Bret Michaels, not just ribs, makes Ribfest exciting

In May, Bret Michaels was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage, received an emergency appendectomy, a hole in his heart and warning strokes. After a full recovery, he won Celebrity Apprentice, released a new CD and, to top it off, performed at RibFest in Indianapolis this weekend as part of his new tour.

"Bret! Bret! Bret!," shouted the crowd. At 9:15 p.m. the lights went out and "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n Roses started blaring over the loudspeakers.

As the stage lights illuminated the crowd, they started screaming in excitement and anticipation for the iconic Poison frontman to grace the stage.

"Indianapolis, are you ready?" yelled guitarist Pete Evick.

Then Bret Michaels  ran onto the stage. The first song he did was the famous Poison song, "Talk Dirty to Me."

Michaels rocked the stage for an hour-and-a-half and performed Poison favorites such as "Look What the Cat Dragged In," "Something to Believe In," "Unskinny Bop," "Your Mamma Don't Dance," the theme from Rock of Love, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" and "Fallen Angel."

Before performing "Your Mamma Don't Dance," which is a song Michaels performed with Poison—and also a cover they did, originally performed by Loggins and Messina—Michaels did a harmonica solo.

"You can't come to a Ribfest and not have a harmonica, right?" he said to the crowd.

"Is everyone ready to have a party here at Ribfest tonight?" Michaels said to the crowd. "I've been coming here to Indy for 24 awesome years and everytime we come here we have a great time."

Michaels also announced a new television show on VH1, coming out in October

"We are ready to throw a party here," he said. "We have a new show coming out Monday, October 18 on VH1, called ‘Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It.' This is life as I know it and you guys are gonna be all over the opening of the show tonight."

After that, a VH1 cameraman came onto stage and began shooting the crowd for the remainder of the show.

He also did two cover songs—Sublime's "What I Got" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama." He finished the night off with an encore in "Nothin' But a Good Time."

He also took time to thank the fans for all of the support he received in May.

"We got so many nice prayers and a lot of people we had a chance to talk to on the internet and here tonight," he said. "You helped me raise a lot of money for juvenile diabetes, it means a lot to me and it is great to be alive and live here in Indianapolis."