Rock out with Jennifer Pershing, our Playmate of the Month for March 2009. She’s tall – 5’8” – and a natural blonde with a pair of piercing blue eyes. “I grew up around Atlantic City, New Jersey,” she says. “I loved everything about it – jeans and sneakers, dive bars and late nights with friends on the beach – but I knew that I wanted something more.” She followed her dreams to Los Angeles, California, where she worked at a mall cosmetic counter until her big break with Playboy. “Well, I’m really into hair metal,” she says. “Bon Jovi, Poison, Guns N’ Roses – the whole nine yards. My favorite band, Steel Panther, was playing at the Key Club on the Sunset Strip. The lead singer pulled me onstage, and I flashed the crowd.”

There happened to be a Playboy rep in the front row, and after the show he approached Jennifer to test for Playmate. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “One day I’m working at a mall, and the next I’m on set for Playboy.” Jennifer credits her success to The Secret, a popular self-help program based on the power of positive thinking. “I know it sounds stupid,” she says, “but I visualized my success, and a month later I was Miss March. Ask and you shall receive.” And between appearances on The Girls Next Door, photo shoots and hosting gigs, Jennifer couldn’t ask for more. “I never thought I would be able to travel,” she says, “but this year I went to Australia with Playboy Golf, and South Korea, Taiwan and Japan as a representative of Playboy TV.” She may look like a wild child – walking down the Strip in a pair of thigh-high leather boots – but Jennifer is a small-town girl at heart, and her dream is to start a family. “I want to be a stay-at-home mom, and eventually run my own daycare center,” she says. From a rock show to a rocking chair, one thing is for sure – Jennifer Pershing marches on.

The infamous Sunset Strip in West Hollywood still rocks, and we’re not just talking about the scene at places like Whisky a Go Go, the Viper Room and Rainbow. At Key Club one night we spotted Jennifer Pershing, a 28-year-old platinum goddess, dancing onstage. “I go there every week to see a band called Steel Panther,” says Jennifer. “I grew up loving Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses and Poison, and this is my outlet because these guys are so good at recreating that vibe. Maybe I’m attracted to guys in spandex who wear makeup. It’s just my thing.” Jenn’s idea of a good time is to hit the Strip with her gal posse and party like it’s 1989. “My friends are superhot. We put on little shiny pants and rock knee-high boots and all that fun stuff,” she says. “One night a Playboy scout approached me and asked if I would pose for the magazine, which had been my dream since I was 18.

What’s funny is that just before he asked me, I had watched the movie The Secret. The idea in the film is ‘If you want something, ask the universe for it.’ So I would do this little meditation and imagine how I would feel when my dreams came true. It seemed so stupid when I was doing it, but literally a month later I was at a Playboy test shoot.” Miss March’s story is right out of a Bruce Springsteen tune. Make that Bon Jovi. It all started in a small town outside Atlantic City, New Jersey. Jenn had done some modeling, and her face had appeared on billboards for a local casino. But she knew she was destined for bigger things. “I got this itch that there was more in life out there for me than just settling down in New Jersey,” she says. So in 2002 she packed her bags and headed across the country to Los Angeles. Though she likes to walk on the wild side at night, by day she’s a high-energy, articulate businesswoman. She looks forward to being a stay-at-home mom someday and getting a certificate in child day-care management. Jenn also sees being a Playmate as a platform to raise awareness of autism, a condition that afflicts one of her two younger sisters. “I’ve been talking about posing for Playboy forever,” she says. “I want to ride this dream.” Rock on, Jenn.