TV Tattler: Celebrity Interviews
Bret Michaels Rocks a New VH1 Series
The Poison Frontman Dishes on Reality TV Love, Full Body Tattoos and Band Brawls
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July 11 -- With apologies to those preppy 'Bachelor' dudes and Flavor Flav, 'Rock of Love,' in which Poison rocker Bret Michaels takes a spin at finding love, is the relationship reality show we've been waiting for
Michaels, who's currently on tour with Poison as the band celebrates 21 years together and a new 'Poison'd!' album of rock covers, talked to AOL TV's Kimberly Potts about why a rock god would agree to look for love on reality TV, how tattoos figure into the competition and the show's wild ending, which went "wickedly bad" for the 44-year-old singer and actor.
OK, obviously, you don't need a reality show to meet women. So what made you sign on for 'Rock of Love'?
The first time they approached me, I had just finished up a tour last year and was just newly single, coming out of a really long-term relationship. Their first proposal was to film the show at my house. They'd done a 'Cribs' show at my house. And I just said, "I don't think that's good idea." I told them I have a great, amicable relationship with my ex at the moment. However, I thought the idea of 25 women and me locked in a house sounded like it could be fun. So I said, "Let me get back to you." So, originally, I sort of turned the idea down. I was like, I just don't think I could do one of those [reality] shows where I have to have those pretend arguments in the Jacuzzi.
And what changed your mind?
I told [the producers] this: "What if I can come in and you follow me with the camera, allow me to do what I do? I go dirt bike riding. I am diabetic, I'll show them how I would take my [insulin] shot. We would go to the studio, we will go to the gun range, we will go play football, we will go to the beach and hang out." I said, "If you throw a party the way I know how to throw a party, let the girls compete not just for me, but for the sheer hell of it, that could be fun." And after months of discussing this, they finally thought it could be a fresh new take.
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And what about the women? From the previews, they seem to be pretty serious about the competition ...
Every one of the 25 girls was absolutely awesome. They all brought something different to the plate. I mean, one girl was heavily into PETA and animal rights and then her direct roommate was a hunter who hated animals. I thought, "Oh my God, this is not going to be good at all." We had a lot of really fun times, but we had some pretty crazy times, too. They bumped the show up from six episodes, originally, to 11 episodes after the premiere.
Did you have input into picking the 25 women?
They originally had 30 girls picked, but then they said, "All these girls know who you are, they know about Poison, but did you ever date any of them?" And I kind of did a quick look through and I said, "Yeah, I know four or five of these girls." I had partied with five of them. So on the first day, we had to cut them. And [the women] were arguing. [Producers] said, "This girl is telling us she has never met you," and I said, "Hold on a minute. Go to my Web site right now and look at one of my party shots." They went to the site and clicked, and there's the girl. And they're like, "Son of a b****! She totally lied to us!" And I said, "I told you, I am not making it up. If you are asking me to keep this real, then let's keep it real."
