Award-winning multi-platinum musician and long-time health advocate Bret Michaels was chosen to deliver the opening address at the Diversity Alliance for Science, Inc. fifth annual networking conference, leading the way for the charity auction that included custom Dean guitars, autographed t-shirts, and amazing ticket packages to catch Poison on the road. Bret was also honored with the Magic Johnson Business and Healthcare Award at the event.
PCM’s Kristyn Clarke was able to catch up with Bret Michaels after his opening address to the conference and his jaunt at playing auctioneer.
“It was such a great experience for me and everyone down there was just so amazing,” Michaels said. “The vibe in here it really makes a difference because I do quite a few of these conferences and we talk about health and how it affects people and when you go in there and the vibe is so fun it makes all the difference. People in there were having fun so when you combine both a great thing that you are doing for science and a lot of money you are raising with the element of the human touch it truly makes a huge difference.”
How he got involved with Diversity Alliance for Science:
“I do a lot of fundraisers and what happens is they bring you in and at first they kind of want to bring certain people in just to make money and I said ‘Well, listen…there is a lot more going on here than just trying to raise money, there has to be a reason’. People are like ‘Well, I can just go get that guitar online or I can buy a ticket’ so there has to be a reason element behind it and that is why we paired up because they brought us in knowing that because of the Rockstars of Science, after the brain surgery they did on me and all this different stuff, all those things created a huge campaign.”
What drives him to keep going, even at crossroads in his life:
“Passion for me is what drives me. It’s that extra kick that keeps me going and like I said I work, my Life Rocks foundation works with a lot of kids that are really, really sick and have a very limited chance of survival and I said that is what makes me be able to do it and we’ll drive, we drove, all the way here on the bus, because we are on tour, to come here and now after this we head to the southeast in one more day. I think what it is and again I go back to it, is that passion that gives you that extra kick. It’s the same thing that helped me win Celebrity Apprentice at the end. There are a lot of great people that have a lot of great business skills on there but, it’s that extra kick, that extra bit of will that fights and wins in the end.
You can follow Diversity Alliance for Science on Facebook at www.facebook.com/diversityallianceforscience.com and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/diversitya4s.
Check out the full interview here!
