Lawhorn’s Lawrence: Living life like a rock star

Richard Gwin/Journal World-Photo.Perry Lockwood, Lawrence has a interesting job as he does an impersonation of Bret Michaels, traveling the country as his looks are hard to deceive.

Perry Lockwood is just thankful that he didn’t come out in Spandex.

For years now, people have been coming up to him in bars, on the street and elsewhere asking to get photos with him and his trademark do-rag and long flowing hair. They would tell him he looked just like Bret Michaels.

“I was like, cool, they think I’m a professional wrestler,” Lockwood says.

What? No, no. Loosen the do-rag, Perry. Shawn Michaels is the wrestler. Bret Michaels is the legendary ’80s rock and roll singer who led the heavy metal band Poison. You know, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” “Nothin’ but a Good Time,” and a host of other songs that will get a fellow in the mood to manicure a mullet again.

“I always wondered why everybody would sing ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ to me,” Lockwood says. “I knew the group Posion, and I knew their songs, I just didn’t know that guy’s name was Bret Michaels.”

Thankfully, he figured it out before he got on his wrestling outfit.

These days, Lockwood has it figured out in a big way. In fact, he may have Bret Michaels figured out better than Bret Michaels. Lockwood has started a business as a Bret Michaels look-alike, and before you chuckle too hard, he just signed a deal to take the company nationwide, and is set to be on an HBO special that films this summer.

“It has just snowballed,” Lockwood says of the venture that started a little less than a year ago.

He has Captain Jack Sparrow to partially thank for it. (What? No. That’s a terrible wrestling name.) Captain Jack Sparrow, as in the Johnny Depp character from “Pirates of the Caribbean.” There was a street performer in Las Vegas who was portraying Captain Jack. He began quizzing Lockwood about where he performed his Bret Michaels act.

That’s when Lockwood figured out who Bret Michaels was, and that there might actually be some money to be made here.

When he got home, he put a photo of himself on Facebook as a gag and offered people a chance to go party with a rock star.

“I told them I had the finest limos and all that,” Lockwood says. “I didn’t have any of that. It was just a gag, and then people started calling me.”

So Lockwood, who is 42 and has lived in the area his whole life, started calling buddies. Before he knew it, he had a deal with a limo company and a few bars. People would pay for a party package, and they would get the rock star treatment: A fancy ride with Bret, no cover charges at the bars, no waiting in lines, access to VIP rooms and, oh yeah, the paparazzi.

For that first gig in April, Lockwood had his friend and former KU and NFL player Keith Loneker serve as a “body guard.” He also had another friend line up a group of party-goers to serve as paparazzi and autograph hounds for when the door of the limo swung open. At the end of the evening, the guests of honor were presented with a faux copy of The National Enquirer, complete with their scandalous pictures on the cover.

“We were starting to get a lot of gigs, and I thought ‘let’s take it a little bit further and see what happens,'” Lockwood says.

He got in contact with a national talent agency that books look-alike performers. But he told the company — Mirror Images Co. — that he didn’t just want to sign up as a Bret Michaels look-alike. He wanted to sell the company on his concept of using look-alikes as party hosts. The talent agency primarily had been using their look-alikes for commercials, sit-coms, music videos and other such events.

Lockwood said the agency loved the idea, and his company — Rock My Party — created a new joint venture with Mirror Images about a month ago. The concept is rolling out in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. Lockwood said he and several other look-alikes are scheduled to be part of an HBO special in Las Vegas about Elvis.

Why a faux Bret Michaels will be at a faux Elvis concert, I’m not quite sure. But it makes perfect sense that Lockwood would have something to do with Elvis. Lockwood’s father — retired KU athletics department coach and employee Bob Lockwood — has been an Elvis impersonator in the area for decades.

“I think we have been doing Elvis longer than Elvis did Elvis,” says Perry. “I was 5 or 6 years old, and I would put the shades on and pop up the collar and go entertain.”

Lockwood, who for 17 years worked in the Journal-World’s circulation department, says it was the experience with his father that gave him some confidence to try this new venture.

“I told myself I know how to entertain, and I know how to party,” says Lockwood. “Wouldn’t that be a great concept?”

It was one that was right at hand, anyway. Lockwood said he’s had the long hair for as long as he can remember, and the do-rag has been a regular part of his wardrobe since high school. Oddly, though, people didn’t start recognizing him as Bret Michaels until well after Bret Michaels was past his prime. It was around 2008, when Michaels started showing up on reality television, that the requests for photos started happening.

Despite the initial confusion, Lockwood is glad the recognition came along. So far, Lockwood says it has been rewarding. The events he books through his website rockmypartynow.com start at $500, while more elaborate ones run closer to $5,000. But more than that, he says the venture has been a good reminder to be open to all of life’s twists and turns.

“You can’t predict what is going to come your way,” Lockwood says. “The funny thing is everybody is overthinking everything instead of just doing what is natural to them.”

Lockwood, who now says he has learned quite a bit about Michaels — “I learn that I’m about to die every day. He has all sorts of dramas/traumas that people are asking me about” — can’t help but mention that Michaels has another famous song called “Something to Believe In.” He said that’s a pretty good anthem for this latest twist in his life.

“At some point, I told myself that I’m going to stop thinking too much, and I’m just going to do it,” Lockwood said. “If it feels right and it is morally right, I’m going to do it.”

We’re getting close to that season where we all make resolutions for a new year, and I suppose there are worse ones that we could make than that.

Maybe we could call it a do-rag and some can-do.

But let’s keep the Spandex in the closest. I’m almost certain nothing good will come from that.