Bret Michaels on seeing daughter Raine pose for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: ‘I’m really proud of her’

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Bret Michaels on seeing daughter Raine pose for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: ‘I’m really proud of her’

Poison frontman Bret Michaels shared how he feels about watching daughter Raine, 18, work her way up the ranks in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit competition.

Bret Michaels is one proud dad.

Speaking to Fox News, the Poison frontman shared how he feels about watching his 18-year-old daughter Raine work her way up the ranks in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit competition.

"As a father, I'm there from the cutting of the umbilical cord 'til right now, and I mean her mom too. I'm saying this, both of us, as parents, really, really proud of Raine," Michaels told us of his oldest kid. "She's done a great job. She is going to school at a really good university for broadcast journalism. She loves it. She's in Tennessee doing that."

BRET MICHAEL'S DAUGHTER RAINE TALKS STRIPPING DOWN FOR SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 

He continued: "She's one of those people who's a kind soul. She's humble. At the same time, she's a fighter. I'm really proud of her. I'm thankful for the views and the votes. Sports Illustrated – because I'm a sports fanatic – I'm so proud of her because it's also a great magazine for them to get recognized. All of the girls that entered, I give credit to, and the six finalists, it's amazing."

As for if he initially had any reservations about his daughter flaunting her figure for the magazine?

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"I knew she wanted to model... You know they call it 'coming of age,'" the 56-year-old singer explained. "They're going into their own. She's 18 years old. She's making her decision on college, so you hope that you gave her the right skills and the right mindset to make the right decisions. That's all you can do and I'm there for her no matter what.

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"No matter what happens in her life, I'll be there as a dad because you want to be a good provider and a good protector, and I also tell her the risks that come with it," he added, noting that "there's a lot of great people and people that are going to be behind her and great, and you're also going to get some people that aren't great people — whether they are trying to talk her into some bad contract or they're perverts or whatever they are, you know.

"No matter what happens in her life, I'll be there as a dad"

— Bret Michaels

"She's going to have to deal with the good and the bad."

Along with Raine, Michaels is also super impressed by his youngest daughter, Jorja Bleu, recently teaming up with the 13-year-old to co-write a new song titled "Unbroken."

"She goes to a music school in Los Angeles, and she thrives," he gushed. "The kid is a prodigy on the piano. She has a great voice, but she's a songwriter. She's got a very deep soul, and just like all kids that go through a tough time in their life, she's 13 years old, and she sat down with me one night and said: 'Can we write a song together?'"

The dad-of-two went on to explain that both he and Jorja have been through "a lot of adversity," so the song aims to make "people feel good about themselves."

For his part, Michaels is currently touring the country, as well as raising awareness for Type 1 diabetes, which he was diagnosed with at the age of 6.

"No one really knew what was wrong with me, that was the problem," the "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" singer recalled. "We didn't know if I had the flu. I have, as my dad and mom would always say, I have a unique energy. I've got a lot of energy, but when focused it's great, so I was feeling really tired, and anytime I would drink anything, anything at all, I would urinate instantly, and it looked a lot like flu-like symptoms.

(Mark Mazzanti)

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"So in the middle of the night, probably about three in the morning, my dad said: 'Something's really wrong,'" Michaels continued. "At that point, I was going into ketoacidosis, which is very deadly, so my blood sugar was running around 8 to 900, which is really, really high considering it's supposed to be in the 80 to 120 range. 120 being on the higher end."

From there, Michaels was rushed to the emergency room, where the medical staff suspected he was diabetic.

"My grandmother had it and it ran in my family, but more of a Type 2 situation," he explained, adding that after a three-week hospital stay he learned how to manage the disease on his own.

Fast-forward to today, the former "Rock of Love” star says he looks at his diagnosis as a "blessing" in some ways.

"I learned early on because I'm a really active kid and adult, in other words, every day I love being out there playing baseball, football, soccer. I have dirtbikes, so I go out and ride with my kids. I like staying active, but what you realize is it is a very complicated disease, and what I mean by that is it's a balancing act," the Life Rocks Foundation creator explained.

"My entire life has been a balance beam, but in some ways, it's been a blessing as much as a curse. It's taught me that I have to go twice as hard to get half the distance."