Former British hard rock singer and front man of the 1970s Los Angeles band "Detective", who were one of the featured acts on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label and were produced to sound as much like Led Zeppelin as possible. A longtime friend & confidant of Led Zeppelin leader Jimmy Page, Michael Des Barres married Jimmy Page's longtime girlfriend, the notorious Rock groupie, Pamela Miller, herself also a former girlfriend to WHO drummer Keith Moon, composer Todd Rundgren and experimental rocker Frank Zappa. She was also a former-member of the famed 1960s groupie clique "The GTOs". The couple had one child, a son named Dean.

Michael Des Barres has appeared on television and film a great many times and is considered quite a skilled actor. Indeed, he is probably much better known as an actor, having made appearances on highly rated television shows like Roseanne, St. Elsewhere and especially as "Dog" on WKRP in Cincinnati, where he and "Detective" actually performed. He also did terrific work in a recurring role on MacGyver as "Murdoc", a demented assassin bent on killing the title hero. In the 1980s, he briefly fronted Duran Duran offshoot Power Station.
Appeared on the original WKRP in Cincinnati as "Sir Charles 'Dog' Weatherbee", member of the fictional British hard-rock band "Scum of the Earth". Fourteen years later, he became a regular cast member of The New WKRP in Cincinnati as disc jockey "Jack Allen". Replaced Robert Palmer as lead singer of Power Station when Robert Palmer was unable to tour with the group in 1985. He wrote the lyrics to the song "Cleo Rocks" for MacGyver, episode #4.9 of the same name. He appeared on MacGyver as "Murdoc", an insane and ruthless villain who always seems to come back from the dead. His was originally slated to be a one-time appearance. Yet because he did such a good job, producers Henry Winkler and John Rich gave Michael Des Barres a recurring role. As a member of Power Station, Michael Des Barres co-wrote and co-performed "We Fight For Love", the end-title-song for Commando. He did not, however, appear in the movie. His last name is pronounced "Deb-Barr".