Bret Michaels is recovering from surgery to remove a kidney stone, the Poison frontman revealed this week, after playing several shows rather than cancelling on fans.
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In a Facebook post shared on what he dubbed “#WisdomWednesday,” Michaels said the stone would not pass after almost seven days of waiting it out.
“The pain became intense but, as usual, I played through Charleston, WV, Grantville, PA and a special private show at Fairchild AFB in Spokane for veterans, active duty and their families,” he wrote. The day after the Spokane performance, he was admitted to hospital “as the pain became too much when the stone would not pass.”
Michaels said the procedure is now complete. “The operation has been done and is complete & I’m out of post-op recovery, and I’m doing everything within my power to feel better and continue playing great shows for great fans when I’ve got a complete clean bill of health,” he wrote.
He used the post to thank the medical staff who treated him, saying the first thing he learned was “complete gratitude for the frontline workers, doctors and nurses,” and adding that he is “wise enough to know how important family, friends, fans, doctors and nurses play such a vital role in our everyday health.”
Ever the showman, he signed off with a joke about being “forced” out of his stage clothes and into a hospital gown, having gone straight from the show to the hospital.
The health scare is the latest chapter in a long, well-documented medical history for the 63-year-old, who has been unusually candid with fans throughout his career.
Michaels has managed Type 1 diabetes since childhood — his mother co-founded a youth diabetes camp during his upbringing — and has become one of music’s most prominent diabetes-awareness advocates. In 2010, he survived a life-threatening brain hemorrhage and a related warning stroke before making a full recovery and returning to the stage. .
Michaels co-founded Poison in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s before the band relocated to Los Angeles, where they became one of the defining glam-metal acts of the Sunset Strip era. Poison charted 10 singles in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six top 10 hits, and scored their sole No. 1 with the 1988 power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” which spent three weeks atop the chart over the Christmas holiday. The single anchored their second album, Open Up and Say… Ahh!, certified 5x platinum, and remains the band’s signature song.
Michaels has not announced any changes to his tour schedule, saying he intends to return once he has a full clean bill of health.
