The Grand Rapids Press

Bon Jovi outlasts grunge and cranks out the hits

Sunday, May 6, 2001

By John Serba
The Grand Rapids Press

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Throughout the '90s, Bon Jovi, the band, took its share of roundhouse shots to the chin.

Grunge and alt-rock had kicked down the door, making pop-metal and poofy hair about as fashionable as your dad's black socks-with-sandals ensemble.

Hit-studded multiplatinum albums "Slippery When Wet" and "New Jersey" had become staples of the used CD bin at the local record store.

So when Bon Jovi's 2000 album, "Crush," hit the shelves and a friend of mine commented, "There's a couple of hits on here," after listening to it, I had to laugh.

Seven million albums later, look who has the last laugh -- lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres, keyboardist David Bryan and bassist Hugh McDonald.

Fueled by the smash single "It's My Life," Bon Jovi has re-emerged into the American music spotlight. Tickets for the band's concerts again have become hot commodities, and naysayers have found themselves putting their feet into their mouths.

Now, with a live album -- "One Wild Night," featuring 15 songs recorded during the past 15 years -- set to hit stores May 22, the band has reason to celebrate.

Jon Bon Jovi should be even happier, considering his work in his "other job" as a film actor has started to gain crediblity on the heels of solid roles in "U-571" and "Pay it Forward."

The Press caught up with one of the biggest rock stars of the '80s -- and possibly the '00s -- via telephone at his home in New Jersey to chat about fan loyalty, his acting career and the recent tour of his band, which just had finished another sold-out jaunt to Japan.

Q: Touring in Japan sounds exciting.

A: It certainly is exciting; there's a lot that happens, but sometimes you miss a lot, too. But I could tell you what it was like to be up at four o'clock this morning, if you really want to know.

Q: Why were you up so early?

A: Jet lag, man -- there's a 13-hour difference. I was in bed at 8:30 because I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore . . . or you can go the other way, and be forced to sing a show at six in the morning. Now that's tough (he laughs). (Japan) truly still is a different culture. When they leave a stadium, a section at a time leaves, not everybody all at once. And they pick up their garbage. Imagine telling somebody at Shea Stadium or Giants Stadium to pick up their garbage -- they'd throw you off the balcony (he laughs again).

Q: I know you had some lean years, commercially speaking, here in the States in the '90s, but Japanese fans stayed loyal, right?

A: Everyone outside of these borders were. The answer is quite simple: Grunge and rap never left the American borders, which I think is a surprise to a lot of people here. (Outside the U.S., Bon Jovi's success) just kept growing and growing until you're playing multiple nights in stadiums everywhere around the world, all the time. Here, we had to fight to keep going. We were still doing one night in the sheds, but we couldn't do two Detroits and a Grand Rapids like we are now.

Q: I understand you guys put on a big rock show, and now that grunge has died, it seems more acceptable to put on a bombastic show.

A: (Our show) isn't (as) bombastic (as) probably a Kid Rock show is. That's more about what we did in the mid-'80s. I dig it, but we don't do that. There's a rich-looking production, but there's no pyrotechnics, no lasers, no confetti bombs, nothing like that. It's two-and-a-half hours of hits ... and it's not reliant on tricks.

Q: It seems like you've been touring a lot recently.

A: We paced it in a way that it could be more like a vacation than work. We did 50 shows, took three months off so I could do a movie, and now we're going to do 50 shows. In the old days, I wouldn't have taken a change of clothes to do 50 shows, because our touring schedule was never less than 250 shows on any given album. Our first four albums were certainly that, then on "Keep the Faith" it was down to 200, and now it's down to 100. And it's not that I'm getting older, or getting bored -- I'm enjoying it immensely, but we have other great things to do, too. So we look at this as, "Great, 'Crush' is a good record, but let's not whore it out."

Q: Are you at the point that you don't have to prove yourselves by doing 250 shows?

A: There were a number of things -- you were 21 or 25, you had a record called "Slippery When Wet," it was a phenomenon, and the machine cranks you up and says, "You sure can make a lot of money if you keep working." And no one thinks about anybody's health or welfare. But we didn't have anywhere to go, so it didn't matter. We didn't have houses, we didn't have families; we had a rock 'n' roll band. So now that we have a rock 'n' roll band and other toys to play with, it makes it that much more fun. It's not work. I'm not going to Idaho and begging the program director to play my single.

Q: I understand you just finished filming a vampire movie.

A: I'm very excited about it. I'm cautiously optimistic, though, because in the movie business, who knows?

Q: Was it a departure for you? You've previously done more dramatic roles.

A: I've never done anything in an action sense ... this guy is an action hero. If it was Tom Cruise, they'd make a doll out of it. I was initially reluctant and turned it down because I thought, 'I don't know about playing an action hero. Me, Arnold, Sly ... I don't think that would work' (he laughs). But the director ended up writing the reluctant hero who got sucked into this position and had to deal with it.

Q: Has doing movies changed your perspective on performing, as in performing for a live audience compared to performing for a camera?

A: What movies offered music in my case -- because not many guys have been fortunate enough to be at a respectable level in both -- is a great humility. You're starting over in something, but you have all the wisdom of 18 years of record-making and being in the public eye and knowing how to work with people and the camera, and still having the exuberance of youth because you're starting over again. And that brings a great humility back to the music, because you can say the record is successful, and that's grand, but don't start thinking you're holier than thou because you have a hit record. Who gives a (crap)? A lot of time artists in the music business get confused and think that just because they have a hit record, they mean something. It's not the cure for cancer.

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