Bret Michaels with Poison is enjoyable.  The music is kind of mindless, like KISS, but a lot of fun.  Bret Michaels as a solo artist is a different story.  As a solo artist, Bret Michaels is a “Repeat” Offender!!  What do I mean by that?  Well, let me tell you.  Bret Michaels can not release a new album that doesn’t contain all original music.  He has to repeat songs from his days as lead singer of Poison or songs from his previous solo album.  At this point to me, it is so laughable and sad at the same time.

It didn’t start out this way as his first 2 solo albums were pretty much all original/new material.  His first solo album in 1998 was ‘A Letter from Death Row’ which was the soundtrack to a movie he wrote, directed and starred in, believe it or not.  On a side note, I never saw the movie.  Here is the track listing:

1. “Party Rock Band” (feat. C. C. DeVille)
2. “Human Zoo”
3. “The Last Breath” (feat. Rikki Rockett)
4. “I’d Die for You” (feat. Randy Castillo)
5. “Times Like These”
6. “Little Willie”
7. “The Devil Inside”
8. “A Letter from Death Row”
9. “Sounds of Sex” (feat. The Hines Bros – Andra Hines & Dunkin Hines)
10. “69”
11. “Angst Mary”
12. “Steel Bar Blues
13. “Violent Endings”

So far so good (well not really, the album actually sucks).  I don’t recognize any of these songs as Poison songs so that is a good thing.  Now, his second solo album ‘Songs of Life’ was released in 2003. Here is the track listing:

1. “Menace to Society”
2. “Bittersweet”
3. “Raine”
4. “Forgiveness”
5. “Loaded Gun”
6. “Strange Sensation”
7. “Songs of Life”
8. “One More Day” (9-11 tribute)
9. “I Remember”
10. “The Chant”
11. “It’s My Party”
12. “War Machine”
13. “Party Rock Band” (Rock Edit) 
14. “Stay with Me”

Oops, there is one track, “Party Rock Band” that is off his first album.  So, he couldn’t make it 2 albums without repeating a song.  That isn’t too bad as a lot of artist will add a live version or remix of a song from their previous album as a bonus.  Maybe we will get lucky on the third album ‘Freedom of Sound’ which came out in 2005.  Here is that track listing:

1. “Rock ‘n My Country”
2. “Driven”
3. “Open Road”
4. “All I Ever Needed” (feat. Jessica Andrews)
5. “New Breed of American Cowboy”
6. “Right Now, Right Here”
7. “Lookin’ for a Good Time”
8. “It’s All Good”
9. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (country version featuring Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down, Chris Cagle, Mark Wills)
10. “Bittersweet” (Originally on Songs of Life)
11. “Raine” (feat. Edwin Mccain)
12. “Menace to Society” (Originally on Songs of Life)
13. “Walk Away”
14. “Something to Believe In” (solo version)
15. “Future Ex Wife”
16. “The One You Get”
17. “Human Zoo” (Originally on A Letter from Death Row)
18. “The Last Breath” (Originally on A Letter from Death Row)

Oh my goodness.  He now has 8 songs repeated from previous albums or Poison songs.  Yes, some might be reworked but it is still a repeat of older material.  The good news is there are 11 songs not repeated.  That is a full album’s worth of new material so why add the rehash of older material.  We will give it another try with his 2010 release ‘Custom Built’.  Here is the track listing:

1. “Riding Against the Wind” (Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It Theme)
2. “Lie to Me”
3. “Nothing to Lose” (featuring Miley Cyrus) – 3:55
4. “Wasted Time”
5. “What I Got” (Bud Gaugh, Bradley Nowell, Half Pint, Eric Wilson)
6. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (country version featuring Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down, Chris Cagle, Mark Wills)
7. “Go That Far (Club Mix)” (mixed by Jason Miller of Godhead)
8. “Driven” (Rock Mix) (featuring Mike Himmel on guitar)
9. “Open Road” (Originally from the album Freedom of Sound)
10. “Rock’ n My Country” (Originally from the album Freedom of Sound)
11. “Nothing to Lose” (solo version)
12. “I’d Die for You” (Originally from the album A Letter from Death Row)
13. “Lie to Me” (Explicit) – Bonus track on digital album
14. “What I Got” (Explicit) – Bonus track on digital album

Not only do we have 5 repeats from older albums, we have 3 alternate versions of songs already on the album and “What I Got” is a cover at that and we get it twice!!  WTF??? Okay, Okay, enough already.  The next album will be all new material!!  His fifth album came out in 2013 called ‘Jammin’ with Friends’.  This track lists boasts 20 songs…awesome…right?  See for yourself…

1. “Nothin’ But A Good Time” (feat. Ace Frehley & Michael Anthony)
2. “Sweet Home Alabama” (feat. Rickey Medlocke, Gary Rossington, Bobby Capps & Peter Keys)
3. “Talk Dirty to Me” (feat. Mark McGrath & Scot Coogan)
4. “Get Your Rock On” (feat. Phil Collen & Sal Costa)
5. “Unskinny Bop” (feat. The Shields Brothers, Bobby Capps, Frank Hannon & Robert Mason)
6. “The App Song” (feat. Brian Nutter, Jimmy Buffett & Bobby Capps)
7. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (feat. Loretta Lynn, Bobby Capps, Joe Perry & Hugh McDonald)
8. “Raine” (feat. Edwin McCain)
9. “Driven” (feat. Leslie West, Jeffrey Steele & Eric Brittingham)
10. “Nothing To Lose” (feat. Miley Cyrus)
11. “What I Got” (feat. Jaret Reddick)
12. “Go That Far” (feat. Jason Miller)
13. “Fallen” (feat. Jimmy McGorman)
14. “Party Rock Band” (feat. CC DeVille & Randy Castillo)
15. “You Know You Want It” (feat. Peter Keys)
16. “Margaritaville” (live feat. Jimmy Buffett)
17. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (country version feat. Brad Arnold, Chris Cagle & Mark Wills)
18. “Something to Believe In” 
19. “Nothin’ But A Good Time” (classic rock version feat. Ace Frehley, Michael Anthony & The Shield Brothers)
20. “Get Your Ride On” (AMA Motorcross Theme feat. Phil Collen & Sal Costa)

This album contains 8 newly records covers of Poison & Bret Michaels songs, 6 songs from previous albums, 2 new covers and only 4 original songs…only 4 out of 20!!!  Holy Crap man can you stop rehashing old material and give us all new songs????  It that f’in’ possible???

And let us not forget out of his 5 so-called solo albums, Bret also has 4 compilation albums!!  FOUR!!! and he only has FIVE!! solo albums.  There was ‘Show Me Your Hits’ in 2000, ‘Ballads, Blues & Stories’ in 2001 (a year later), ‘Rock My Word’ in 2008 to go along with his VH1 TV show of the same name (which was horrendous) and ‘True Grit’ in 2015 which did have 3 new songs, but 18 rehashes of older material.

I would have to say Bret Michaels is a “Repeat” Offender as it offends the crap out of me that he keeps repeating the same old songs over and over and over and over and over again.  Please man, give us a break!!!!

Thank you for putting up with this rant as I needed to get that off my chest.

As a bonus, here are 2 of his most repeated songs “Raine” and “Driven”: