JBJ - Wywiad dla CdNow.

CDNOW: How did it feel getting the band back together after being apart for so long?

Jon Bon Jovi: This band has been together for so long that it felt very comfortable. When I did some promotional shows -- not touring at all, but if I were doing the Today show for the solo band, they were great players, but when they started to play a Bon Jovi song, it was obvious that it was the solo band. When the band got back together, that was what the sound of a band [was], it's individual solo players making a whole. When Richie [Sambora] and I get together, that's what the sound is. So we really took our time and got it right, and it looks like the wait was worth it.

- Did you feel as if you had to do Bon Jovi songs when you were a solo artist?

I felt like I had to do both, otherwise I'd have to be like a new artist, playing songs from one album. I wasn't going to play songs from Blaze of Glory, with the exception of "Blaze of Glory," 'cause 10 songs about Billie the Kid, which was the soundtrack to a film, wasn't going to work in the context of a live show. And seeing as how I wrote or, at least, co-wrote all the Bon Jovi songs, why not? I was thinking about the idea of Jagger touring, and you go, and three songs in you go, "Great. Where's Keith?" Believe me, I was aware of that. Singing "Wanted Dead or Alive" without Richie is not quite the same.

- When you did go off and do films, was it hard to adjust to not being the star, to having to audition for even small roles?

No, just quite the opposite. I think I'm building a reputation in the movie business for not being Jon Bon Jovi. Initially, they think you'll bring in baggage -- the rock star with the big ensemble or entourage of people, and demands, and it was quite the contrary. I show up on a movie set with my little suitcase and don't ask for anything till they need you, and that, over the course of the movies, has built [me] a reputation, and also a resume with the movie critics that my work ethic is for real. I definitely don't take it lightly, 'cause there's a hundred other actors who wanted that role, and I have no problem auditioning for a role.

- The solo records and the film work must have influenced what you brought back to the band.

The solo record influenced the band to some degree, 'cause you have the opportunity to play with different musicians, and different styles of production come into play. You bring a flavor of that back. I wouldn't want to recreate Destination Anywhere; that was extreme. That was my art record, as I've termed it 100 times now. There were also some things [that were] very personal lyrically that I needed to get off my chest. Now I can take the little bits that fit into the Bon Jovi mold but obviously we wouldn't want to go that extreme. We do what we do; it progresses naturally, then we add the outside influences, and you have your next record.

- Are you already thinking toward the next record?

No. I'm still learning the words for this one.

- It's taken five years between your last record and your new one. Is that more time than you wanted it to take?

- It's circumstance. When we released the record in June of '95 -- that's five years ago -- we toured until about October or November of '96. At that time, I had started demoing a solo record. I put it out in '97; Richie's record came out in '98... Time flies by, fads and fashions come and go, though it's greatly cyclical. Ten or 12 years ago it was New Kids on the Block, now it's 'NSync and Backstreet Boys. Ten, 12 years ago it was Metallica, now it's Korn and Limp Bizkit, no big difference. Rap has become much more mainstream than it was 12 years ago, but it was still there. So in one way, I don't think anything's changed... I never considered once that we'd be appealing to the same kid who watches MTV for a boy band or a girl band, or Korn or Limp Bizkit. I look at it this way: This is my 10th album. We're a brand name. You might like it, you might not like it, but it is what it is; you've heard of it, but hopefully if it's a quality song, you'll give it a listen.

- Bon Jovi didn't get famous until the third record. If you were just getting started in today's musical climate, do you think you would have been given the same time to develop?

We had our first real success on our third album, and fortunately for us, we were given the opportunity to develop a following and hone our songwriting skills and performing skills in a bigger arena. It would be difficult to think that these days a record company would invest [all that work], and I'm fortunate that in '83 it was a different time.

- You adapted, too, and that's why you survived.

We diversified, too. We were able to do solo records; I could write a soundtrack. I could go off and do these eight movies. I wasn't going to get pigeonholed into rewriting "You Give Love a Bad Name" anymore. Certain songs were great moments in time. "You Give Love a Bad Name" was a quintessential pop song for a 25-year-old kid to write. How much more fun could I possibly have? I was a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride. Sitting on that tour bus, all the dreams came true. Absolutely true. I wouldn't write that for you now; I'm 38 years old. This is my 10th album.

- When you look back at the pictures from your big-hair days, is it utterly embarrassing? Does it seem funny, looking back?

I can laugh at myself, absolutely. The only difference between anyone watching right now and my situation is that my baby pictures are public; you don't have to show yours off. But I would like to think that almost everything we did -- and I mean in the high 90th percentile -- was as honest as it could be. Mistake or not, it was as honest as it could possibly be. It was a very short-lived time, when we thought about keeping up with the Joneses, and that's why we weren't as successful as we could have been.

- But around the time the second tour was happening, we knew to go back home and put on a pair of Levis and be from Jersey again, forget what's going on in L.A. When we really got a grasp on that, everything was as honest as it could be.

- How much do you remember from your stadium-playing, New Jersey days?

The thing about Slippery, that was our milestone album. That's our Like a Virgin, that's our Thriller, our Born in the U.S.A., but when that tour ended, 10 months later we had another album written and recorded, and we were back in Ireland starting the tour. Someone at a press conference said to me, "What are you doing here?" And at the time, I thought, "What a stupid question -- we're starting a tour, we're playing tonight." It took me a couple years to realize that, that was the most intelligent, deep question that the guy could have asked me, and he was right. We should have stopped, just enjoyed the moment. Went home. But we were out there like a bunch of young punk prizefighters. Like, "Come on. Anybody else? What do you want, another No. 1 song? You got it. Another one? Fine... we were on fire. When that tour was over, my brain was liquid. They poured us into suitcases, and we took a much-needed two-year break. Not that we disliked each other ... but we didn't know if it was worth it. Running on that treadmill at that pace is alluring; then it's intoxicating, but the hangover comes, and God, does it hurt. You just need to cool it, go and figure out who you are, what you do, how you breathe on your own without a machine behind it.

- But didn't you feel bad, not getting along with the other band members? They're like your brothers.

Yeah, but they're like any brothers. I watch my son and daughter fight their brains out, and then they couldn't bear to be without each other. I didn't need to see them every day. But when I got the phone call that Young Guns was my third consecutive No. 1 album, I didn't have anyone to turn around and congratulate. I sat there by myself. [It was like], it was pretty rewarding, I did it, but, gee, that was pretty lonely; there's no one to share it with. Then we said, OK, enough of that. Let's get back to the basement. So we started Keep the Faith... we all lived within 10 minutes of each other, and maybe saw each other 10 times in three years [things are] way closer than it ever was, ever. 'Cause, like I said in the beginning of the interview, we really know this beast now. That tiger or lion walks behind me... and it cowers, because we know fame. We know the game. Now it's just mastery of it.

- How does it feel different now? It's not as crazy. That kind of success that was our third album, the third single on a milestone album called Slippery When Wet, where fame was thrust upon us in such a manner, that it was hard to grasp and, for me, hard to really enjoy, because it was too much. Not personally as much as physically, mentally, not head-wise, it was the exhaustion of running, of doing the work that went with it. I came to terms with all that stuff and realized how to enjoy it, how to tame the beast, and from then … on it was a very strange time. We went from being a nice bar band or a scary opening act to go on before you to being this phenomenon, and it was a lot. But by New Jersey, Keep the Faith, by the Cross Road, These Days tour, we were playing every stadium in the world, and I was just enjoying the moment. So now, for it all to be just thrust upon us again, different eyes are looking at it now. I know what that animal is, really well.

- Did you get awfully stuck-up when you first got famous?

It wasn't that. In fact, the funny thing was that the band never changed, but suddenly every word out of our mouths was quotable. Everybody, our friends, our parents, the guy that pumped your gas thought that you knew the secret code to the universe. The same four chords that we were writing on the first two albums, but suddenly it clicked this time. Suddenly you went from being the kid to being the parent. For everybody. "Can you buy me a house? Can you buy me a car? Can you loan me a million bucks? Can you invest in this business? By the way, you're the CEO of a major corporation that made a hundred million dollars this year." I was 25 years old. I just wanted to go to the frat parties and enjoy life.

- Being famous must teach you a lot about the dark side of human nature. It just taught you a lot about yourself, and it was good that we all came through it. A lot of guys didn't ... How many guys crashed and burned, when fame came? We didn't, you know. We're still here.

Rozmawiała Allison Steward.