complete recovery, only to find himself back in the hospital weeks later with an operable hole in the heart. Whether it was through music or on television, Michaels managed to survive a number of serious career and physical setbacks to remain a popular celebrity.