Bret Michaels Recalls Fistfight with Bandmate C.C. DeVille at 1991 VMAs: 'Craziest Moment in Our Career'

Michaels recalls realizing his bandmate was "lit"

Bret Michaels is opening up about a darker time in Poison's history.

As hair metal started to see changes and musical tastes shifted toward grunge in the early 1990s, Poison made a now-infamous appearance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. The lead singer of the band looks back at that night in Paramount+'s new limited docuseries, N?thin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal.

"We were playing live at the MTV Awards. There was a lot of partying going on and C.C. [DeVille] had a really great time, so he's lit. It was the craziest moment in our career. We're playing live and we go out there to do 'Unskinny Bop,' " Michaels, now 61, recalls.

He remembers hearing the opening riff to "Talk Dirty to Me" seconds later. "I'm like, 'Holy f---, we're supposed to be playing 'Unskinny Bop' and we're now live doing 'Talk Dirty to Me.' "

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Related: Bret Michaels Calls Bandmate C.C. DeVille 'One of My Best Friends Now' After Past Fights (Exclusive)

DeVille then stepped on his guitar cable mid-performance, unplugging it for a few as the rest of the band played on. They made it through the song — but backstage, things got ugly.

"It was an instant knock down, drag out fistfight," Michaels recalls. "Here we are fighting, rolling on the ground, underneath Cindy Crawford and Arsenio Hall who are trying to move out of our way because they have to go out and introduce the next band."

"A couple of broken noses and loss of a tooth or two and we parted ways that evening, for a little while," Michaels says.

Though Poison's original lineup did cease to exist after that night in 1991, the rest of the band moved forward with guitarist Richie Kotzen for several years. In 1996, Michaels and DeVille were able to make amends, and the band returned to its original lineup.

Speaking with PEOPLE in April 2023, Michaels hinted that Poison has more rocking to come. In 2025, he said, "Poison is going to come back together as the original four, reunited and undivided."

He also called DeVille "one of my best friends now."

"There's a brotherhood and a love there," he added. "We're never breaking up."

N?thin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal is now streaming on Paramount+.

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