Hit Parader- 1986

Jon and the Boys Prove They’re Wanted Dead or Alive on World Tour

As Jon Bon Jovi watches his band’s third album, Slippery When Wet, surpass the septuple platinum mark in America alone, he shares something both his peers and rock critics have expressed- amazement! While some see Bon Jovi’s massive success as a victory, others shout “sell- out!” and turn away in disgust from such popularity. After all, isn’t rock and roll supposed to be something not designed for the masses, something rebellious and flagrantly unpopular with, well, mom and dad? Isn’t there something wrong when parents are buying Bon Jovi albums for their kids? Here’s what the current King of Metal has to say about this phenomenal time in his indestructible career.

Hit Parader: Surely you must know how “cute” everyone thinks you are?

Jon Bon Jovi: Cute!? Cute!?

Hit Parader: Yeah. They say you are star material, “refreshing and affable”. Your image “seems to shun the sleazy side of heavy metal”.

JBJ: Sounds a little wimpy to me.

Hit Parader: No, not wimpy. Everyone seems to think you’re worked long and hard to get where you are. But look, there is something more digestible about your band than say, Judas Priest.

JBJ: Well, we don’t go in for makeup and hairdos. If Bon Jovi is truly a “good looking” band, that’s an accident. We didn’t plan to be a band of pretty boys. We don’t try to play that aspect of our character up. When this group was put together about four years ago, all I cared about was musical talent, not how the musicians looked.

Hit Parader: That’s the same thing Robbin Crosby says about Ratt.

JBJ: Yeah and I bet it’s true. You can’t possibly just look good. That’s crazy. We’re a real kick- ass band, and you have to be a good player to bring that off. Attitude and looks count, but you still have to be able to play your instrument.

Hit Parader: But you admit you are different from more traditional metal bands?

JBJ: Sure. You can’t shove old stuff down people’s throats, stuff they don’t want. There’s this one style of heavy metal that’s having problems. If you keep pushing that style, it’s like beating a dead horse. Bon Jovi reaches for another style. I loved the Stones and Aerosmith, but hopefully I’m creating a new style- something called Bon Jovi- which is different from Steve Tyler or Mick Jagger. I enjoy the idea of entertaining, although, I swear, sometimes I wish I was a rhythm guitarist in somebody else’s band. I’d wear dark glasses and smoke a cigarette onstage. But I’ve always been the dude that has to sing because no one else in the band wanted to do it.

Hit Parader: Are you still concerned about what’s going on in the heads of the kids in your audience? You used to talk about the time you’d spend, when you were the opening act, cruising the audience during the headliner’s time onstage. You said you learned so much from just chatting with the kids in the audience.

JBJ: Oh yeah! It’s true I can’t do that now the way I could when the band was less known, but I still talk to the kids. I’m finding that your average eighteen- year- old, no matter what country he’s from, basically doesn’t know what he’s going to do with the rest of his life. That’s why I try to write songs that in some way address this problem. I tell them, “Hey, look, I did it. I know that you can do it too. You just have to keep trying. Don’t give up. Don’t feel hopeless about your future. There is a place for you in this world.”

Hit Parader: Is there a downside to being a star? Was it more fun to be able to hang out with the kids and talk?

JBJ: Well, I’m very happy about the band’s success. It’s dumb to deny that. But I do hope I don’t come across with a bullshit “star” attitude. It bothers me when “stars” act like that, so I sure hope someone tells me when I do it. Back in Jersey, most of my friends would laugh at me if I tried to pull anything like that anyway. I do wish I had more time to hang out. I guess that’s a definite “downside”. But it comes with the territory. This band has been on tour for years. When we’re not hustling from town to town, we’re holed up writing songs for the next album. You can imagine that there’s already quite a lot of pressure on us for the next one!

Hit Parader: Is the songwriting process easy for you?

JBJ: Oh God no! Most of the time it’s exhausting.

Hit Parader: How do you write? What is your technique?

JBJ: With a pencil and paper…

Hit Parader: Jon! Give us a break!

JBJ: OK, OK. What happens usually is I come up with a hook, a chorus. That happens anywhere- the car, the bedroom, the street. I’ll get a chord structure and take it to either Richie or Dave. That’s how a lot of our songs are written. I sing the parts to them and then they elaborate on them.

Hit Parader: What is the main thing you want to express in your music?

JBJ: I’m not here to make a statement about life and how you should live it. I’m not here to tell you the ways of the world- as opposed to just having a good time with rock and roll. When you come to see Bon Jovi, you’re supposed to just leave your problems outside and get ready to sweat ‘cause that’s what we’re going to make you do!

Hit Parader: Songs like “you Give Love a Bad Name” seem to fit with a theory you once said, “Our songs are about lust not love”.

JBJ: It’s true. (laughing) Come and hang out with me one night and you’ll see what I mean. Love is very short- lived. I might think I’ve fallen in love, but it’s really lust. That’s the standpoint I take in the lyrics, but then that’s the standpoint I take in life. I live to play on the stage. I really do. My entertainment offstage only lasts about twenty minutes.

Hit Parader: You’re not married, but do you have a girlfriend?

JBJ: I refuse to answer on the grounds that…

Hit Parader: It might turn a fan off?

JBJ: Yeah. (laughing)

Hit Parader: You have a rep for being something of a woman chaser. Is there any truth to this?

JBJ: A woman chaser? Correction- I don’t have to chase them. These days they’re there. It’s one of the rewards of this job.

Hit Parader: What is your relationship with Cinderella?

JBJ: The band was something I found in a bar last year. I got them a record deal and now they’re getting so big it’s scary! They just sent me one of their platinum albums as a thank you. I think I’ll be getting a double- platinum one before the year is up.

Hit Parader: You and Richie are doing some writing for other bands, aren’t you?

JBJ: Yes. We’re writing for Jennifer Rush and Cher, and we just finished two songs for a new movie. We had two in Michael J. Fox film Light Of Day and we’re written something for a new Whoopi Goldberg film. This is the biggest high for me. Making it as a band is great, but making it as a songwriter is really rewarding. When other people want to record your stuff, you’re really arrived.