Poison frontman Bret Michaels was forced to cancel a performance in Nashville on Thursday “due to an unforeseen medical complication” that led to hospitalization.
The 59-year-old rocker, who has been touring with Poison as well as Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, was set to take the stage at the Nissan Stadium, but he and his group had to pull out minutes before showtime, according to the Tennessean. His Poison bandmates took to the stage to break the news and the show went on as planned.
“To the incredible fans in Nashville, thank you for all your well wishes,” a statement posted late Thursday to Michaels’ official Twitter account read. “I was truly fired up to get on stage in the Music City and perform, but due to an unforeseen medical complication & following hospitalization, it was not possible.”
While the “Talk Dirty to Me” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” singer did not elaborate on what was ailing him, Michaels sent his “deepest apologies for being unable to rock the stage.”
“I’m working on being back 100% very soon & hope you rocked hard with my friends,” he said.
TMZ reported Michaels was treated at a local hospital for an adverse reaction to medication, but representatives for Michaels did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ requests for confirmation.
The all-star Stadium Tour kicked off in Atlanta on June 16 and was set to go on for three-and-a-half months. The next stops include shows in Florida on Saturday and in Mississippi on Sunday. Poison and the other acts are scheduled to play SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Aug. 27 before wrapping the North American tour in Las Vegas on Sept. 9.
“I’m a grateful guy,” Michaels told USA Today on launching the tour. “To be on the good side of the dirt after all I’ve been through … I live to be on the road. It’s my freedom. It’s good for my soul.”
Michaels is set to make other appearances on land before taking to the high seas on March 3 on the ’80s Cruise, a themed cruise setting sail from the Port of Los Angeles on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas ship.
Michaels, who recently competed as Banana on Fox’s “The Masked Singer” and starred in the VH1 dating-competition series “Rock of Love,” has been open about his lifelong battle with Type 1 diabetes, with which he was diagnosed at 6. The “Celebrity Apprentice” winner has had other health issues over the past decade or so, including a brain hemorrhage in 2010, a mild stroke and heart surgery in 2011 and kidney surgeries in 2014.
While touring this summer, the bandana-sporting rock star said he created a mobile gym in his RV to help keep his health in check.
“Rather than eating my way through an eight-hour drive, I put on a movie, lock the [stationary] bike down, seatbelt myself in and ride for the whole thing,” he told USA Today. “I come from a family that likes to party, but as a diabetic, I have to find more balance.”
This fall, Michaels will appear in A&E’s multipart documentary “The Origins of Bret Michaels,” which pulls material from the rocker’s 2020 memoir “Auto-Scrap-Ography Vol. 1.”