Bret Michaels

“You can't have self-pity. At some point, you have to say, 'These are the cards I've been dealt, and I'm going to play them.'”

“I believe you must find the things in life that you love, and don't let anybody or anything stop you. There may be lesser successes, but you're never a failure unless you choose not to do something. I don't fail unless I quit. You must believe to receive.”

“I don't like high-maintenance. High-maintenance does not work for me at all. And I don't like anybody who talks down to people. I don't speak down to anyone who works around me, and so I won't put up with it in a relationship.”

“I'm the son of a Navy veteran, my two sisters are in the Air Force, I have a cousin who's a Navy Seal, and more.”

“One of the things that matters to me, when you're out on the road, I want to make sure people are having a good time.”

“You want to go to a summer concert and not watch a band staring at its shoes for six hours and complaining.”

“I constantly write, record, and play music for public consumption and because it's therapeutic for me.”

“I may have some things tougher than the average person, but there are a lot of people who are going through worse things than me. I can't live in fear.”

“I'm addicted to creating and writing.”

“I tell my daughters, 'If something doesn't feel right, whether that's going to a party, doing a video, shooting something, you're around someone that's creeping you out, use your gut. If you're in a car with a driver and something don't feel right, use your gut.'”

“I want to fill my life with as much awesome stuff as I can.”

“Thoroughly read all your contracts. I really mean thoroughly.”

“Any band that is out there chasing it is doing more destruction to music then someone who is out there playing what they truly feel.”

“A lot of bands live and breathe out of hotels. I just happen to be the one that lives on my bus. I have camped and RVed my entire life.”

“I don't want to be a reality retro star.”

“I never envisioned being a rock star. I envisioned the stage. I would draw and draw and draw the stage, or the tour bus. It was much simpler.”

“A brain hemorrhage puts it all in a deeper perspective. I'm one of those guys hit by lightning. I see the big picture. Everything is in perspective now. Let's just say I'm the kind of guy who knows how to enjoy the moment.”

“I am truly independently owned and operated.”

“I didn't hate Nirvana. That was more of a media-constructed this-versus-that thing.”

“Obviously, in my past, I had a quite wild relationship with Pamela Anderson.”