Amica
AMICA: The mystery of sex is one of your
most frequent concerns. Your new album has a song with the title: "She's a
mystery". Who was on your mind when you wrote it?
JBJ: My wife.
AMICA: Is she still a mystery to you?
JBJ: Yeah. That's the big romance. After twenty years I still haven't seen
through her. Death and taxes are really the only two things that are certain in
life. Everything else is what you make of it. Do you understand? I don't know if
I'll jump from a sill in five minutes or if I'll win in the lottery tomorrow.
AMICA: As if you still need to win a lottery!
JBJ: No. But I don't want to distroy your illusions.
AMICA: But we'd love to demythologize the phenomenon "rockstar".
JBJ: Rockstar have an awfully boring life.
AMICA: Pardon me? What about orgies, groupies, excesses?
JBJ: It's the absolutely boring life that leads you to do such things. When I'm
on tour I usually sit in my hotel room till 5 p.m. Then I leave to do the
soundcheck, I perform for 3 hours and after that you leave me back like this
(shaking). So what do I do? I go to the bar. I get drunk to be able to fall
sleep.
AMICA: Have you ever felt bored on stage?
JBJ: Of course. But you have to get out of it, coz that is obviously the best
part of the day. I love to be up there!
AMICA: And what do you do if you have to pee?
JBJ: I use the waste bin behind the speakers. More than once.
AMICA: Has ever something embarassing happened to you on stage? Like having to
burp during a ballad??
JBJ: Of course! I once had snot all over my face. It's human!
AMICA: What do you see if you look down from up there?
JBJ: A sea of people.
AMICA: Do you recognize any faces?
JBJ: Of course, the ones in the first rows. I swear that I've been seeing for
years the same guy on every Japan tour. Or this girl, this Julia (WAAAAY TO GO
JULIAAAA!!!) She always has a banner with her, with the number of Bon Jovi shows
that she's seen. Right now she's at 91.
AMICA: Do you think that you have power when you're on stage?
JBJ: I'm not the pope or the president. I don't think that my kind of music
makes people follow me. They don't come and ask me about my philosofical
opinions, not because of songs like "You Give Love A Bad Name".
Moviestars have much more power.
AMICA: Keanu Reeves has supported you with his band.
JBJ: I did him a favour. Nobody wanted to give him a chance to perform in front
of a big crowd. Just like 5 years ago nobody wanted to give me a chance to play
in big movies. But I didn't even have a conversation with that guy. He said
thank you and that was it.
AMICA: Do you do silly things at home like play airguitar or sing naked in front
of the mirror?
JBJ: Do you do that???
AMICA: Of course!
JBJ: Excellent! (laughs) Not me. I really play guitar, you know, I earn my
living by doing it.
AMICA: You're said to be the rockstar created by girls for girls ...
JBJ: Well, who wouldn't like to be that? But they could have created me a little
taller. (laughs)
AMICA: Do you sometimes wish you'd be taller?
JBJ: It doesn't bother me. It's not like I'm a dwarf. I'm 178 cm. But somehow on
TV I look taller.
AMICA: Another popular myth is the rockstar as rebel. Now, you've grown up as
the son of a Playboy-bunny and an Italian hairdresser. Where was the rebellion?
JBJ: My rebellion was directed against the working class, in which I grew up.
You could work in the factory or join the army. That was it. I thought: Isn't
there a better alternative? My mother allowed me to play in bars at only 16 - at
least she knew where I was. I was never oppressed - I was lucky.
AMICA: For your father it must have been great that your haircut was such a big
issue.
JBJ: You know, the funny thing about it is that my dad never said: "I will
cut your hair in a way that will make you famous." That's the way every kid
looked who was hanging around in the malls in New Jersey.
AMICA: When did you get the first haircut that you really wanted?
JBJ: As a kid I could always wear my hair as I liked. Always long. After
"Keep The Faith" I cut it. It was time to do it, I was turning 30, I
looked in the mirror and thought: Damn, I need a new haircut! This was big
news!.As if it's something really important!
AMICA: What do you think when you look at those pictures of the 80ies?
JBJ: Every decade has it's particular look, that is quiet embarassing. The 80ies
had hairspray and huge shoulderpads. What is trendy now? Cords! I used to wear
them in the 70ies in highschool! Now they tell me that people pay 300 bucks for
such cords. I used to get them for twelve dollars at Levi's. Damn!
AMICA: Pointy shoes are also in again.
JBJ: That's great! I used to have lots of them, that I can tell you.
AMICA: And do you still have them?
JBJ: (hesitates)
AMICA: Common!
JBJ: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. I should spank you both!! I don't throw away my pointy
boots! On the movie that I'm shooting right now with Kevin Spacey, they asked
me: "Do you have something to wear that is really proley?" Of course,
I said, oh yes! And took a pair of this boots with me. They nearly dropped off
their chairs! Now I'm wearing those boots in the movie! GREAT!
AMICA: So we can look forward to a Jon-Bon-Jovi-museum?
JBJ: Absolutely! As soon as the plane crashes, there'll be a museum.
AMICA: That would be a suitable death for a rockstar.
JBJ: I surely won't die in a plane-crash. That would be too great. They would
make a movie about it and a great legend. Die young and leave back a goodlooking
corps - no, my life has been way to good so far, a romantic death is therefore
out of question. Not for me. I will slip on a piece of soap in the shower and
will be found dead next to the loo. Like Elvis