Bret Michaels

The band's breakthrough came in 1986 with their debut record. Local publicity about the band eventually led to a record deal with Enigma Records, and their first album, Look What the Cat Dragged In , arrived that year. The record saw a boost in sales following the success of the top 10 glam metal tune "Talk Dirty to Me" and the power ballad "I Won't Forget You," leading the debut to peak at No. 3 on the all-genres U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart. Their follow-up cemented them as one of the biggest bands of the era: 1988's Open Up and Say Ahh! became their breakthrough hit after reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was considered among the most iconic power ballads of the late '80s , driven by the Michaels-penned anthem "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." The classic and most successful lineup, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Bret Michaels, drummer Rikki Rockett, bassist Bobby Dall and lead guitarist C.C. DeVille , became synonymous with the glam metal sound of the period, and in 2025 Ultimate Classic Rock said Poison was among the "Big Four" of glam metal, along with Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard .

Poison's career arc included further hits, internal turmoil, and lineup shakeups. The follow-up album, Flesh and Blood (1990), also did well on the album charts and featured the hit "Unskinny Bop" and the power ballad "Something to Believe In." But in 1991, Michaels got into an altercation with DeVille backstage at the MTV Music Video Awards, and DeVille was later fired from the band. As popular music tastes changed in the 1990s, Poison began to lose some of its audience, and their next recording, 1993's Native Tongue, did not fare as well as their earlier albums, this time with new member Richie Kotzen aboard. Despite the shifting lineup and fortunes, the band's overall commercial legacy remained massive: Poison has been ranked first on VH1's list of the "Top 5 Hair Bands of the '80s," reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" and scoring multiple Top 40 hits , while their singles reached the Billboard US Top 40 ten times from 1987 through 1991, with each of their first three albums achieving multi-Platinum sales, two additional Gold albums, a multi-Platinum Greatest Hits release, and over 50 million in worldwide sales .

Beyond the band, Michaels built a prominent solo and media career. In 2007 Michaels emerged as a reality TV star on VH1's Rock of Love, following up in 2010 with Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It, and he also won The Celebrity Apprentice. He has continued to tour and record both with Poison and as a solo artist in the decades since, and the band's years active are listed as 1983 to 2012 and 2017 to present, with a hiatus since 2023 . Michaels remains one of the most recognizable frontmen of the era, celebrated for turning hardship, including a lifelong battle with diabetes, into a durable, populist rock stardom that has kept Poison's catalog and his own solo shows in steady rotation on the touring circuit for over four decades.

It is fitting that Bret Michaels found his way into the waynedennon.com archive, given Wayne Dennon's dedication to documenting the touring rock circuit from 2002 onward. Wayne photographed Poison three times between 2004 and 2008, capturing the band across two different cities in two states during a period when their arena shows and greatest-hits tours kept them firmly in the spotlight. Those sessions produced 108 photographs now preserved in the collection, images that fans have returned to again and again, with the archive's Bret Michaels galleries drawing 83,328 views over the years, a testament to both the band's enduring fanbase and Wayne's eye for capturing the