This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Bruno Mars appears in the April Sex and Music issue of Playboy magazine, with the issue on newsstands Friday, March 16.
The singer serenades Miss April Raquel Pomplun on the front of the magazine, making him the 10th male to grace the cover of Playboy in its 58-year history. In addition to Mars, nine other men have appeared on the cover of Playboy – Peter Sellers, April 1964; Burt Reynolds, October 1979; Steve Martin, January 1980; Donald Trump, March 1990; Dan Aykroyd, August 1993; Jerry Seinfeld, October 1993; Leslie Nielsen, February 1996; Gene Simmons, March 1999; Seth Rogen, April 2009.
The singer also models spring's brightest fashions in a tropical pictorial shot by Tony Kelly. Like that gets read/perused.
Playboy sat down with Mars to discuss his icons, musical style, and hit song "Just the Way You Are," which was written for his dog Lisa.
Following are quotes from the interview provided by the magazine:
On the musicians he looked up to growing up: "Growing up in the showbiz world, I looked up to those guys: Frank Sinatra and of course Elvis Presley. My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage."
On the musician he'd most like to work with if he could: "Jimi Hendrix. I think he's the greatest guitar player in the world, and I would want to see him do his thing in person. He's the reason I picked up a guitar in the first place."
On his music: "My album is called Doo-Wops & Hooligans, but it's not a 1950s 'Earth Angel' sound like you hear in Grease-type movies. I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It's not superpoetic, it's just from the heart."