“Somehow, he managed to pivot…” – Danny Goldberg, from the film

Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me To Be is the anti-“rock star biopic,” because it breaks many of the conventions that have become the standard in these films. There’s not a dramatic orchestral soundtrack, intended to play on your emotions during particularly emotional scenes. If anything, you’ll be greeted by the feral howl of Michael with one of his past bands or in solo performance, against the backdrop of roaring Marshall stacks, during moments of triumph and loss. That’s one of the undercurrents of the film, one of the secrets of his success…when life throws you a curve ball, pick up your guitar, plug it in, and wail…literally or figuratively.

The story, presented by interviews with Michael and a cast of his closest friends, is presented without irony or drama, even in its most ironic and dramatic moments. In doing so, the film becomes more real, more honest, more three dimensional, not the product of Hollywood producers in a vain search for the next box office blockbuster.

The film begins, quite literally, at the beginning, with the story of Guillaume Des Barres, the first member of the family to be bestowed with the title of Marquis Des Barres. It then fast-forwards by seven and a half centuries to the birth of Michael, his unconventional childhood, his passage to the rigid and confining life of a student in boarding school, and his arrival at drama school, where the initial depth charge in what he wanted and how he proceeded to pursue it was launched.

The film traces his acting career, from TV commercials to To Sir With Love to Pink Cadillac and the many roles that followed. In the course of his early acting career, Michael understood what he was actually going after, as he reveals in the film…the pursuit of hedonism. His efforts were a mechanism designed to achieve that end result, and as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, and a multitude of British bands exploded across the public consciousness, he knew that music was the fastest and surest route to his desired end result. We see the birth of Silverhead, followed by Detective, Chequered Past, performing before a record-large audience at Live Aid with Power Station (after having a whopping ten days to learn their songs), and his solo career.

And when his fortunes in the musical arena changed, as manager Danny Goldberg explains in the film, “Somehow, he managed to pivot.” He began a recurring role as the iconic villain-of-all-villains, Murdoc, on the MacGyver series. More TV and movie roles followed, as well as his resuming his musical ambitions, and a spot as the Monday-Friday 8 to 11 AM DJ on SIRIUSXM’s Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

You can see the point, when Silverhead broke up, where many people would have called it a day. That’s not how Michael operated. While he didn’t seamlessly go from one triumph to the next, he never allowed himself to become immobile. Whether through his own deliberate series of actions or some serendipitous moment that made him think “There’s my next door of opportunity, I’m going to walk through it,” he continually rebuilt, continually re-invented himself, and each time, the end result was what it needed to be in that moment. When he wanted a different result, he took a different action, but he never simply sat back and observed. The same determination that led to his being handed a recording contract for Silverhead when he had very little experience as a musician, simply the raw desire to become one, is what fuels him right up to the present day.

The question you may well ask, as the final credits roll, is “How might the Michael Des Barres story have played out, had he come from different beginnings?” What if the young boy who went off to boarding school had been raised by kind, stable, ever-present and consistently loving parents, perhaps with the backdrop of lush, ever-verdant British hills, where the sun shone on this happy family every day?

And it’s in that moment, if you find yourself asking that, that you understand one of the most common traps life has to offer…there is no perfect life, at the beginning, middle or end. As Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday said to Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in the film Tombstone, “There’s no normal life Wyatt, It’s just life. Get on with it.”

Michael often says that what we have is now, we have today, and there’s nothing else. Accepting today and everything in it as what it is, nothing more or less, is not an act of surrender. We can’t yearn for a better past, and we can’t daydream about a better future without taking deliberate steps to make it happen today. It’s all about the gap that exists between when life deals us a set of cards, and when we act on them.

When we are born, when we’re infants, we literally enter the world in a helpless state.

What separates the people who endure a life of misery from those who find fulfillment is the moment in which we recognize that our initial helplessness is meant to be cast off, not embraced, and that with the right attitude, you move from being a passive participant in life who’s been dealt a bad hand to the one who becomes the dealer. You choose the cards, you carve the trail, you look at what’s available to you as the result of complacency and passivity and determine that it’s not acceptable. You know what feels right for you, uniquely in your own mind, and set out to make it happen. There are roadblocks and detours and setbacks and none of them matter in the long run, because every day that you get out of bed and determine that you’ll be no less than the person you’re meant to be, you’ve already won, even in the absence of a clear “victory.”

In 2020, Michael has the SIRIUS show. He’s very happily married. His son has grown to be a fine, intelligent and successful man. He’s released several successful singles in recent years. He’s performed his music in clubs to enthusiastic audiences. He returned to the re-booted MacGyver series in memorable role of Helman, a surprise twist on his infamous Murdoc character. His ambition hasn’t waned, his commitment to pursuing his goals hasn’t diminished.

The young boy who was dropped off at boarding school has accumulated a fortune far more vast than the monetary riches squandered and lost by his father. He discovered the secret of true wealth…he’s made millions of people happy, and in his spirit of pursing life with a positive attitude and unlimited energy, with a spirit of giving and perpetual gratitude, with a raw determination to never be counted out of the game, he’s found his own happiness.

Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me To Be? is one powerful film. You’ll know that when you see it.

Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me To Be? will be available on July 10, 2020, via multiple streaming platforms including: Amazon Prime Video, FandangoNOW, Google Play/You Tube Rentals, InDemand (Comcast & Cox, Spectrum, Cablevision, etc.) for both VOD and EST, iTunes, Kaleidescape, Microsoft Store and Vudu.

Featuring: Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing), Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols, Chequered Past), Don Johnson (Miami Vice, Nash Bridges, Knives Out), John Taylor (Duran Duran, The Power Station), Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging, Grace of My Heart), Steven Van Zandt (E Street Band, The Sopranos), Pamela Des Barres (I’m With the Band ), Ed Begley Jr. (St. Elsewhere, Best in Show), Nigel Harrison (Blondie, Silverhead, Chequered Past), also Robbie Blunt, Rod Davies, Britta Des Barres, Nick Des Barres, Paul Fishkin, Danny Goldberg, John Hyde, Paul Ill, Pete Thompson, and Wendy Wheeler.