A Rocker's Resolve - Bret Michaels

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Diabetes Forecast Article August 2007 Issue - by Terri D'Arrigo

Rock Star Bret Michaels

If Bret Michaels has learned one thing in this life, it's how to roll with the punches. When something gets the 44-year-old frontman for the rock group Poison down, whether it's a music critic's commentary, a romantic break-up, or erratic blood glucose, he gets right back up, more determined than ever.

"I’m the king of hard knocks, but I have a really fast learning curve. If I do something wrong, I just say, ‘Okay, that didn’t work,’ and I fix it,” he says. “That’s my secret to life. Don’t be scared, because even if you fail, you learn.”

Michaels learned the art of self-reliance from his father: “When I was a kid my dad said, ‘You need to learn how to take care of yourself because when you get older, the pity you get as a child with diabetes won’t work in the big world.’”

Listening to his father’s advice has only brought Michaels success: platinum albums, a feature film that he wrote, produced, and starred in with Martin and Charlie Sheen, and now a reality TV series on cable’s VH1 in which 25 women compete for his heart.

Michaels was diagnosed at age 6, and after 38 years and more than 55,000 insulin shots and 111,000 blood glucose checks— that’s 4 shots and 6 to 10 glucose checks a day—he’s still careful to track his diabetes. It can be a challenge, he says, but it’s one he takes responsibility for.

Attitude Adjustment 

“It would be nice to say that every one of my blood sugars is 108, but that would be my greatest lie. Sometimes it’s 78, or 84, and then sometimes it’s 231. I think ‘What the hell happened?’ But because I check so often, it’s never high for very long.” In fact, Michaels carries two meters, a modern, lightweight model and an older version that’s as much a talisman as a back-up. “It takes 45 seconds for a result and it’s like a brick, but it brings me good luck.” When his blood glucose numbers bounce around, Michaels finds that treating them, then turning his mind to one of his passions—his music or his motorcycles—helps him keep perspective. “I meet a lot of people with diabetes, and sometimes they get depressed when they have high or low blood sugars,” he says. “I’ve been there. But I’ve learned to think differently. I think, ‘I took the insulin, now I’m going to work on the bike.’ The next thing I know, my blood glucose is 125 and I’m feeling good. It was just a bad moment in my day.”

The trick, he says, is to work through the tough moments as they happen.

“I battle my own inner demons. I’ll see my daughters having pizza and I’ll [debate taking a slice]. I’ll think, ‘Yes … No … Yes … No.’ They can see me having this internal mental war, and finally they’ll tell me to just have a slice, but I know myself and I know I can’t have just one,” he says.

Pizza isn’t his only weakness. “If you put me in front of salsa and chips, you might as well just inject me with all the insulin you have around. Pasta? I can smell it 100 feet away,” he says. “But peanut butter is the worst. The [band and road crew] hide it from me on the bus.” He knows they only have his best interests at heart, but he’s not above giving them a bit of good-natured ribbing when they chow down on fast food, either. “I’ll tell them, ‘No, I’ll just stand outside and mope while you eat that. You go ahead with those nice burgers, and I’ll have this health bar,’” he says. “You’re occasionally allowed to throw a tantrum, but you have to keep your humor about it. Humor is essential to winning at diabetes.”

That’s not to say he hasn’t had his frightening moments. He recalls one show in Little Rock , Ark., when he couldn’t get his blood glucose much higher than 35 mg/dl. “It was 104 degrees and I didn’t want to cancel the show, but I had a stomach flu and nothing I did worked,” he says. After several attempts to raise his blood glucose backstage, Michaels finally came out and addressed the audience directly, saying, “I’m a diabetic and I’m having a really bad time with my blood sugar. [Lead guitarist] C.C. [DeVille] is going to do a solo for you.”

While DeVille performed, Michaels received medical attention backstage and recovered enough to finish the show.

Not every performance had a happy ending, though. In New York’s Madison Square Garden , Michaels once passed out completely. “I was so excited and nervous to be playing there that even though I took my insulin, I forgot to eat,” he says. “By the fifth song, I couldn’t remember the lyrics. Then everything went out from under me. I woke up in the hospital with my mother and my ex-girlfriend standing there looking at me.”

This year is a busy one for Michaels. He’s currently touring the U.S. with Poison, and last spring he finished taping his reality series, “Rock of Love,” which begins airing July 15. “Wait until you see me fumble through these dates. It’s painful. I totally suck at dating,” he says. “I just never learned how to date properly. I’ve either had long-term relationships or I was extremely single.”

That’s Reality 

Viewers will also see how he copes with his diabetes: He insisted that it be incorporated into the show. “You can’t have a TV show with me in it and not have diabetes be a part of it, because diabetes is a part of me,” he says.

He adds that anyone he dates will have to accept that, as well. “There are all kinds of issues with it. What if I need glucagon [for a low]? You worry about things like that on dates. But like everything else, we take the bad with the good.”

Looking back on his 20 years in entertainment, Michaels has no regrets. “I’ve had fans that have been fantastic, and critics that have ripped me apart right down to the diabetes. Both have been motivations to make me better,” he says. “This isn’t a dress rehearsal.

You don’t get to do it over. If you say you quit, you’re done. But if you stay in the game, life finds a way.”

Terri D'Arrigo is an associate editor of Diabetes Forecast.

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Visit Bret Michaels Web site at www.bretmichaels.com or MySpace page at www.myspace.com/bretmichaelsofpoison.