I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Chadwell of VH1’s Rock of Love. The show, aired from 2007 to 2009, featuring women competing to win rockstar Bret Michael’s heart. The show itself could not possibly exist today. Premiering only 13 years ago, the language was incredibly different and can be deemed slightly inappropriate. In today’s world women are not as likely to put themselves out there on television at the expense of impressing a celebrity attempting to resurrect his career. As dating shows are still something of the present, Rock of Love featured women getting intoxicated and promiscuous for a man. My questions tackle topics from Heather’s current life, what the show was like for her afterwards, and of course how women were treated and portrayed.
Interview by Emily Popovitz
How did you get on Rock of Love?
I knew once I moved out West I wanted to do this. I was doing extra work and work with an agency, and did something on Chelsea Handler. I was shit faced drunk on Surreal Life, then two months later the same producers messaged me on MySpace and really wanted to put me on a dating show with 20 girls and an 80s rocker, we didn’t know who we were there to date. I said sign me up! I’m single and living the party lifestyle (at the time). People think this kind of thing happens overnight, I started pageants at 13 and was building my confidence and it just has to be the right place at the right time.
Once the show ended, what was life like for you?
The show took months to air. I felt traumatized and really heartbroken, embarrassed, and exploited. Now I don’t mind, but my family was going to see me taking my top off and smashing guitars. Luckily my family is cool and I am my own person and I am going to do what I want to do. I was really heartbroken and sad for months but after it aired and I felt the love from everyone it made me feel more comfortable with the outcome originally.How did it feel to have an audience?
Pretty good, I feel like I’ve always been destined for entertainment. I grew up doing multiple sports and there was always an audience, this was just with television. My life kind of prepared me for reality tv and when it hit I was all about it.Did you notice you had a fanbase copying your attitude?
Yes which was super cool. I like to inspire people, I welcome that. But also I saw some cast members down the road turning against me. Cast members I met prior to the show would turn on me. It's cool with fans but not when people mimicked me and turned on me. Women are women. I’m all about we need to have each others backs and help each other out, sometimes people just flip on you.What do you think the show would be like filmed now?
I've been sober for three years so it would be completely different for me. I’ve grown and matured a lot. I think the good type of entertainment that got out of me back then was just from drinking vodka and red bull and just know what I know now I don’t think I would have put forth all this love and energy to a dating show on tv because I just know how they are now and I’ve grown. If it were a different kind of reality show or something I’m passionate about I would be all for it (like real estate), not some guy trying to have a show to revamp his career and use a bunch of women in the process.How do you think a show like Rock of Love would look or exist now? Especially with social media.
We paved the way for all the housewives shows. We made it okay to get drunk and rowdy and make great tv. I still feel like it would be good. This day and age we’re so used to being entertained immediately. It would be more taming and the people would get bigger because when we did this there was no Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat. We didn’t have that, that's the only downfall for being the pioneer because we didn’t have these extra sites to promote and get more jobs, we had to do this ourselves.
With the way people acted and communicated in the early 2000s do you think it would be the same?
I think it would be monitored. People wouldn’t go full forced and with the Me Too movement I don’t think a lot of women who have especially dealt with sexual assault and grimy men, would want to see guys howling at women and saying “that turns me on” women think thats gross. Its not attractive doing the same thing with women after women and its not admirable or respectable for women of this era and I don’t know if it would fly in that sense.