A commercial for "Behind The Music: Bret Michaels" — which premieres Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on VH1 — can be viewed below.

VH1's Emmy-nominated documentary series "Behind The Music" returns to focus on some of today's top artists who have had a major impact on the music world, from rock to hip-hop to pop. In addition to the dramatic storytelling that made "Behind The Music" a worldwide hit, the series will celebrate the subjects as artists and will also feature originally shot verite footage of each artist, which will anchor each story in the present day.

Bret Michaels and his band of brothers left Pennsylvania with a rock-n-roll dream and a desire to taste the good life on L.A.'s notorious Sunset Strip. Drugs, booze, women and more women — anything and everything happened. A diabetic, Bret's self indulgence took its toll, but not even collapsing on stage could slow him down. The lifestyle also cost Bret a valued romantic relationship (he turned his heartbreak into the hit power ballad ("Every Rose Has Its Thorn). After turning to alcohol and nearly losing his life in a severe car accident, Bret got a wake-up call cleaned himself up and started a successful solo career and even dabbling in film production, writing and starring in 1997's "A Letter From Death Row". In 2007, he starred in his own reality show, VH1's "Rock of Love With Bret Michaels". Over the course of three-plus seasons, Bret showed fans a different side of him and once again skyrocketed into a mainstream star, completing a long and turbulent road living in and out of the spotlight.

The "Behind The Music" series debuted on VH1 in August of 1997 and was originally created and produced for VH1 by Gay Rosenthal, George Moll and Jeff Gaspin who were responsible for many of the channel's 200-plus episodes of the series.

The current series is executive-produced by Shelly Tatro, Brad Abramson, Stephen Mintz and Jeff Olde for VH1. Executives in charge of music talent are Rick Krim and Leah Horwitz. The Bret Michaels episode was executive-produced by Mark Ford and Kevin Lopez for Creature Films.