Poison – Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Official Music Video)

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” – Single by Poison from the album Open Up and Say… Ahh!
B-side: “Livin for the Minute” (US), “Back to the Rocking Horse” (UK)
Released: October 12, 1988
Songwriters: Bret Michaels, C.C. DeVille, Bobby Dall, Rikki Rockett
Producer: Tom Werman
Charted No.1 in US and No.13 in UK

The music video to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” was directed by Marty Callner. It starts out with a forlorn Bret Michaels in bed with a young woman, they both look unhappy. He gets up, does the heavy sigh that is at the start of the song and walks away to play the acoustic guitar, the video then goes into video clips of the band’s tour. The same young woman is seen driving a Thunderbird in the rain (two different times), listening to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” on the car’s radio. The video was shot at the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in an empty warehouse nearby. The video ends with Michaels playing the last of the song on his acoustic guitar and walking away.

Poison lead singer Bret Michaels wrote “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” in response to a failed love affair with his girlfriend, Tracy Lewis. After playing at a bar in Dallas, Texas, Michaels called Lewis at her Los Angeles apartment and heard a man’s voice in the background. The next day, the disconsolate Michaels took his acoustic guitar with him to a Laundromat and wrote the song right there.

The song reached #1 on the charts for two weeks in 1988 and was a crossover hit, topping the Pop, Rock, and Country charts.

The song’s lyrics are often interpreted as a metaphor for the highs and lows of life, with the rose representing success and the thorn representing the costs and imperfections that come with it.

The song is considered one of Poison’s most iconic and enduring songs, and its success helped establish the band as a major force in the hair metal genre.