MPAC: Bret Michaels' Wednesday, July 26 concert postponed to Friday, Nov. 10

NOTE: According to a note Monday from the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre, Bret Michaels' concert on Wednesday, July 26, has been postponed. This has been rescheduled for Friday, Nov. 10.

Every night’s a weekend show when Bret Michaels comes to town, even on a Wednesday.

“I promised everybody I’m going to make that like a Saturday night, whether they like it or not,” said Michaels, who will be at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre on July 26.

For those who haven’t been to one of Michaels’ shows — the solo artist ones like MPAC's, or his megastar packed Parti-Gras dates, or when he's the frontman for Poison — he describes them as pure energy with big lights and big fun.

“There’s this energy and the vibe," he said. "There’s a lot of incredible amazing females out there rocking, and the dudes are rocking.”

They're moving and singing along to Michaels’ hits from Poison, a few covers, and new original singles like this year’s “Back in the Day (A Road Trip Anthem)."

“God knows after the last few years, we could use a little feel good out there right now,” he said.

His shows are also always preceded by music from a mix tape. Remember those? Well, this one’s been personally put together by Michaels. It’s the kind of music he’d take on one of his beloved road trips.

“I put together songs I love of rock, pop and country,” Michaels said.

If you’d like to join Michaels in having “Nothing but a Good Time” at the MPAC, tickets range from $57 to $97. They’re available online at mpaconline.org or by calling the MPAC box office at 334-481-5100. You can also get tickets at bretmichaels.com.

Michaels said there’s a meet-and-greet opportunity that'll be sold at the MPAC show, and said it's very personable. “For me, it’s a handshake and a hug. How are you doing? And get a great photo,” he said.

He’s seeing three (maybe four) generations of fans turn out for his live shows, and he's expecting a great crowd here.

“Every time I’m in Alabama, I have a great time and a great show,” he said. “The fans are great.”

Michaels also took the time to talk with the Advertiser about life, travels, family, and future projects — including plans for a Poison reunion not too far down the road.

How’s the 2023 tour treating you?

“My God, I couldn’t have asked for it to be better on every level. In other words, sometimes you can have a great show, but bad tech. You can have a good time, but a rough crew. This one, I get in the building first thing in the morning, 8 or 9, thanking all the crew. It’s a party from the morning, loading the stuff in, sound checking and all the bands coming on stage. It’s been great. This has been like a Parti-Gras 2.0, then there’s individual shows in between.”

Montgomery’s one of the solo shows. The Pardi-Gras concerts this summer sound huge — you with Night Ranger, Jefferson Starship, Mark McGraff (Sugar Ray) and Steve Augeri (formerly of Journey).

“We call it all killer, no filler, meaning all killer hits, no filler. Go out there and bring your biggest hits. And at the end of the night, we’re all on stage together intermixing the songs. I’ll do ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn.’ Mark does ‘Fly.’ Then all of a sudden Steve’s doing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. Then we’re back to all of us on stage together and we do ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ really well. We pay it much respect. People are just freaking out… It’s the way I always thought a concert should be as a fan and a musician.”

Note: This weekend ahead of MPAC, he's got three of the Parti-Gras concerts: Mansfield, Mass., on Friday, July 21, Gilford, NH, on Saturday, July 22, and Camden, NJ, on Sunday, July 23.

With such a deep catalog of material, is it hard to work in new songs on live shows?

“Not at all, because I do it seamlessly. You always want to be rocking, real, relevant and relatable. That’s my thing. I try to tell everybody, don’t try to do an entire new album. The fans want to hear the classic hits, and you mix it in with a few new songs. I did it with the theme song for ‘Rock of Love.’ I do it with ‘Back In The Day.’ I wrote a song with my daughter called ‘Unbroken.’ I have two daughters and one of them was going through a tough time at the same time I was going through a tough battle with the brain hemorrhage and the diabetes. We wrote a song together called ‘Unbroken,’ to have an unbroken fighting spirit.”

I imagine people ask all the time when the next Poison reunion is going to be.

“In ’25, Poison will be reunited and undivided. It’ll be all original and, with the grace of God, we will come out there and come big again and make it incredible.”

The first time I saw Poison was in 1988 in Huntsville.

“I remember Huntsville like it was yesterday for this reason. I had my go karts out in that parking lot and fans were coming up. I was taking them for rides. They’d jump on the back of it.”

We’re the hometown for Tommy Shaw of Styx. Have you caught up with him lately?

“Tommy’s amazing. We’re in the same management company, Red Light Management. He’s great.”

You did ‘Rock of Love.’ Any plans for new reality TV shows?

“We’re doing a show I created called ‘Drivia.’ It’s driving trivia. A&E is putting out ‘The Origins of Bret Michaels," and then Paramount+ is putting out ‘Bret Michaels: Nothing But a Good Time.’”

You were also just on ‘Impractical Jokers.’ Are there a lot of pranks with the band and crew?

“I do it all the time with everybody. We have fun. I do it with Jack Blades (Night Ranger) all the time. While Jack’s playing, I’ll say, ‘No, no, no.’ I’ll have a scrim of myself up there, and he’ll have to perform entirely behind it.”

You’re also heavily involved in causes, including your own nonprofit Life Rocks Foundation.

“I’m a lifelong type 1 diabetic. I’ve been through a lot of things in my life. I’m the son of a veteran. My parents were the strong points in my life. They always told me, ‘Be victorious, don’t be a victim.’ In other words, go out there and work hard, and help everybody you can, when you can. That’s why I formed the Life Rocks Foundation. My mom formed the first diabetic camp in Harrisburg, Penn. To this day, in every show including Montgomery, we give back to certain charities. We hand pick them out, and each night we give back from Life Rocks Foundation.”

For the ‘Back in the Day’ video, you included a huge collection of personal photos.

“I call it a modern day throwback to the green screen early MTV days, mixed with archive footage and pop-up video captions. It tells the story. It really reflects what the story is about… There’s footage of me playing my first guitar under the Christmas tree, and then footage of me playing a stadium last year. There’s footage of me riding dirt bikes when I was a kid, and then racing dirt bikes now with my kids.”

It’s a road trip song. You’re on the road a lot with tours, but do you get out for fun road trips also?

“It’s all I ever do. If you were with me daily, you’d think I was nuts. Driving is good for my soul. Even on a stadium tour when we have the touring bus, I bring with me at every show my own personal RV. I call it Little Lightning. I go everywhere with it. I bring my bikes. My mountain bikes. I go camping, and I’ll pull into the stadium.”

So the outdoors are pretty important to you.

“I go to lakes. I go swimming. Watch the TikTok videos of me in the lakes, rivers, creeks tubing and fishing. It’s pretty funny.”

A new facility just opened here, Montgomery Whitewater, for rafting and kayaking that you might want to try.

“That would be right up my alley. My band and crew would love this. We go out and have fun…. If we get in a day early, we’re going to do that.”

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: MPAC: Bret Michaels' concert postponed to Friday, Nov. 10