Bon Jovi takes 'Highway' to 'American Idol'
Life and love and loss and freedom. That's how Jon Bon Jovi describes the themes
of his band's new album, Lost Highway, due June 19. The band will perform a new
single, (You Want to) Make a Memory, on Fox's American Idol Wednesday, May 2,
following performances of its songs by contestants on the previous night's show.
No one is more surprised than Bon Jovi that the band has another record so soon
after the overwhelming success of Have a Nice Day, featuring the crossover hit
Who Says You Can't Go Home with country band Sugarland.
"If you would ever have told me I would have a record in the fourth quarter of
last year, having just completed a world tour," Bon Jovi says, "I would have
said you can bet all the tea in China, it's just not going to happen.
"But because of the circumstances around our lives, they were very fruitful, and
a lot of the inspiration was watching what was happening in Richie's life (bandmate
Sambora split with wife Heather Locklear and is dating Denise Richards),
compounded by all the good things that were happening in all our collective
lives."
Bon Jovi says Lost Highway isn't a conscious attempt to capitalise on the
crossover success of Who Says, which won a Grammy and became the first song by a
rock band to hit No. 1 on the country charts.
"But the feeling came, and when it does, you have to know to go with it," he
says. "And we went to Nashville in September, and by December, 10 of the 12
songs were written and recorded and ready for mixing. It was just in the last
couple of months that, because I always do this, I pulled the record back and
wrote five more, two of which made the record."
Bon Jovi thinks the crossover appeal of Who Says and the new album is the result
of country radio getting closer to the band's sound, not the other way around.
Two of the songs feature Big & Rich and LeAnn Rimes, and Bon Jovi says his
country influences are new artists as much as the "real gods," including Johnny
Cash.
"Different people, different reasons," he says. "It's all a big soup. Everybody
adds a little ingredient, and that's what makes the next generation go on. You
can't be a rip-off of one guy. You don't find an influence; you find your
influence's influence. You take a little piece of that and a little piece of
this and a little piece of the other thing, and then that's what makes you and
how you get to be here for 25 years."
Today, longevity in the music industry also requires embracing multimedia
opportunities to connect with audiences, such as American Idol, which Bon Jovi
just recently watched for the first time.
"It's not that I didn't want to; I just didn't," he says. "I've had a lot of
guys cover our songs on it, and then giving them songs subsequently for their
records, but (had) never seen it. That's 30 million that watch TV, so these
days, being on American Idol certainly isn't a bad thing.
"You got to get music out there however you can," Bon Jovi continues. "Radio is
getting smaller and smaller; the record business is getting smaller and smaller.
There are things that are fantastic, like the Internet, (but) it's tough because
it's created something none of us knew 10 years ago, and you have to learn to
roll with those punches. But it's not the way it used to be; it's not the record
business that I grew up in."
American Idol is among just a handful of TV shows and odd performance dates in
support of the album until the world tour next year. Yet Bon Jovi is busier than
ever.
"Sort of like Levis, man, we're everywhere," he says, laughing.
This is even more true of Bon Jovi himself, who appears in Kenneth Cole ads to
raise money for the Philadelphia Soul Foundation, named after the arena football
team he co-owns (with Sambora and others), which builds houses for people who
need them.
In September 2005, he presented Oprah Winfrey with a US$1 million check from the
entire band on her show to aid her Angel Network's Hurricane Katrina relief
efforts.
"I knew that with our determination we could make a difference," he says, "and
families live in 28 homes that we paid for by the one-year anniversary. And in
the Lower Ninth, as you can tell, it still isn't rebuilt, but you get some
powerful people like Oprah behind you, and they tend to get things done.
"There's a lot of wonderful causes and none of them is more important than the
next, but you can't be at everything, you can't do everything, and you've got to
find things that you think you can make a difference in. And for me, it's been
affordable housing through the Soul Foundation because ultimately, I don't need
scientists to come up with a cure. I can do this with time, effort and money.
It's something that we as just average guys can really make a difference."
Bon Jovi also continues to squeeze in some acting. His favourite TV show is The
Sopranos, and he recently appeared at a benefit for cast member Michael
Imperioli's New York theatre company, Studio Dante. Playwright Adam Szymkowicz
raved about his performance in a blog the next day.
"You know that classic line from The Godfather, 'Just when I thought I was out,
they pull me back in'?" Bon Jovi asks. "That's how I feel about the acting. Now
I'm getting more offers than I can shake a stick at. And they're really good
studio pictures. I'd like to do more; it's just that, thank God, I have a very
successful day job."
Bon Jovi fans around the world, both old and new, can't get enough of the band's
signature blend of big sound, optimistic lyrics, showmanship and sex appeal.
During a concert in Albany, N.Y., on the most recent tour, a lucky few had a
very nice day when they found themselves embraced by Jon, and their adoration
could be seen and felt across the arena.
"I started every show in the audience on that last tour," he says, "and it's
good because as we play these bigger and bigger and bigger and multiple nights
at football stadiums, sometimes it's hard to see the people, let alone touch
them. So it was an idea that I'd get out there among the crowd and play 'Last
Man Standing' and let the folks in the back have the front-row seats for the
first song. We've always been about inclusion with our audience, and I think
that's probably another facet to our success. That was just one of the examples
of it."