The glam metal wunderkind may have been dumped by Jes, the winner of the first season of his reality love-search, “Rock of Love,” A huge number of ladies are hitting the Web for more of his eye-linered mug. Bret Michael Sychak, also known as Bret Michaels, (born March 15, 1963 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is best known as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison and starred in the reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels on VH1.

Bret Michaels Visits Born on Mar. 15, 1963 in Butler, PA, glam rock front man and eventual reality television personality Bret Michaels set his sights on a music career at a young age. After his family relocated from Butler to Mechanicsburg, Michaels performed in a few bands before forming Paris in 1984. The band moved from Harrisburg to Los Angeles, CA, renaming themselves Poison after hearing a group of angry parents protesting that rock music was poisoning their children.

They toured the local club scene, gaining a large following, thanks to raucous live performances fueled by their hard-partying reputation. The heavily made-up band – complete with lipstick and eyeshadow – signed a recording deal with Enigma Records in 1986 and released their debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In, which featured their first hit “Talk Dirty to Me.” The record went on to sell over two million copies. Their next effort, Open Up and Say…Ahh! propelled Michaels and the band into the limelight, thanks to their most recognized hit, the ballad “Every Rose Has its Thorn.” By the end of the 1980s, Poison had become a top-selling band featured heavily in MTV’s video rotation.

Michaels formed the band Paris in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1984. The band, which later became Poison, moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to begin touring the clubs there. The song “Go That Far” appears in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Bret Michaels also makes an appearance as the lead singer for this song and “Talk Dirty to Me” by Poison in the same game, re-recording the vocals for the in-game cover of the second-mentioned song.

In 2003 Michaels released the solo album Songs Of Life. He also served as a judge during the 2005 season of reality television singing competition Nashville Star, and released a country rock album in the same year called Freedom Of Sound.

Despite the band’s success, the situation behind the scenes began to deteriorate. Michaels and lead guitarist C.C. DeVille came to blows backstage during the 1991 “MTV Video Music Awards” because of the latter’s obviously bad onstage performance, a result of his cocaine and alcohol problems. The band replaced DeVille with two other guitarists of little consequence and soldiered on, though they never duplicated their previous success. While recording their sixth album, Crack A Smile, Michaels suffered multiple injuries – several broken bones and missing teeth – after he crashed his Ferrari into a telephone pole in Burbank in 1994. The near-fatal collision put the album on hold until 1996, and then went on to only sell a million copies worldwide. By then, the band’s decline was in full evidence.

Meanwhile, Michaels ventured into other avenues, notably filmmaking. He joined actor Charlie Sheen to make “A Letter From Death Row” (1998), writing, directing and starring in the low-budget thriller about an innocent man writing about his life on death row. Michaels directed Sheen again in the made-for-TV movie “No Code of Conduct” (USA Network, 1998), a crime thriller about two undercover cops trying to crack a Phoenix drug ring while battling the city’s crooked politicians.

Michaels continued to work with Poison, finally going on tour in 1999 to support the band’s Greatest Hits album, a tour that featured a rejuvenated DeVille. The band enhanced its newfound popularity after taking part in an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music” (1997-2006), which highlighted their well-known partying lifestyle. After a successful reunion tour, Poison hit the skids again with Hollyweird, a mess of an album that was panned by fans and critics alike. Meanwhile, Michaels made more headlines, thanks to a sex tape with Pamela Anderson that made the Internet and DVD rounds before he successfully stopped continued distribution.

Taking another path, in 2007, Michaels became the latest celebrity to land a reality show, starring in “Rock of Love With Bret Michaels” (VH1, 2007- ), a “Bachelor”-esque style competition for the big-haired crowd, that pitted a group of female suitors against each other in a series of challenges – including an album photo cover shoot and a phone sex competition – that ultimately determined which one could keep up with Michaels’ notorious lifestyle. Michaels picked the eventual winner, Jes, from two finalists, but she obviously felt otherwise and said he had better chemistry with runner-up Heather. The show was renewed for a second season that aired in January 2008.

Michaels and actor Charlie Sheen established a film production company, Sheen/Michaels Entertainment, which produced the movie A Letter From Death Row (1998) which Michaels wrote, directed and starred in, as well as releasing a soundtrack album. They also produced No Code Of Conduct in the same year. Their company also produced the feature film Free Money, starring Marlon Brando and Mira Sorvino.

Michaels appeared in an episode of the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear. The cable-TV network VH1 announced on February 14, 2007 that Michaels would star as the bachelor in the reality television dating-competition series Rock of Love With Bret Michaels.

Jes was the winner of the series; however, she announced during the reunion show that she and Michaels were not right for each other and he should have chosen the runner up, Heather. Michaels is also the star in the second season of Rock of Love, which premiered on January 13, 2008. Bret Michaels also did the motion capture for the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock lead singer.

Michaels has suffered from Type 1 diabetes since the age of six (as Michaels later attested in the Behind the Music special, backstage photos of the singer injecting insulin led many to think that he was a heroin addict). As a child, his family relocated to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. He attended Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School and was interested in music from an early age.

Michaels was associated with singer Susie Hatton during the early 1990s. He has two daughters with Kristi Lynn Gibson. Raine Elizabeth Sychak was born on May 20, 2000, and Jorja Bleu Sychak was born May 5, 2005. As of 2007, Michaels and Gibson are separated and share custody of their children.

Michaels had a short but notorious relationship with Pamela Anderson. An explicit sex tape the couple made appeared on the Internet and it was released as a DVD on September 7, 2005 by Metro Studios. Michaels later stopped the sexually explicit tape from continued distribution, though it is still widely available on the internet.

Michaels is a Pittsburgh Steelers football fan. He has a personalized guitar bearing the team’s logo, and played the national anthem at Three Rivers Stadium. His favorite player was Jack Lambert, and Michaels has been a member of fan club “Lambert’s Lunatics.” In 2007, Michaels was part of a USO tour through Kuwait and Iraq.