Bret Michaels Suffers Setback While Recovering From Stroke

Bret Michaels remains hospitalized as he recovers from a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and while his reps report that "doctors remain hopeful for a full recovery," the Poison frontman and reality-TV star has suffered a setback: He has been diagnosed with hyponatremia, a lack of sodium, which could cause severe seizures. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Michaels was rushed to an undisclosed hospital — likely Phoenix, Arizona's St. Joseph's Hospital, E! News reports — last week after being struck by an excruciating headache. Tests revealed Michaels had experienced a stroke that results in bleeding at the base of the brain.

Look back at Bret Michaels' career with Poison in photos.

Michaels' reps also addressed rumors that the hemorrhage is somehow connected to the rocker's televised onstage collision with a prop at last year's Tony Awards, which left him with a fractured nose. "Additional studies are planned throughout the week to hopefully detect the exact cause of the rupture," Michaels' team reports, but it's more likely that the hemorrhage, like his recent emergency appendectomy, is related to the fact that Michaels' has Type 1 diabetes. He competed on this season's Celebrity Apprentice to raise money and awareness for the American Diabetes Association.

Adding that doctors stated the stroke could have been fatal, Michaels' reps told fans, "With further testing and rehabilitation, they are hopeful that Bret will gradually improve as the blood surrounding the brain dissolves and is reabsorbed into his system, which can be a very painful recovery and take several weeks to months." Still, the rocker is said to be in good spirits. An update on Michaels' condition will be posted on his official website next Monday, May 3rd.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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