Look What The Cat Dragged In<\/a>. But Michaels\u2019 relationship woes led to Poison\u2019s biggest hit of their career: Every Rose Has Its Thorn.<\/p>\nFollowing their gig in Dallas, Michaels and bandmates CC DeVille (guitar), Bobby Dall (bass) and Rikki Rockett (drums) retreated to a seedy motel for the evening. It was there that an exhausted and lonesome Michaels determined that a 3am call to the girlfriend \u2013 an exotic dancer, natch \u2013 with whom he shared an apartment in Hollywood, would be just the thing to lift his spirits.<\/p>\n
But things didn\u2019t go quite as planned. \u201cShe answered the phone, but she sounded a little odd,\u201d says Michaels. \u201cImmediately, she gave me that \u2018I\u2019m really sleepy\u2019 line, which was not something she would normally say. And then I heard it \u2013 the whispering in the background. It was obviously a guy\u2019s voice. Now, a female voice, that I could\u2019ve lived with, you know what I\u2019m saying? Hell, I may have even welcomed it! But another guy\u2026 It broke my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Credit: Capitol<\/p>\n
Devastated to learn that his girl was not the faithful sort, Michaels grabbed an acoustic guitar \u2013 and some dirty clothes \u2013 and headed to the motel\u2019s laundry room. While his stage gear spun in the washing machine, the now lone ranger strummed some cowboy chords and emptied his broken heart into a song.<\/p>\n
\u201cI began singing: \u2018We both lie silently still in the dead of the night\u2019, just thinking about how cold and lonely it was going to be trying to work everything out with this girl,\u201d says Michaels. \u201cI was trying to capture being at that point in your relationship where it\u2019s not officially over, but it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaels titled the song Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and explains its meaning by saying, \u201cthere I was, out on the road, getting to play music for a living, which was the rose. But then there was my exotic dancer back in LA, who I was positive would never cheat on me. Or so I thought. That was the thorn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poetry. Poison recorded the song for their second album, 1988\u2019s Open Up and Say\u2026 Ahh! But the band\u2019s label, Capitol, initially balked at releasing it as a single.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we played Every Rose\u2026 for our label and management they told us it would end our career,\u201d says Michaels. \u201cThey were like: \u2018This song is not Poison. It starts with an acoustic guitar, and you\u2019ve got this cowboy thing going on and it\u2019s just sad\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the album\u2019s first two singles, Nothin\u2019 But A Good Time and Fallen Angel, hit big (numbers six and 12, respectively in the States: both top 60 in the UK) Capitol wanted to release another up-tempo track, the band\u2019s cover of Loggins & Messina\u2019s Your Mama Don\u2019t Dance, as the third single. But Michaels held firm to Every Rose Has Its Thorn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was a great song, and we had had some success with a ballad [I Won\u2019t Forget You, from Look What the Cat Dragged In] once before,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd here\u2019s one reason that I love my band: the rest of the guys stood up for me, and we got Every Rose\u2026 released. We made a great video and the song took off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every Rose\u2026 became Poison\u2019s first and only No.1 hit, reaching the US top spot on Christmas Eve, 1988; in the UK it was the first of three successive top 20 hits. \u201cI had written the song just to get something off my chest, and at the time didn\u2019t think it was a hit,\u201d says Michaels.<\/p>\n
Due to its massive success on radio and MTV, Every Rose\u2026 remains Poison\u2019s best-known song. As for being recognised more for a sentimental, largely acoustic power ballad than for their characteristic hard rock tunes, Michaels has no complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never get upset about being pigeon-holed,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd here\u2019s why: I\u2019ve always known that I have integrity and am honest in what I do. \u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to its inclusion on numerous 80s rock compilations, Every Rose\u2026 has been referenced in movies and television shows including Bill And Ted\u2019s Bogus Journey and episodes of The Simpsons. All well and good. But a few questions remain. For starters, what became of the unfaithful exotic dancer?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually run into her a few times over the years,\u201d says Michaels. \u201cShe\u2019s come out to some Poison shows. She\u2019s gone on to have children, and is in a good relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the other man who was sleeping in Michaels\u2019s bed that fateful night?<\/p>\n
\u201cI did find out who it was,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd he was in a rival band! That\u2019s the way girls do it \u2013 they just dig it in deep. But I\u2019m not going to name names. Maybe one day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Poison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[181220,51542,88,181218,181217,181219,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-369483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-acoustic-guitar","9":"tag-bret-michaels","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-every-rose-has-its-thorn","12":"tag-exotic-dancer","13":"tag-kip-winger","14":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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