For the first time Michael wrote and recorded his own original songs (Andy McCoy being responsible for most of Hanoi's output), which were recorded alongside cover versions of tracks by his favorite artists. "It's A Lie" and "Nights Are So Long" were written by Dead Boys guitarist Jimmy Zero, and were recorded as a result of Stiv playing Jimmy's demos to Mike. The album reflected on the break up of Hanoi ("Can't Go Home Again") and the tragic consequences of such an enormous loss with the death of friend and Hanoi band member Razzle ("Too Rich To Be Good"/"You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory").
The record effectively served as an international demo and helped Mike find Polygram Records, who signed him with a plan to re-record some of "Nights Are So Long" for a world-wide release. However due to legal complications the record was put on hold.
In the months that followed Michael wrote a new album "Not Fakin' It" (released in 1989) which received praiseworthy reviews, and some of his (better known) peers were impressed enough to track him down and invite him to appear onstage with them - Steven Tyler asked Mike to play saxophone at a Les Paul 75th birthday tribute, Axl Rose, who was also a fan of Hanoi Rocks, crashed Michael's video shoot in New York to introduce himself to Michael and ended up in the video for "Dead, Jail Or Rock'n'Roll". Both Slash and Axl made appearances on Mike's subsequent US tour. In fact all the original Guns & Roses members had a fondness for Hanoi, prompting them to release their European back catalogue in America on their UZI SUICIDE label.
On New Year's Eve ´89 and New Year's Day '90 Michael played in Japan at The Tokyo Dome in front of about 70 000 people alongside Don Henley, Bryan Adams and Huey Lewis. In early 1990 Michael toured the U.K. to rave reviews and a great response from fans, only to find the album unavailable in record stores, and his profile failed to increase as a result.
Returning from a tour of Japan in spring 1990 Monroe saw himself on MTV being advertised as "the brains behind Hanoi Rocks", and demanded the record company pull the commercial off the air. Apart from Polygram's mispresentation, he also found his manager calling him a "prima donna" and earning him a bad reputation.
Michael had been approached by Steve Stevens (ex-Billy Idol guitarist) and they launched a project which would finally finish Mike's chances of major recognition. They recorded some promising demos, however when they went into the studio to record the album, they ran into problems, partly due to Polygram insisting on using a "Big Name" producer who tried to push him in a 'heavy metal' direction that was not to his liking. He subsequently did everything in his power to stop the the album from being released, but he had no support from anyone else involved and eventually the record surfaced under the name Jerusalem Slim. The label felt they had a right to recoup the enormous amount of money spent - whether it damaged Michael's career or not. He spent the next year trying to free himself from his contract before Polygram finally let him go.