Bret Michaels will close down the Brown County arena concert era with a show April 6

ASHWAUBENON - Prepare to get a little misty-eyed as you sing along to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena one last time.

Poison frontman Bret Michaels will play the final concert at the arena on April 6 before the 60-year-old building is demolished this spring. It will be his sixth headlining performance at the arena, more than any other act.

It’s a fitting finale to decades of live music at a venue the iconic '80s rockers regarded as something of a home away from home early in its career. Poison rehearsed for and launched three of its tours from the arena in the late ’80s and early ’90s, often spending weeks at a time in Green Bay.

The video for band’s signature power ballad, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” was filmed during a 1988 concert in the building and at a vacant warehouse on Broadway. Former Packers quarterback Don Majkowski once got onstage with the band to sing “Every Rose” during a sold-out show at the venue.

Brendan Bruss, chief operating officer of PMI Entertainment Group, and Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach made the announcement Friday morning from the bowl of the arena.

The night, playing off the title of a Poison hit, is being billed as "Nothin' But a Good Time — For the Last Time." It's a stop on Michaels' Unbroken World Tour. Warrant and Lita Ford will open.

Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 16 through Ticket Star at ticketstaronline.com, 800-895-0071 and the Resch Center box office. Prices are $68 for general admission pit, $58, $48 and $28. There is an eight-ticket limit.

Three local charities will benefit from the concert: Happily Ever After Animal Sanctuary, Make-A-Wish Wisconsin and JDRF Northeast Wisconsin Chapter. 

When Poison co-headlined the Resch Center with Def Leppard in April 2017 for a sold-out show — its first tour with its original lineup in five years — Michaels asked PMI, which manages both venues, if he could go over to Brown County arena to look around and reminisce.

He posted a photo on his website that showed him standing in the same hallway featured in the “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” video and hinted he’d like to play that building again someday. 

Michaels wrote, in part: “The Brown County arena brings back such amazing & great memories. I hope to bring a solo show there fall or next year and just make an amazing concert!”

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Michaels, 55, has played frequently in Green Bay in the last 15 years as a solo act with his own band, repeatedly selling out shows at Oneida Casino, Green Bay Distillery and Riverside Ballroom. He always makes a point to mention Poison’s connection to the city from the stage.

In a 2014 interview with the Press-Gazette, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett recalled the band’s history with the arena and Green Bay. 

“There were a lot of people running around with those (Poison) trading cards that they did, and there's a picture of me on a skateboard and that was actually in front of the venue in Green Bay. We did all kinds of stuff there. It was like a home away from home, you know. Sometimes we'd be there two weeks getting ready for a tour.”

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Bassist Bobby Dall told the Press-Gazette in 2017 that the arena was an ideal rehearsal space for the band back in the day, because it was cheap and available.

“They would literally rent us the building for like a $1,000 a day and just pay for the employees and the air-conditioning,” he said. “That’s why we used to rehearse in that building, because no one else was using it but us.”

He also recalled one of the fall tour launches in which the band had a chance to catch a Packers preseason game and hang out with the players. “That was a whole lot of fun. I have many fond memories of Green Bay, Wisconsin.”

Before Michaels’ concert, the arena will also host a sold-out show by rock bands Shinedown and Papa Roach on March 9.

The building, along with the adjacent Shopko Hall, is scheduled to come down this spring to make way for a new $93 million multi-purpose expo center.