Billionaire businessman Donald Trump counseled rocker Bret Michaels to file suit against CBS 
Entertainment and others over injuries Michaels suffered at the 2009 Tony Awards, the Poison lead singer said in Dallas Saturday.
Talks to resolve the matter earlier broke down because, “let’s just say, they were pretty cold,” Michaels said, referring to the defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in L.A. by his lawyers Friday. While Trump offered to intercede and advised him to sue aggressively, Michaels said, he decided mainly to ask to be compensated for work-time lost due to his injuries, which included stitches with a cut lip and a broken nose.
The singer, who starred on VH1’s stop-rated Rock of Love show and won Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice TV competition on NBC, had just finished performing Poison’s hit, “Nothin’ But a Good Time,” on the Tonys broadcast when a giant scenery piece was lowered and whacked him in the face. There were no safety warnings or precautions in place, Michaels said, and the broadcast could have been “delayed” to avoid embarrassing him. “They never needed to show me getting hurt,” he added. “They didn’t offer to pay my medical costs or anything. … I’m sorry it came to this.”
Michaels, 48, discussed the legal dispute after being honored Saturday at a juvenile-diabetes fundraiser–he’s suffered from type 1 diabetes  for 42 years–sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The singer (pictured in photo by Jeanne Prejean) was also scheduled to perform at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Dallas today.
