‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ is a power ballad by American glam metal band Poison. It was released in October 1988 as the third single from Poison's second album Open Up and Say... Ahh!. The band's signature song, it is also their only number-one hit in the US, reaching Billboard's Hot 100 top spot on December 24, 1988, for three weeks. It also charted at number 11 on the Mainstream Rock chart. It was a number 13 hit in the UK. ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ was named number 34 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s", number 100 on their "100 Greatest Love Songs" and number seven on MTV and VH1 "Top 25 Power Ballads". Billboard ranked the song number five on their list of "The 10 Best Poison Songs".
In an interview with VH1's Behind the Music, Bret Michaels said the inspiration for the song came from a night when he was in a laundromat in Dallas waiting for his clothes to dry, and called his girlfriend on a pay phone. Michaels said he heard a male voice in the background and was devastated; he said he went into the laundromat and wrote ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ as a result. He explained in Rolling Stone June 10, 2010: "I remember using a pay phone to call this girl I was dating. We were on the road, touring in our Winnebago, and my relationship was falling apart. I still have the yellow legal pad I wrote it on. There are, like, a bazillion verses that I later edited down." On a VH1 Behind The Music special, Michaels explained the metaphoric meaning behind the rose and thorn in this song. He said that the rose was his career taking off, and the thorn was the fact that it was costing him his relationship with his girlfriend Tracy.
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.
Labels – Capitol
Songwriters – Bret Michaels, C.C. DeVille, Bobby Dall, Rikki Rockett
Producer – Tom Werman
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]We both lie silently still
In the dead of the night
Although we both lie close together
We feel miles apart inside
Was it something I said or something I did?
Did my words not come out right?
Though I tried not to hurt you, though I tried
But I guess that's why they say
[Chorus]
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn, yeah, it does
[Verse 2]
I listen to our favorite song
Playing on the radio
Hear the DJ say, "Love's a game of easy come
And easy go"
But I wonder, does he know?
Has he ever felt like this?
And I know that you'd be here right now
If I could have let you know somehow, I guess
[Chorus]
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn
[Bridge]
Though it's been a while now
I can still feel so much pain
Like a knife that cuts you, the wound heals
But the scar, that scar remains
[Verse 3]
I know I could have saved a love that night
If I'd known what to say
Instead of making love
We both made our separate ways
And now I hear you found somebody new
And that I never meant that much to you
To hear that tears me up inside
And to see you cuts me like a knife, I guess
[Chorus]
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn