"My family has saved me from myself ", Jon Bon Jovi
LA PATRIA - More than one decade ago Jon Bon Jovi visited the country with his
band "Bon Jovi", and now he will return for the only one acoustic concert in
Bogota, along with Fito Paez and Alek Syntek to benefit of the Foundation
Antonio Restrepo Barco, who works for the vulnerable adult population of
Cartagena. He will come to Colombia along with two guitarists to present his
songs in the acoustic, calm format, in a different atmosphere to his common
shows full of pure energy. Nothing not known for the American artist.
For what were you looking in " Lost highway ", the most recent album of "Bon
Jovi"?
This disc, the band number fourteen album, is synonymous of freedom and it's
full of love. In the search of the human being for discovering these two
elements. I believe that we have achieved it. As an artist, to manage to find
freedom and love in an industry as mean as demonstrative and spectacular, it's a
real gift of life.
How do you support this freedom and love after almost three decades of music
work with "Bon Jovi"?
When someone is so much time in this industry, it's easy to imagine these
feelings, but it's difficult to achieve them. The important thing in the world
is to learn, that it opens many doors in front of you, but you have to return
home, where the most important thing of your life is: The family.
In any moment did you feel that you were losing your freedom and love being a
rock star?
At this moment they aren't in danger, but with the distance of time (many people
may called it maturity too), you realize that you take wrong way, without
meaning. For my fortune, I always have had two families, my own and the band,
that knew how giving me back to the correct way.
Would the harmony between the family and the fame exist in the chaotic world of
rock?
Probably, but nobody teaches you to obtain that harmony. In my case, from very
young person, when the band started to grow in popularity, my parents and soon
my wife, put me in my place. Jon Bon Jovi, as a rock star, never has entered my
house. There was their son, the father, husband and even the artist, because he
does not argue with the others.
Have you ever been seduce by the fame?
As we had been exposed to this mediatic market at some time we felt in its nets.
Then the family again come into operation to save me from myself. I believe that
it's thing of the past, of the end of the eighties, when so many people say to
you that you are good, that you are brilliant and at the end you start to
believe this. You no longer enjoy to make music, to compose songs for fun or to
say things. In that moment the idea become different, like creating more
successful songs then “You give love to bad name” or “Livin `on to prayer”. It
was a meaningless career. It was only until we take a time inside the band, to
return to the origin and to begin to to create songs for the pleasure of doing
them and for the need to do a declaration in front of the society.
Do you enjoy more to do music now then in the eighties?
In that moment we had to demonstrate many things. Not now. There are the
different states in life, one would not be changed into other and I love them
all like the children, with his virtues and errors. The music that we did in
this moment was the one that had to go out, I just like it happens now.
What has changed?
"Have to nice day", our previous album has been fantastic, it gave us too much
success and did that the followers re-discovered previous albums that had not
had a similar impact. In the working on this disk, in the mystique that we
achieve with it, we are inspired now to do " Lost highway ", and according to
the followers, I believe that we have not been wrong. So we return to work again
with the same team of production, like John Shanks. Both producers brought very
good ideas and created a proper energy for the album.
from what are you been inspired for the songs of this new album?
In the composition the possibilities of inspiration are infinite, and I feel
that with the time, the poetry becomes stronger, deeper, as inviting to
listeners to concentrate on it and extract the best profit. You find the
inspiration in home, in family, in the street, in the words of your fans, and
even in the cinema. In this album you can find the topics from the movies like
"Ghost" and "Sixth sense". Let's leave the fans to discover which are they.
(laughs).
You had written many great songs in your career. Are you afraid of the blank
sheet of paper?
The writers have the opportunity to write every day a page in his newspaper
living their lives, and the people have life too. If it happens, it would be
because anything is not doing well in my life. I believe that the composer is
virtuous because he can listen to the society, more that to achieve two phrases
and take a rhythm.
How do you manage to keep the band together after so much time?
Like in any other type of relation the spinal column is the respect. From the
hour of doing a disc up to allowing the spaces for the personal music
exploration. Each of us has a life, a family beyond the band, but also musical
restlessness that not necessarily are inside the concept of "Bon Jovi". Everyone
has the opportunity to explore them, such is my case.
In your case it's to work as solo artist and the actor?
It's a question of impulse. There came a moment of my life that I wanted to do
music as soloist and I did it. Then the acting came and I tried it. A moment
will come to return to it, but now I prepare myself to be behind the cameras, it
excites me very much.
Then will we see you as the director?
I am preparing for several years, some scripts. When I am cheered up to show
them and the band allows it to me, I will do it for sure. For the time being the
priority is the music.
Some memory of your only visit to Colombia?
It was a vertiginous visit, where we were walking more in a plane than in the
soil.The memories are mixed from show to show. We feel, that the public were
waiting for us and they enjoyed each of the songs that we interpret in this
Latin-American tour.
"Bed of roses" is your only song in Spanish. Would you sing again in this
language?
The idea was born as tribute to these countries in our first visit to Latin
America.There has to exist a similar connection, something very special so I
dare to do such type of experiments. It is clear that now I have better Spanish,
but not the sufficient one to sing with dignity (laughs).
In Colombia you will do an acoustic concert. How do you feel inside this format?
Before being a hard rock band, we are musicians that come of the music done with
acoustic guitars, so it isn't indifferent to me. Some years ago we released the
album " This left feels right ", which was a project of our songs in acoustic
version.
Do you already have the repertoire for Colombia?
Completely not, but it will be an opportunity to share my musical life between
friends, in a calm but sentimentally intense way. "Wanted dead or alive", "Livin'
on to prayer", "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Bed of Roses" and "Always", cannot
be absent for sure.
Do you know anything of the social work for which will be the concert?
Really no. We have always wanted to serve with our art for the society. It
doesn't matter if it is next to our homes or in another side of the world, if we
can collaborate, we will do it. I was listened for the beauty and history of
Cartagena. So it's a place that I want to visit.