Music Express-09.2002- translated from German

Bon Jovi answer readers questions (extracts)

-When the work on an album is finished, is there the wish still to change anything? When does come the time to the band to say: Now we can release the songs? 

JON: A plate is ready when it's in the cellophane. And until the truck, that brings the CD to Tower Records, haven’t come, we still change something. If you produce an album, you have an incredibly special attitude to it; it's hard to let it go someday, that’s correct. Today is Monday, we sit here and give interviews, but you journalists however can't hear yet all the songs from the new album, because they are not ready yet. On Friday we were still in L.A., mixed the last three songs and made final overdub. On Saturday we were not satisfied with the result and went to another studio for odds and ends. And we returned this morning.

-What do you think about the so-named new Rock'n'Roll like The Strokes, The White Stripes, Black Rebel Motorcycle club etc? Can legends like The Stones still appear today? 

JON: No one can predict who will survive for the long time. I like the singles of these groups. These garage-bands attract your attention in 20 minutes. I like The Strokes single energy… the whole album has not packed at all. But our first LP also hasn't the big wisdom.

-Do you take your wives and children on tour?  

RICHIE: Occasionally, yes. But the school-age kids can't miss the school so simply. 

JON: They already look forward it, but they are clever, they don’t come exactly in Idaho or so- instead they come to London, Paris or L.A. and spend our money there.

-Are you self-critical? Is there anything retrospective, which you regret for or embarrass you, a certain song or something similar?  

RICHIE: Maybe Runaway video (laughs) But when I ask the boys: ‘What do you think of it?’, they all say: Super! I think that it just teased only me.  

JON: We still to do that. If Dave, our Keyboarder, comes he'll throw a gaze on his goofy shoes. We go after the motto: They look fantastic on you!

-The Stones celebrate their 40-year anniversary this year. Will you also survive for such long time? 

JON: It would be a big mistake to keep our success standard artificially. At the moment there are many Revival-Tour-Packages of bands that were big in the Eighties and now do their money this way in the USA. They'll do it, but does it would be as in 1986 again? I swear it won't happen to us. When we were starting we have sworn to make a name for us. We don't want so be like the fat Elvis. (laughs)

-Do you read the fan banners at your concerts? Which was most original so far? 

JON: (spontaneously) Oh, yes. There is a girl, her name is July, that was at almost every our gig. She has a banner, on which writes how many Bon Jovi-Shows she has seen. And she must increase the number constantly.

-How do you feel in consideration of the fact that when you toured in 1984 still as support of Kiss through Europe you played for a rock oriented public, and now you played on big stadiums for housewives?  

JON: I have never asked myself such questions. We have always looked at the things simply and I am proud of us. We stand by that, which we do.

-Jon, have you ever dreamed to be a rock superstar?  

JON: Never ever. My personal idea of success was Southside Johnny, to be three months per year in the tour-bus. I can still remember the Led Zeppelin posters, that I had at the wall, they posed in front of their plane. Later we made the photograph in exact the same manner in front of our own plane. Men are men …  

-What do you think of Bon Jovi Tribute cover bands like Kon Chauvi or Crossroads?  

JON: We know Kon Chauvi. We had their first album, and now they should have done a second.   

RICHIE: Kons Chauvi are good.  

-Have you ever seen them live? 

JON: No.  

-You have already appeared with so many other musicians together- why don’t you have a duet with no one in your albums?  

JON: I don't believe that something similar will go with us. I won't want to say: We will never do that, but at the moment I still had no good feeling about it. 

-What do you think if fans do themselves Bon Jovi tattoos? 

JON: Hmmm, rather excessively. Recently I read that a Nascar Racer has almost flipped out, as he met a guy that had his autograph tattoo on his arm. There I can only say: We already had everything. Believe me we have already seen through the years many bad portraits of us on any arms... (laughs)

-Now an extended tour comes, but what's about your solo activities? Finally every one of you has already solo-albums, except Tico... 

TICO: I only wait for a suitable time... 

JON: Two years in advance are calculated - who can already say that now?  

-What do you think of the late album of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, By The way? 

JON: That is really good. The single is a killer, the video- also. Last week, we had a photo session, and we ran this disk non stop.

-Jon, in the Internet is to be able to be read, that you had visited a Robbie Williams concert recently. And what was it like?  

JON: Be correct, Tico, Deborah, my wife, and I went to see him. Fucking great, much fun. I have never seen him live previously. The pure energy. 

-Jon, you have cleared in miscellaneous interviews that in the band there is a distinct democracy with you as big boss, that listened into all opinions and in the end took decisions himself. If one of your band members leave, will that mean the end of Bon Jovi?  

JON: If one alone leaves: no. But it would be a big loss and certainly no longer the same like previously. As Alec, our bass player, got out in 1994, we continued nevertheless, and it ran just as well, if even not better. As we made for Bounce a few demos, Tico could not be with us, therefore we have a substitute drummer, a truly good man. And what was the result? The song just didn't fit. Take Van Halen- I think, Sammy Hagar is a God, no question, but if David Lee Roth was still with them… Whoever besides him can sing Running With The Devil as him?

-After a Cyprus radio station had played Everyday illegally beforehand, an illegal MP3-file of your new single was already located on the 18th of July in the Internet and it became later its first officially release week. Does it make you angry?  

JON: We are not sure whether this will be the finally version of the song - but the crazy thing in our eyes is how they got the song, because we held it to the last under catch. Even the record company didn´t have it. But I don't become excited further, as I heard about it, my first question was: How was the reaction of the listeners? The people liked the number obviously, and that interested me in first line. But it would take long time that one gets this whole Internet deal into the grip.  

-The song Undivided on your new album Bounce refers directly to the events of the 11th  of September last year. Wasn’t it difficult for you to work on the record after this incident?  

JON: That was really hard day for us. We were in the middle of the songwriting, as it happened. Our first reactions were mourning and also fear, and it was automatically clear, that these things will also find their reflection in the record. But we already decided ourselves, that we had to return with a optimism despite all.  

 -Now you’ll go on tour again, how will you combine new and old material?  

JON: I already think about it. Because the set changes night by night, and there is a whole row of songs from These Days and old records, Something To Believe in or Letting You Go, that never have been singles, that we play gladly notwithstanding however. Specifically in Europe the people like such material. But we won’t have Something for the Pain in the program probably- we liked the song before, but now we didn’t. I think we’ll play each number of Bounce once someday... From Crush there are a few numbers like Mystery Train, that didn't fit live well, but God, it remains a good songs! You play some songs, because the public wants to hear them: You Give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive, Living on a Prayer, we never leave them and for me that’s okay, I still like them. But with the new record, we now have 12 new titles we will play.