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