Rock star Bret Michaels has launched a line of pet accessories featuring 50 PetSmart products including a doggie do-rag and a chewable toy tour bus.
“They all have the Bret Michaels signature touch,” Michaels said, as reported by MSNBC.
Other items in the collection include pre-tattered doggie T-shirts, Western shirts, bandannas, chewable vinyl cowboy boots, squishy toy guitars, skull-and-crossbones hair ribbons, flouncy sun dresses, and a food or water bowl emblazoned with red roses — a reference to Poison’s hit song “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”
“What I live for is to be creative in general,” Michaels said.
In a career that began on the bar-band circuit more than 30 years ago, Michaels has been creative on stage as the lead singer for Poison, as the host of his own VH1 reality shows Bret Michaels: Life as I Know It and Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, as the winner of Celebrity Apprentice 3, and as an actor in such films as In God’s Hands and A Letter from Death Row. He survived a brain hemorrhage in 2010.
He sought inspiration for the Bret Michaels Pets Rock Collection by listening to some of his his favorite tunes. He tested early versions of his ideas on his own “family” of dogs, which include his two German Shepherds, Diesel and Phoenix. The line will be in stores next month, although most of the collection is already available.
Is it embarrassing when celebrities branch off into sidelines like this, or is it cool? (Martha Stewart has also designed a PetSmart collection.) It’s not as if Michaels needs a few extra bucks. Turning oneself into a “brand” that can be worn in a shirt or bandanna — by people or by dogs — smacks of the crass. Then again, when celebrities show the world that they care about animals, maybe that can inspire fans to care about animals too. What’s not to like about that? Granted, if some famous person came out with a line of accessories designed especially for rescued pets — maybe T-shirts that said “Somebody Saved Me!” — that would be sublime.
In a video that introduces his collection, Michaels greets his “fellow pet lovers,” then explains:
“We’ve had the most unbelievable time putting this collection together. It’s truly to bring out the inner rock star in your dog. That’s right, I’ve been a pet lover since I was a child.”
“Personally, as an owner of bigger animals, I love the toys that you can throw,” he says.
These include spiked rubber balls and Frisbee-like disks. As for the collection’s more, ahem, feminine items?
“I’m pretty sure than none of my shepherds or any of my dogs will be wearing any of the pink tutus. I don’t think Diesel, my guard dog, would want to wear that.”
You never know, dude. You just never know.
