Bon Jovi (10 page)

One Wild Night
tour, Richie during pre-show warm-ups, San Jose Arena, San Jose, CA, April 23, 2001.
Cynthia Levine

One Wild Night
tour, Jon during pre-show warm-ups, San Jose Arena, San Jose, CA, April 23, 2001.
Cynthia Levine

JON:
When you walk offstage, you’re a loon. You’re wired. You’re shaking and pouring things on yourself. You’ve got that “momma strength” that could flip a car if it fell on your kid. It’s an amazing amount of adrenaline surging through you.

I like the arena aspect of touring in America. You stay after, warm down, take a shower, have a glass of wine and a bite to eat. The band talks. Everybody gets their moment to say what went right, what went wrong. You see your guests and you leave an hour later.

In Europe, you do a runner. You race into the car. You’re stinky and sweaty. You don’t see the other guys and you speed away with police escorts. I hate the car trips. Some of the drives are so long. But you can’t do it any other way at a stadium. You’d be stuck on-site for hours.

RICHIE:
After the show, it’s a natural wind down. Normally, we gather for a little food and just kind of bring each other down that way. Then you sit in your hotel room until your ears stop ringing. After all these years, I’m half deaf. It’s an occupational hazard. I think I’m probably deafer than anybody in the band.

JON:
You give everything and then some. You sacrifice. I miss out on some of the self-indulgence. I don’t have as many personal days.

In London, Richie hung with Jimmy Page, spent the whole day and night with his hero. Tico realized the dream of launching Rock Star Baby at Harrods with his son and wife by his side. Dave attended Wimbledon with his girlfriend and sat center court. I sat in my hotel room working on football business.

Cool-down, post-radio station promo performance, San Francisco, CA, April 22, 2001.
Cynthia Levine

One Wild Night
tour, load in and stage build, March 2001.
Cynthia Levine

Lost Highway
tour, post-show return to dressing room, XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, March 2008.
Phil Griffin

Soundcheck, San Jose Arena, San Jose, CA, April 23, 2001.
Cynthia Levine

Lost Highway
tour, Richie Sambora’s guitar rack under the stage, 2008.
Phil Griffin

Lost Highway
tour, backstage image, XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, March 2008.
Phil Griffin

Lost Highway
tour, backstage image, XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, March 2008.
Phil Griffin

JON:
We gave out the first batch of medallions in 1987 in the Madison Square Garden backstage hallway during the
Slippery When Wet
tour. I’d had a dozen made for the band and management. I thought, at that time, if it all ended then and there, I’d give everybody a little something to remember just how big the
Slippery
tour was.

The pendant was in the shape of the Superman logo, like my little tattoo, with the Slippery When Wet road sign inside. It’s gold and diamonds. They’re not inscribed. The original model is what it is and has never been improved upon. They’re made by a little secret guy in New York. You really can’t get one.

People would ask me about it and I’d explain it was similar to Elvis’s TCB [Taking Care of Business]. People want them. They’d ask, “Can I have one?” No! We earned the right to wear one of these. This is something that we shared together. The man who taught me to play the guitar—I put mine in his coffin. I never got a replacement. Mine’s gone.

You have to do at least two world tours start to finish before you get one. And each tour, ten, fifteen, twenty people qualify because they work with us tour after tour. We won’t see crew members for a year or two, but you go watch somebody else’s concert, they’ll be working that tour and they’ll be wearing our medallion. It’s sort of a wink and a nod. People know who they worked for.

I’d say there are maybe one hundred medallions out there in the world and they were earned. People—I think, I hope—are pretty proud to earn one, because it really means that we’ve been through a lot together.

Lost Highway
tour, pre-show “Class of 2008” pendant ceremony, backstage hallway, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, July 14, 2008.
Phil Griffin