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Bret Michaels Naked: "I Didn't Eat for a Day and I Did About 2,000 Sit-Ups!"

The Poison frontman opens up about stripping down, his upcoming heart surgery and the possibility of marrying his longtime girlfriend

By Marc Malkin Oct 03, 2010 8:30 PMTags
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For a guy who's been through the health-scare wringer this year, Bret Michaels is looking good.

So good, in fact, that Billboard magazine asked the 47-year-old rocker to pose naked—yes, naked—on the cover of its new "Maximum Exposure" issue...

"I said, 'Listen, I have two requests—good lighting and a warm room. That's all I'm asking for,'" Michaels tells me. "If I'm walking out with it all f**king hanging out there for the world to see then, well, I need good lighting and a warm room."

And some sit-ups! "I didn't eat for a day and I did about 2,000 sit-ups," he says.

As we all know by now, Michaels hasn't let his bad health get in the way of him living life. In January, he'll be back on the operating table to repair a hole in his heart. "I'm going in there thinking very positively that it's going to be great and I'm going to feel a whole lot better," he says, before adding, "I'd be lying to say that somewhere in my subconscious there's not a little bit of gulling. When they're going through your body to operate on your heart, it's going to hit you somewhere that they're toying with the ticker. There's definitely a little fear in there somewhere."

But until then, he's got a lot on his plate. His new VH1 reality show, Brett: Michaels: Life As I Know It, premieres Oct. 18. And tomorrow, he headlines the Land Shark Tailgate Stage before Monday Night Football (Miami Dolphins vs. New England Patriots). "It's the ultimate high," he says. "My whole rock-jock dream has come true....I get to go into the stadium, get to throw some football and I get to play music. That, for me, is a dream come true."

Will all of Michaels' good fortune (and what can only be described as multiple second leases on life) lead him to finally marry Kristi Gibson, his longtime on-again off-again girlfriend and mother of his two daughters? Sounds like it could be the perfect final episode of the new reality show.

"If it naturally happens, I promise you I will, but if it doesn't we'll at least make out in the back of a minivan or something," he laughs. "We'll at least give you some action."

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