Bret Michaels rocks out with Miley Cyrus

DETROIT – Poison is on a pre-planned break this year, but frontman Bret Michaels isn't having trouble finding other folks to work with -- including Miley Cyrus and his fellow cast members on the new season of "Celebrity Apprentice."

Michaels and Cyrus have traded guest appearances for each other's next albums; she sings on his new single "Nothing to Lose," while Michaels guests on a cover of the hit Poison ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" that's slated for Cyrus' next album.

"Miley got ahold of me and wanted to re-cut 'Every Rose...,'" Michaels tells Billboard.com. "When we were in the studio, I said, 'Do you want to hear some of my new tracks?' She said 'I'd love to,' and I played her 'Nothing to Lose' and she fell in love with it and said she'd love to sing on the song. I was like, 'That'd be killer!'"

Michaels says that Cyrus -- who saw Poison perform in Nashville when she was very young -- had a different kind of approach in mind for his song.

"One of her heroes is Stevie Nicks," he says. "I produced and recorded Stevie before, so I said, 'OK, let's take that approach. (Nicks) is kind of freestyle; you've just gotta go at it and sing what you want.' She did, and she ended up having a great time doing it."

"Nothing to Lose" will appear on Michaels' upcoming "Custom Built," his follow-up to 2008's "Rock My World," which reached No. 40 on the Billboard 200. Michaels is still putting the album together but said he hopes to go after some other guests, including Nicks and Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell.

Meanwhile, he kicks off his Roses & Thorns solo tour on March 12 in Fargo, N.D., and plans to be on the road most of the year, while Poison is currently hatching plans for the band's 25th anniversary celebration in 2011.

Fans will also be able to catch Michaels -- sporting matching bandana-and-suit attire -- on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" starting March 14. He advises that those interesting in seeing him should "tune in early" in the series but said his experience with Donald Trump and his fellow contestants was "pretty exciting."

"It was insane," he says. "It was exciting for me to go in there with other celebrities; I knew none of those people were quitters. You're going up against people that really wanted to compete and win. At the same time, some of them I was excited to see and meet, like Daryl Strawberry and (pro wrestler Bill) Goldberg. And of course I've known Sharon Osbourne, and I knew she would be tough.

"I know they were all thinking, 'This is a rocker guy' or 'This is the 'Rock of Love' guy.' And I run on a much different time than Mr. Trump does. I run on sort of musician time or rocker time, and he runs on a little more structured business time. But we're both extremely passionate people, and I think he got that from me."