You might say Bret Michaels has taken a page out of Tim McGraw’s playbook. True, the Poison front man and country superstar seem miles apart musically. Yet Michaels’ recent life-threatening illnesses, including a brain hemorrhage, made him completely reexamine his life and embrace a McGraw catchphrase.

“You know, it’s like Tim McGraw says: ‘Live Like You Were Dying,’ said Michaels, mentioning McGraw’s hit song. “Since the age of 6 [as a juvenile diabetic], I’ve lived with dying being a very real aspect in life. … What the brain hemorrhage did was make me hold my daughters a little tighter, love my family and friends a little more. In actuality, while [the hemorrhage] was the scariest thing you can imagine, it provided me the opportunity to show my daughters that at all cost, you get back on your horse and ride.”