COVER BOY: “Why won’t anyone take Gavin...

COVER BOY: “Why won’t anyone take Gavin Rossdale seriously?” That’s the question posed on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone, dated April 18, regarding the lead singer of the band Bush.

One answer can be found right next to those words: a beefcake photo of Rossdale, shirtless and reclining on a rumpled bed with a come-hither look. It’s not exactly an image that screams “serious artist at work.”

And it’s not the image that Bush would have chosen to present in this high-profile space.

“I thought it was a contradictory message,” says Bush’s manager, Rob Kahane, noting that the band had no say in what photo was used. Kahane would have preferred a more dignified shot with all four band members, one of which appears inside with the article.

“There were a million different setups on the photo shoot--they shot for six hours,” says Kahane. “We didn’t foresee they’d use that one.”

Perhaps they should have. Rolling Stone has a history of featuring flesh on its covers, from the early ‘80s shot of the Go-Go’s in their undies to the recent tan-line-exposing photo of “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston.

And, says Rolling Stone music editor Keith Moerer, no one forced Rossdale to pose like that.

“[The photo session] wasn’t engineered to produce a topless shot of him,” Moerer says. “But Bush’s appeal and sales of 3 million albums is in part based on Gavin’s hunkdom, and now clearly they want to be taken more seriously, and we thought the juxtaposition . . . worked to illustrate what the story is about.”

Kahane certainly hopes that if people buy the issue because of the cover, they’ll be convinced by the story that there is more to the band than Rossdale’s hunk appeal. But it’s still a mixed message. As gossip columnist Liz Smith wrote last week: “This bubble-grunge icon wants to be taken seriously, but the boy can’t help it--he’s buff.”