Rock of Love
Poison frontman Bret Michaels, a bandanna, a mansion and 25 women in the Flavor of Love mold, competing in challenges for a date and a backstage pass to his heart. VH1's Rock of Love with Bret Michaels ran three seasons from 2007, the last one on tour buses, and left behind a trashed mansion, a lawsuit and a whole wing of celebreality spin-offs.
Produced by 51 Minds Entertainment, the company behind Flavor of Love, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels premiered on VH1 on July 15, 2007, to 1.6 million viewers. Twenty-five women arrived to compete to be Michaels' girlfriend, five of them eliminated before they even got into the house, and each week's challenge winner earned a date; some challenges were built around situations a rock star's girlfriend might actually face. By the finale on September 30, the audience had grown to 5.4 million. Michaels chose 24-year-old Jes Rickleff of Naperville, Illinois, who told the reunion show she had no romantic feelings for him and that he should have picked the runner-up, Heather Chadwell. The theme, "Go That Far," was the first single from Michaels' soundtrack album Rock My World, which reached number 40 on the Billboard 200.
The second season, in early 2008, brought 20 new women; Michaels picked 37-year-old Ambre Lake, and the two parted after a few months. That April, the owner of the mansion sued Michaels and the producers for breach of contract, claiming about $380,000 in damage: holes in the walls and ceilings, doors removed, almost the whole interior repainted and the landscaping dead or dying. Season three became Rock of Love Bus, with 20 contestants, and three late additions, following Michaels' tour from January 2009; he chose Penthouse Pet Taya Parker.
The show was a franchise engine. Its castoffs populated Rock of Love: Charm School, I Love Money and Daisy of Love, and Megan Hauserman's spin-off Megan Wants a Millionaire was canceled in August 2009 over a controversy involving one of its contestants. Saturday Night Live parodied the show in February 2008, Eminem lampooned Michaels in the "We Made You" video, and it played on a TV in Step Brothers. VH1 offered a fourth season, but in May 2010 Michaels moved on to a show about his own life, Bret Michaels: Life as I Know It.
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