Jon Bon Jovi
Appearances
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
No, you know, we are actively rehearsing. We did a couple of days this week. Everybody was here in New Jersey just running it hard for a couple of days. And measuring the progress. Oh, that's great. Because I have this great new record. I feel optimistic about the record. I love the film. A guy named Deepak, Gotham show, Deepak's son directed it.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
It was a two-year, four-part docuseries that will air on Hulu. But I'm very happy with it because it's on the band. Yeah. That's so great. It's our 40th anniversary right now.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Maybe not the first time, but what was interesting about that song is we really didn't know what we had because it was so different. It didn't sound like anything on the radio. And, you know, it had a Motown kind of a baseline. It had the boy-girl story that is almost Shakespearean at the end of the day, you know. And it's so...
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
You Give Love a Bad Name was the first single on that record, and it was a number one song, and that was pretty evident and obvious that it would be. But when we put out Living on a Prayer, I thought, yeah, it should be second, because who knows what it's going to do. And then, of course, you know, it's one of the biggest pop songs of all time.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Sean, tell me more about your music career because I didn't get the chance, but Dorothea saw the play. My wife saw the play and was talking so incredibly about not only your playing, but your singing as well. How did you keep it eight days a week?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
The stage to me is the stage. Yeah, of course. I didn't need that even in the learning experience. For me, when I went in to try to learn to act and I studied for a couple years before I ever even went for an audition, it was the opportunity to grow in the arts. It was just a different avenue in the arts that I could bring that back then to the fold.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Different material to write about, different humility, standing on the audition line, you know, being turned down before you even walked into the room. And all of that humility that I brought back while I was learning about the craft was... was incredibly formative.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I just have too much respect for y'all. And I immensely respect the craft that I wouldn't dare think that even Pacino or De Niro, if I put a microphone in their face and said, sing me a song, that they'd be any good at it. I think in order to be good at it, you should learn how to do it.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And so I studied for two years privately, not in classes, but privately until I was confident enough to even try to get an audition. I had too much respect for it.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I had had five records by that point, and Slippery was our third. That was a monster. New Jersey was a monster. Then I wrote the soundtrack to the Young Guns record, and I win all the awards with that. So there was this kind of... stupid ego moment in the band's history where you're like, you think you're too smart.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
The incredible thing about starting over with something in the arts that you know nothing about, but you've had so many other life experiences. It brings you a great humility. And so that when you take that back to music, it was... It was an opportunity for me to share that with the guys and for them to then learn from that. And it humbled all of us to go.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I think that's a big reason why when we went into the 90s and the grunge movement happened, we didn't even slow down. We still had hits. We still kept going. We had more international growth than ever. And all of that was, I think, a direct result of my sitting in that basement apartment in Manhattan with Harold Guskin for years you know, getting yelled at.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And so I really, really loved the process of acting. The bitch was whenever, and you guys know this well, I would go in and they'd say, anytime you get a spark in this town, you take off for a year and go on the road. We don't think you're serious about it. I said, I'm fucking serious about it, but you pay me two cents and I'm six on the call sheet. Right. What am I going to do here?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
There's a stadium waiting in, you know, wherever. Right, right, right, right.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Moonlight and Valentino was a girly movie I did. Moonlight and Valentino, yes. Yeah, Gwyneth and Whoopi and Kathleen Turner and Liz Perkins.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Oh, yeah. So I say, I'll never forget it. The director was a guy named David Onspot who had done Hoosiers and Rudy. And so he was a guy's guy writing those kind of movies. He's got four ladies as his stars. I'm the cute, you know, house painter. We're doing take two, take three, take four. After the girls are giving him like one take a piece and walking off the set.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And he's going, take two, take three. And I walked over to him. I said, David, I'm sorry. We have to do so many takes. I'll pay for the film. This is how we make movies. I'll pay for the film.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Was that inspirational for you? No, because they'd all, by definition... weren't successful. You may look back and think that those movies were cool, but we were, as musicians, told you do either or. Bowie and Madonna and whatever were, no, there's musicians that want to act. They're not allowed to freely do both the way Sinatra could.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
It wasn't based on success. It was based on opportunity. So that the opportunities just kept going down and down and down. And then suddenly you're making like an indie to an indie. And I'm sitting on the curb outside of CAA like with a tear in my eye. So what have I done?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
What was that kind of... I think there are commonalities, but again, I think the biggest thing to me was that finding something else in the arts that gave me an opportunity to grow. It wasn't like I went from singing to building cars. One has nothing at all to do with the other. This is another way to emote. This is another way to tell a story.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
This is more information for me to write about because all I had to write about between 21 and 30 was life on the road, to be honest with you. I was nowhere near as seasoned a man as...
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
bob dylan or woody guthrie you know i was i was writing pop songs in a rock and roll band you know in a very sheltered middle american white suburban life so you're going and learning about i don't know tennessee williams and coming home and writing something and thinking oh you know why did i get to write blaze of glory and and the whole young gun soundtrack when my hands on a script i know how to do that
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Where does it sit now for you, the acting? I would have to stop doing music and go back to really working hard on the craft. I have far too much respect for it to think, sure, send me a role. I'm ready to go.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I did all that early on. I don't need any more egos in the studio. I've got a big enough one myself.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I'd never even thought about that they were there through the night. Yeah, I know. And it's six in the morning. They're waiting for their solo line. And like, you know, Bruce and Cyndi Lauper are just cockeyed still just being good sports about it.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I was just a little too young. I had two albums out by that point. I wasn't big enough.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Sure. I mean, all the cliche, you know, stuff. People screaming and... That kind of stuff is... Rushing the stage.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I mean, you're... Everybody got to be... That's not even original because, you know what I mean? It's sort of... Every kid got to be... Justin Bieber to Justin Timberlake all the way back to Elvis, you know, it just, it's, I would, Harry Styles, you know, all that. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I don't know. I mean, for me, it was... You seem so balanced. Not being there where y'all are. For me, that was one thing. I bought the house in Malibu.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I bought the house on the beach in Malibu. And... my wife and I looked at each other and said, not for me, you know, I, I, but I, cause I knew what the lifestyle was and we, we were caught up in it at a lot of those people, you know, we had a house right on the beach, right. We're all at the height of everybody's craziness.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And that was one of the things that we said, let's go back to New Jersey where there's no Joneses to keep up with. Right. Let's go back to what we know.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Absolutely. We've been together since high school. Yeah. So for us, that was, yeah, we grew together. Yeah. Yeah. So she's seen the whole ride. And then, you know, she didn't have to buy into something or I didn't have to doubt her commitment to it. And then I could fall in the gutter throughout the course of it. And she could say, OK, I got it. I know why.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And, you know, let's pick it up and go from here. So, yeah, I give her the credit for so much of it. Yeah.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Well, thank you. It's come both ways, but for me, I would like to say just a slim majority of it comes from a title first, because for me that dictates the feel of the music. And then, you know, I write the lyric. It's like something that you... You know, Wanted Dead or Alive is, you know, that kind of a feeling of an open D chord. It just calls for that.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And Better Roses would call for something else. You know, that was sort of meant to be written on a piano. Mm-hmm. But the process depends on the situation. We had a record out in the midst of COVID called 2020, and it was a topical record.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
So it covered everything from gun control to George Floyd to COVID to an introspective topical record released into a black hole of COVID that I couldn't promote, I couldn't tour. And it's good that I was able to do that. I was very proud of it. This record, post-surgery, and the process, because there's no happy ending yet, is that I'm finding joy for the first time in a decade.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I'm truly finding joy. I haven't had joy in a decade. And that sucked because of the voice. I was honored just recently at this Music Cares event two weeks ago, three weeks ago out in L.A. The Grammys pick one person to celebrate their catalog, and in my case, the philanthropy.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Yeah, and... And I was this year's honoree. And on the Saturday morning after the night, I woke up and I was like, something's weird. And I went, I know what it is. It's the first time in 10 years the only voice in my head was mine. No doubt, no fear, no second thoughts. You know, it's just, I had fun last night.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I don't like that, Sean. I'm fucking tired of it. Tell me how you stopped doing it. What, beating yourself up? Yeah.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
You know, like you were just... Yeah, it was like, you know, I was saying that, you know, the only thing that's ever been up my nose is my finger. And now suddenly God's taking away my tools. And I'm like, I'm at my wit's end. And the crazy doctor says, I don't know what it is. But I just gave you all my trust. Right. You don't know what it is. Now I'm aimlessly out there. Right.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Take more drugs for it. Take another shot for it. Right. Sean can relate, right? And I'm going down this.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I think I'm on the verge. I think I'm on the verge of that, yeah. These last couple of records that I couldn't fully celebrate, these last couple of records, I'm hoping and believing that I'm going to have that opportunity again when we do get to go out. Yeah, that's the hope, yeah.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
A thousand years ago, 20 years ago, I used to own an arena football team. My aspirations were to someday own an NFL team, and it was me cutting my teeth.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
But in order to win in the community in Philadelphia, I said, we got to be more philanthropic than everyone. So that sort of was my first foray into this. We started to find something that anyone, everyone could relate to, which was affordable housing and hunger. And so I started to do that. And everybody was like, yeah, bravo, good job. You know, Habitat for Humanity does this every day.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
When the economic downturn of 2008 happened, Dorothea said, now you got to feed the people in the houses you've built. I was like, hmm. And then stream of consciousness, she just lays out a plan for this thing that we now call the JBJ Soul Kitchens. Simply put, if any of you guys came and laid 30 bucks on the table, it would cover your meal and the meal of somebody else who can't afford to pay.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
It empowers people because we ask them if they can't pay anything to volunteer. And if you guys were to come and didn't volunteer, you'd sort of think you're missing the party because everybody's working in the garden or bussing a table or washing a dish, folding napkins. It's not...
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
difficult labor, but when they feel empowered and they've earned the certificate to not only pay for their meal, but perhaps it's a kid, he comes back with his entire family and he's got that pride in a teenager bringing his family back and feeding them. It's all farm to table. We take no government subsidies. So we did our first one in an auto body shop that we converted into this restaurant.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Second one we built after Hurricane Sandy hit in New Jersey, and we have all this service providing around it, a food pantry, a food bank, culinary program. Then the third one and the fourth one, this blows people's minds, are on college campuses. Because we were aware, but most people think, wait a minute, I just sent my kid to the university. Well, guess what?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
They're not necessarily eating ramen by choice. They don't have any money. So we came to that realization many years ago, and we put one on two different university campuses here in New Jersey. So we currently have four of those restaurants. And then myself or our foundation... fund the shortfall. And we've been doing that for 12, 13 years.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
What the hell is Bon Jovi? It's Italian. Okay, since I was a kid, I thought you made that name up. B-O-N-G-I-O-V-I. Oh, really? B-O-N-G-I-O-V-I. B-O-N, the same way. G-I, which in Italian phonetics is the J sound.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
So it was pronounced the same way, but it's B-O-N-G-I instead of a J. And it's always been two separate words?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
It's the silly American that couldn't figure it out. And in truth, when I got the record deal and I... gotten the band together to help me play Runaway, because I had it on the radio all over the country. I went to the record company, said, we got an idea. It should be you. And I went, how about if it's we? And if you remember Van Halen, I was like, we make it two words. Oh, very good.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
This is good. Oh, that's great. In truth, it was a little bit of that in the 80s because I didn't want to be a solo artist. I really knew that that's too much heat.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
The worst guy, the worst fair weather fan will come up to you on the street and go, hey, Bon. No, it's not Bon, motherfucker. You're not a very big fan.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I think we've at least hit a place now where There's stability. You know, I've said it before. We, my band and I at this time and those around our period, were there for what was called the gold rush, you know, when CDs were invented and everybody bought their record collection again and you could sell 20 million copies of an album. So I was fortunate enough to have been in the heat of that.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Nowadays, because they finally settled on streaming, I'm okay with it. You know, I wish and I blame Apple for breaking up the CD, the work of art, the book. They sold you one chapter of the book at a time instead of the entire book. I was always pissed off about that. And their attitude was, we're going to sell you one song at a time so you don't have to buy the whole album. Well, wait a minute.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I just wrote the whole album. I'm excited about the whole album. I want to present it as a whole. So I've always been pissed off since the advent of the iPod, but I think we've reached a stable place with streaming. And in this current state of affairs for the young talent, what was also daunting was that the record companies now aren't signing you because you just wrote a great song.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
They want to know how many likes you've got on social media, which is a sin. But on the other hand, it affords the world the opportunity to have another Bob Dylan because there was a period in time where unless you sounded like you could sing on American Idol, you weren't going to get a record deal. So the internet allows for a Bob Dylan.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
The streaming allows for some stability, even though it's a low rate, but it's something. and this is the new world order.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
It's still as criminal as it ever was. It's harder on the young band, and how are they going to support themselves on the road if they don't have any record money or there's tour support and all the things that we had 40 years ago that they're not going to have now. I've heard and have been in on conversations, but it's obviously not something I can directly relate to,
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
it's not as big a business for the young kid coming up. It's like, I get to do that, but I'm also going to have to do this and this in order to make a living.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
My son is a young, aspiring actor, and he would have that magic when he walked into a room for an audition, but because he came up during COVID and now, everything is on these Zooms, and I think that all those casting agents are missing out on the personality of the young actor or actress coming in and winning your heart, not just reading their lines.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I just think that they miss the personality. I agree, John. Wooing that casting agent some and letting them see that spark.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Right? Yeah. Okay. All right. Is that way? I didn't know that. Is that by design? It just happens to be. It's sort of commonplace.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Yes. I had to run across the room and bang on the piano, but... Wait, wait, wait. What's that? G minor.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I'm so happy to be here. I'm a huge fan. I listen all the time, and I watch the entire series that you guys did on the road. Oh, my God. Crazy documentary. In the dead of winter. Yes, it was great. It was great.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
This is a nice... I see a lot of house envy just in the pre-roll when you were talking about Sean's house.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Because I'm a groupie. And when I did my little movie career, I actually stole the entire chair, not the back. You guys that make real movies, I took the whole chair.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
What do you do? Any kid that's all of our ages thinks of three things when they're 13. You want to be a baseball player or a rock and roll star or an astronaut, you know? So you strum the tennis racket and you think you can sing. When you're playing in the garages in the school dance with your first band, the The benefit of that for me was that the drinking age in New Jersey was 18.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
So at 16, I could be playing in a bar and I loved it so much that I didn't have the, and I didn't have the responsibilities of a career path. You had a job, a higher education thought, you know, it was like music, music, music. I like music. And because my parents were somewhat supportive of,
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Their attitude was, if you're going to be in a bar at 1 or 2 in the morning, at least we know where you are. And they saw that I was, you know, really, really wanting to pursue that career path. And then I was also blessed because, you know, I wrote Runaway when I was 20. So I got a record deal at 21.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
1983, I put that out independently without the band and then got a record deal. And it's been the same record deal for 40 years. Wow, that's great.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
all the centerfolds of Circus Magazine was pretty cool. In the late 70s, it was Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith and Queen and Leonard Skinner and Springsteen and all the, and then remember that Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny were from 25 miles south of my house.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
So chances are with 10 Asbury Jukes and seven members of the E Street Band, by playing in those bars, you're going to see real live rock stars. And when you're 16, that's like seeing Santa Claus. So all of these things were incredibly inspirational. And being a lead singer in a rock band, Jason, sir, is pretty fucking good.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
No, the ballads work. The ballads work. They work too, right? Are you kidding?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Naivete. I was too stupid to know any better. I didn't even study. Really? You just got in front of a mic and yelped until it made sense. Yeah. You know, I regret. That's a high C, Sean. The high note is a fucking C. It's crazy. It's like a soprano. It's not good. You know, I'm going to be 62 Saturday. I'm 62 years old. Happy birthday. Hitting a high C. Can you do it?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Yeah, the big thing about this huge documentary that we just did, the parallel story, and Sean, you relate to this. I underwent a massive surgery for the first time in my life. For your vocal cords?
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Oh, I didn't know that. That's scary. Yeah, that's what I'm going through right now, and hence this – But not your typical nodule.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Because I really have studied singing for a lot of years. You have. But I had what's called now a medialization, if you're at all familiar with that. One chord was atrophying, while the strong one was pushing the weak one around, and I wasn't singing well. And I couldn't understand it. And this is on the last two... years since the surgery.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And they put a plastic implant outside the cords to strengthen them. So I'm still in the rehab stage and it's disheartening.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And what you would do is compensate. You know, you're like, well, that didn't work today, so let me do it this way. Let me do it this way. And finally, you're standing on your head trying to hit a note. And you would compensate to a point where... It just wasn't very good anymore. And other things start getting out of whack. Way out of whack.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I'm 20 months post-surgery. I would say I'm 90% there. And you still got to get the ghosts out of the machine, as you guys are saying. The ones in your head. Yeah, for sure. The ones that are saying, now that you're over... Back to, let's just say you don't have to compensate anymore. Your mind still has to remind your body that it's fixed. You don't have to compensate anymore. Right, right.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
Yeah. The doctor, I knew the doctor that did Julie Andrews. So we all, you and I both know that story and you went to him too. And so did I for a lot of years. And then, but the guy that I found in Philadelphia, the greatest thing he said after I exhausted everything, every bit of what I call voodoo, every Eastern medicine, every laser, every dietary, singing lessons, everything I possibly could.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
And I did 15 shows and it just was not working. And I went to see him and I said, I can give you 100% of 80%. And he says, isn't that good enough? And I said, no, I'm going to quit. He says, now we can talk about this surgery. And he says, and I guarantee you nothing. He says, but if you work hard, this will give you your best shot.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
So I've been diligent in my recovery and hoping that, you know, everything's going to be all right. But I don't know.
SmartLess
"Jon Bon Jovi"
I'm hoping to be. I'm being bluntly honest. You know, if I'm not great, I'm not going.