Bon Jovi (2 page)

BAND OF BROTHERS

Outtake from
Bounce
photo shoot, Ten 9 Fifty Studios, Culver City, CA, July 10, 2002.
Kevin Westenberg

Band photo shoot, The Eleanor, Long Island City, NY, December 2, 2008.
Phil Griffin

Lost Highway
tour, end of show, XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, March 2008.
Phil Griffin

JON:
Why are we here at this point in our lives?

Because we have chosen this path. We’ve
chosen
to be here.

From the day I got into this, I wanted to write a song, and if you wrote a song and you felt it was a good song, you wanted to record it. If the recording came out as good as the piece of paper that you wrote it on, then you wanted to share it with as many people as possible.

I want to be out there because I want to see the reaction. I want to know that it touched you. I want to know that it touched your life. This is who we are. This is what we do and we do it well.

RICHIE:
We are a real success story. If people learn our story, they’ll get an insight into how we navigated our way through the music business and through our relationships within this band.

Lost Highway
tour, end of show, XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, March 2008.
Phil Griffin

TICO:
We are a tight fist and it works better that way. We’re guarded, always have been. If you are going to tight fist the world as a musician, it’s not about your being angry. We are going to do it together. We are going to fight and make it the best band, the best music, the best show possible.

People see us as a band of brothers. Sometimes we manage to connect onstage where you couldn’t fit a sliver of paper between us.

JON:
Everybody brings a lot to the table. There’s no dividing line. Everyone’s a shoulder to lean on; everybody’s got a real, true opinion; everyone has shown each other how to grow, how to be responsible, be driven, be excitable, to have fun, and live in the moment.

TICO:
That’s the family side of Bon Jovi. There’s a bubble, an insulation we have when we’re together. We are a family and I think that does translate onstage.

These Days
tour, the band’s private plane, Cardiff International Airport, Cardiff, Wales, 1995.
Herbie Knott/Rex

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

THE BEGINNING

Sanctuary Sound II, current Bon Jovi recording studio, Middletown, NJ, April 2009
Phil Griffin (2009)

JON:
I think any kid who picks up a guitar should only ever think that he’s going to be Mick Jagger—not “I want to be the opening act for Jagger.” No. “I want to be Mick fucking Jagger.” You should want to leave a legacy, move yourself, move people, leave a mark.

When you’re young, you believe you can do something seemingly impossible, like make a record.

Jersey was in the shadows between Philadelphia and New York. It was suburbia, yet you had access to the worlds of art and theater, radio and television. It was incredible to live on the periphery of all that.

DAVID:
New Jersey was a melting pot of opportunity.

JON:
I grew up believing anything was possible. That was the American mindset in the early 60s, the Kennedy era of Camelot and space. The president told this country: “We’re gonna go to the moon,” and you believed him. I was born into that.

The great thing about being in Jersey was it was small enough that the impossible seemed possible. In the 70s, I didn’t want to be in KISS or Led Zeppelin because those were too big, too fantastic to be real. But we had guys twenty miles away on the beach making records in our own backyard and I thought that was the big time. That’s what I strived for.

DAVID:
Jon knew that if you were a cover band, you would always be a cover band. If you were an original band, you’d make no money, but hopefully, one day, cover bands would be playing your songs.

Clockwise from top left: Tico, 1975; Jon in Seaside Heights, NJ, summer 1980; Richie in childhood bedroom, Woodbridge, NJ, 1972; David and Richie, 1985.
Photos from the personal collections of Tico Torres, Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora

When Jon was shopping “Runaway” around, my mother worked for Eastern Airlines and she got Jon and me tickets to California. We stayed in the Golden Lion Motel. We shopped “Runaway” in LA and were turned down. Then everybody in New York turned us down.

JON:
“Runaway” finally being played in New York City—that’s how we broke. There was no label. There was no promotion. There was no big manager.

I walked into WAPP, a new radio station, and played “Runaway” for the DJ. He liked it and WAPP put “Runaway” on their compilation album of local artists. WAPP played “Runaway” on the air in New York. Then their sister stations across the country started playing the song and the phones started lighting up. They were getting more requests for “Runaway” than for huge signed artists. All of a sudden, the record companies that said
no
said
yes
.

DAVID:
Jon got a record deal and the band was formed around that. The deal was in Jon’s name. Jon was signed to the label and we were signed to him. The cement was Jon. He always had that vision. He always saw the whole picture. As much as we were a band, he was the captain of the ship.

But it was everybody’s efforts and everybody’s sacrifice that really made it work. You knew then and there, from all the other players you’d played with, that you had to have a certain heart and a certain amount of determination to sacrifice everything to make it. You give up everything.

Tico was that guy. Richie was that guy. We said to family, friends, lovers, haters, anybody: I’m getting on the bus and I’m going to work my fucking ass off. And if I make it, I make it.

Early on, we’d get onstage and have to perform in front of some unfriendly, almost hostile, crowds. But by the end of our set, those guys were clapping and putting their fists up in the air. We got in your face and just by sheer will, we were going to win you over.

7800
^o
Fahrenheit
tour, Jon in dressing room, Mississippi Coliseum, Jackson, MS, November 26, 1985.
From the personal collection of Jon Bon Jovi

Jon onstage at Madison Square Garden for the first time, opening for ZZ Top, New York, NY, September 24, 1983.
Mark “WEISSGUY” Weiss/www.markweiss.com

Richie working on Bon Jovi’s debut album at The Power Station, New York, NY, July 1983.
From the personal collection of Jon Bon Jovi

Jon in manager Doc McGhee’s office, 1987.
Mark “WEISSGUY” Weiss/www.markweiss.com

TICO:
You play a thousand clubs. You play in a hundred different bands and you learn. It’s the cloth you are made of. It comes from long years of playing with everybody else and learning your craft. And a guy that doesn’t wanna be there? You could feel it. You don’t wanna play with them.

RICHIE:
Jon’s got that “thing,” that charisma. First time I saw him, I said this guy’s got “it.”

JON:
Our slogan at the time was “the best-kept secret in rock ‘n’ roll.” We were that band you didn’t want opening for you. We would do what Southside Johnny referred to as “head-hunting.” You didn’t want me opening for you, ‘cause I’d do anything to upstage you. Anything. I’d come flying off the ceilings. I’d just do anything.

New Jersey
tour, 1989.
Mark “WEISSGUY” Weiss/www.markweiss.com

Outside Knightsbridge tube station, London, England, August 1987.
From the personal collection of Jon Bon Jovi