Jon Bon Jovi on wealth, love and his ugly tussle with Trump: ‘It was seriously scarring’

Jon Bon Jovi is singing Livin’ on a Prayer to me. No, this isn’t one other loopy lockdown dream; it’s really taking place.

“Tommy used to work on the docks …” he begins, strumming a guitar he produces out of nowhere, his nonetheless spectacular bouffant (“I’m the only man in my field brave enough to let it go grey!”) bouncing in time to the music.

I later search for how a lot it will value to rent Bon Jovi for a personal occasion. “More than $1m” is the very best estimate. All I did was ask if he was bored with being requested about his 1986 megahit. The reply, apparently, isn’t any.

“Union’s been on strike, he’s down on his luck …” he continues.

Going from the zero of lockdown to the zillion miles an hour of a Bon Jovi personal efficiency is a helluva experience and I inform him I’d go out. He laughs the snort of a person who’s neither unaccustomed nor averse to feminine adoration.

“That song, God bless it. But my God, who knew? Not us, I can assure you. It was created on a day when none of us had any ideas, we just had a conversation and it came out of that. I’m sure happy my name’s on it!” Bon Jovi grins.

So he didn’t understand it was a success when he wrote it?

“Not at all. I remember walking out of the room with Richie [Sambora, his band’s second most famous but now former member] and I said: ‘Eh, it’s OK. Maybe we should just put it on a movie soundtrack.’ Richie looked at me and said: ‘You’re an idiot – it’s really good.’ I said: ‘I just don’t know where it’s going.’ But it didn’t have that boom boom boom bassline yet, so it sounded more like the Clash.”

Did it purchase him a home?

Bon Jovi seems to be at me as if I had requested in regards to the woods-based habits of bears.

“It bought a lot of people houses,” he says.

Bon Jovi, 58, is speaking to me on Zoom from his home in New Jersey. “I am the crown prince of New Jersey,” he declares, which might be true – he named considered one of his biggest-selling albums after the state and has stayed firmly loyal to his residence turf. (Although I feel we each know that if Bon Jovi is the prince of New Jersey, its king is Bruce Springsteen.) From the tiny quantity I can see, his home seems to be beautiful – wood-panelled partitions and not over-flashy. “My life is much more normal than one would imagine,” says the sixth wealthiest rock star in the world, sandwiched on that listing between Sting and Elton John. “There are no platinum records hanging anywhere in my house. The trappings of rock stardom were never a part of my home.” He and his spouse of 31 years, Dorothea, have 4 children: Stephanie, 27, Jesse, 25, Jacob, 18 and Romeo, 16, and for a very long time, he says, “my younger kids weren’t quite sure what I do”.

We are speaking as we speak as a result of the most recent single, Story of Love, from his album 2020, is about to be launched within the UK. Anyone whose picture of Bon Jovi remains to be locked within the Livin’ on a Prayer period – the massive guitars, the larger hair – shall be considerably shocked by 2020. It is a considerate take a look at the previous yr, addressing gun management (Lower the Flag), the coronavirus disaster (Do What You Can) and the Black Lives Matter motion (the disarmingly stunning American Reckoning). Perhaps you’re considering that you simply don’t particularly want Jon Bon Jovi’s ideas on BLM, however purpose not the necessity: as he has achieved all through his close to 40-year profession, he presents strong music and heartfelt lyrics, and, actually, hats off to the person for participating with the second as a result of Lord is aware of he doesn’t have to do something in any respect any extra. When lockdown hit, as an alternative of operating off to a home on the seashore, Bon Jovi washed dishes day by day in JBJ Soul Kitchen, one of many two group kitchens he arrange close to his residence, the place meals are offered by way of donations or volunteering. As superstar efforts go, that in all probability beats posting a video of yourself singing Imagine.

But simply singing in regards to the human value of the US’s gun legal guidelines will depend to many as taking a aspect. Does he fear about alienating any of his followers? “There are men on my stage who see things differently, but I don’t let our differences come between us. I never wanted to become a captive to the stage. How I live my life’s up to me,” he says.

When we first converse, Bon Jovi is 48 hours from performing in a televised celebration for Joe Biden’s inauguration. This is his second inaugural occasion, after singing for Obama in 2009. Bon Jovi first began palling round with politicians when “a governor by the name of Bill Clinton” contacted him within the early 90s, and he has been actively concerned since. “If Al [Gore] had got in I’d have been secretary for entertainment,” he jokes. In 2015 he allowed the Republican and then New Jersey governor Chris Christie to make use of his music in his presidential marketing campaign. Springsteen has repeatedly rebuffed requests from Christie, a superfan, to play at his occasions. Does he disapprove of Springsteen’s refusal to succeed in throughout the aisle?

“I don’t know how Bruce has treated Chris, so I can’t comment on that. But I would be a hypocrite if I told you I write songs that claim to be a witness to history, and then don’t listen [to the other side],” he says.

Would he let Donald Trump use his music?

He recoils as if bodily attacked. “No! No no no! On every issue we wholeheartedly disagree, from how he handled the Covid crisis to immigration to the Paris accord – everything! No! No!”

Bon Jovi and Trump have an especially bizarre historical past. Back in 2014, the singer, alongside with some Canadian buyers, tried to buy the NFL team the Buffalo Bills, outbidding Trump. But there was abruptly robust anti-Bon Jovi feeling in Buffalo, NY, with “Bon Jovi-free” zones and unfavourable graffiti, stemming from the hearsay that he and his companions would transfer the staff out of town. Bon Jovi fiercely denied that, however the Bills in the end went to a 3rd bidder and that was the top of that – till three years in the past, when it emerged, inevitably, that the anti-Bon Jovi campaign had been began by Michael Caputo, a political strategist, who had been employed by Trump.

“I was really shocked at the depths [Trump] went to. He wasn’t even qualified to buy the team, because you have to submit your tax returns, and he never filed the paperwork. Instead, he did this dark shadow assassination thing, hoping to buy the team at a bargain basement price. But I just couldn’t understand how this misinformation was being put out there. It was seriously scarring,” Bon Jovi says, eyes vast.

After Trump did not get the staff, he stomped off and ran for president. Maybe you must have simply given him the staff, I say.

“Yeah, for the sake of the world, he definitely should have got the team. Oh well,” he chuckles.

Caputo later labored for Trump when he was president and was questioned as a part of the investigation into Russian interference within the 2016 election. It was reported last September that Caputo had orchestrated a stress marketing campaign for official studies into the Covid disaster to be altered to be extra flattering to Trump.

“I guess we lived a page of Trump’s playbook in Buffalo,” says Bon Jovi.

How did it really feel to see his nemesis turn out to be president solely two years after the battle in Buffalo?

He hesitates. “Well, like all Americans, I have to support the office of the president – look how political I’m sounding! I’m trying to stop myself from bullshitting. The truth is, I was really disappointed.”

Often in interviews Bon Jovi can sound somewhat monotone and bored, speaking about the identical issues he has been speaking about for many years. But as we speak he’s strikingly engaged and I ask if that’s as a result of we’re primarily speaking about politics slightly than music.

“Ha! Well, everyone’s an armchair quarterback when talking about politics,” he says.

So he’s not considering of pivoting to politics, spending his days arguing with Republicans corresponding to Senate minority chief Mitch McConnell?

“Or Chuck Schumer,” he provides, naming the Democrat chief within the Senate for steadiness. “It’s a shit existence – selling yourself and your soul. Hell no.”

John Bongiovi Jr was born and raised in New Jersey, the son of two former marines. He began making music as a child and wrote Runaway, which might be his first hit, when he was 19. By 21 he had a report deal and a band, of which he was the title, the face and the boss (“More like a benevolent dictator,” he insists). Initially they have been marketed as a tough rock band. They definitely regarded the half – large hair, tight trousers – however Bon Jovi had a distinct plan.

“I said: ‘I want a tour with the Cars and Bryan Adams and all these pop groups,’ and my manager said: ‘No. You’re going to learn how to play with Judas Priest and Kiss and the Scorpions. Those audiences are loyal; pop audiences are fickle,’” he says. So they have been packed off to open for Judas Priest, “a heavy metal band I’d never listened to,” Bon Jovi says. They received over audiences however he should have minimize an uncommon determine backstage: in contrast to just about everybody else on the Eighties exhausting rock scene, Bon Jovi by no means suffered from substance abuse points. This has clearly labored in his favour: even other than his uncommon, possibly even distinctive profession and marital stability, Bon Jovi at 58 seems to be like a person who spent his youth on yoga retreats versus hanging out with Aerosmith. But how did he resist when he was so younger?

“To be honest with you, I didn’t have the capacity to handle drugs. I didn’t find joy in it, and I didn’t need to bury myself emotionally, so what was the purpose?”

Was that as a result of he had a fairly steady childhood?

“Mine was as fucked up as anyone else’s, but not enough to start using drugs. I saw a lot of friends die or there was havoc in their personal lives, but I just didn’t have the need or desire,” he says.

When the band made their third album, Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi was “so over” being marketed as one thing he wasn’t that he took again management and labored on telling tales. The music was nonetheless rock, however the lyrics have been about Tommy and the docks. The public beloved it, and Slippery When Wet offered gazillions, its singles You Give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive, Never Say Goodbye and, after all, Livin’ on a Prayer turning into the inescapable soundtrack of the mid-80s. This was adopted by New Jersey (Bad Medicine, I’ll Be There for You, Lay Your Hands on Me), and then the shift to the 90s, when Bon Jovi minimize his hair and softened the rock somewhat (Keep the Faith, These Days) and grew to become more and more identified for his ballads (In These Arms, Always). He offered greater than 100m albums, at which level he moved into appearing, which he was unexpectedly good at, in Moonlight and Valentino (hunky painter), Ally McBeal (hunky plumber) and Sex and the City (hunky photographer). Did he thoughts being the rent-a-hunk?

“Hell no – I never went to the Shakespeare Company!” he laughs. “Nobody had been able to do both [music and acting]: Madonna, Sting, Phil Collins – you tried and failed. I was so anxious to get work I said: ‘I will do the small role, the hunk, just to get enough of a résumé.’”

Yet he hardly wanted the cash. He talks about desirous to study “humility” and (after all) “loving the craft”, all of which seems like a euphemism for simply needing a change. Producers informed him that if he give up making music they might give him greater elements however Hollywood’s attraction had already waned.

“I got the house in Malibu, saw the guys who are looking over your shoulder to see if they should go talk to someone else. That whole lifestyle was so vapid to me. I couldn’t wait to get away from it,” he says.

Critics sneer that Bon Jovi – the band and the person – have turn out to be too company, too tacky. This isn’t precisely mistaken, however it’s lacking the purpose about why Bon Jovi – the person – is such an everlasting phenomenon. He has all the time been a management freak, over himself and his band, as he admitted in his 2000 hit It’s My Life, and he is aware of what’s wanted for his band to outlive. His very un-rockstar-like stability has helped. He married his highschool sweetheart, and has been with her greater than 40 years. “She sat down next to me in history class, and that was it,” he says. His bandmates Tico Torres and David Bryan have additionally been with him because the starting. Disruptions to plans upset him inordinately: he says the Buffalo debacle took him 5 years to recover from. The departure of Sambora in 2013 upset him a lot that he stated he was plunged into “a dark place” for three years. Are he and Sambora in contact now?

“No. He chose to do what he did, but my heartbreak is I personally loved having him in the band – I loved my band. But there was not a chance in the world that we would discontinue because of his inability to go on,” he says, the sensitivity nonetheless audible.

At Bon Jovi’s suggestion, we discuss once more two days later after the inauguration. To many individuals’s shock, as an alternative of relying on the band’s again catalogue, he carried out the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun. “I never felt like I needed to sing a song more. It was cathartic,” he says. Initially I missed the same old Bon Jovi bombast, however because the solar rose behind him as he sang, there was no denying that the person is aware of what works within the second. But the recording of my personal efficiency of Livin’ on a Prayer? That will final for ever.

Bon Jovi’s album 2020 is out now. The new single, Story of Love, shall be launched on Friday 29 January. Visit bonjovi.com.