BON TO BE WILD

Rip It Up, Issue 185, 1 December 1992, Page 18

BON TO BE WILD

It's a new era for Bon Jovi, they now manage themselves (with advisers) and so who do you blame if things are not quite right. I was informed by phone at my Kings Cross hotel, that the interview would be beside their hotel pool, alas I hadn’t brought my togs, my flippers or even my sunglasses. And why has every white t-shirt I packed got something dumb printed on it. I guess their first decision upon arriving downunder was to expose me to the hole in the ozone layer.

After my first ever encounter with a hairdryer — I couldn't even detach it from the wall — it was off to ritzy Double Bay by taxi. In the foyer of the hotel, Aussie journos were whining about having to interview the keyboard player. I was feeling sorry for myself cos I had to talk to Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora at the same time — an unnecessary luxury as it's hard to get on one wavelength with two people. Usually one's a cynic and one's a romantic and the conversation goes nowhere in particular. I'm escorted to the poolside to meet Jon who's pleasant but makes it clear he's tired and jetlagged. He's drinking mineral water, so I figure I'd better have one too, fake Body Shop health awareness bullshit — I can be so shallow sometimes. He's barely taller than me and outrageously slight — off the beer I reckon. They give me a mineral water with the cap su-per-glued on. I'm determined to not start the interview until I've got the cap off. I don't want to look like a wuss so I'm certainly not asking Jon to help. Whether he's a working class hero or not, I like to do these things myself. Ahhhh, it's off and there's not a rip in my tshirt (or my hand). Jon is hiding behind his sunglasses, it's windy and everyone's eating hair. This is fun. Thank God no-one's chewing gum.

Was there a risk of New Jersey being the last Bon Jovi LP? Jon: "I don't think so, but come the end of that last tour we were so burned, I knew that we were gonna take a break, a two year break, but even as I spoke those words I thought 'what the hell am I gonna do for two years'? People thought I wouldn't bring the band back, that it would be easier, better on my own, which wasn't the case because to tell you the truth it's not as much fun, I'm only doing it for the fun. To not have anyone to share it with would be like 'I went down to Australia by myself and I did interviews by myself'. Any kid wants to be in a rock 'n' roll band cause it's a gang." Well, poolside we're going well and as Bob Dylan said to his friend, the answer is blowing inthewind. WasßonJovioutof control at that stage — were you out of control? "No, I don't think so. Our last tour was 237 shows, you can't keep that kind of pace up and not feel it sooner or later. Even though you think you're doing fine, the truth of the matter is you're not, nobody was there to put the breaks on for us."

What caused you to leave manager Doc McGhee? (who narrowly escaped inprisonment for smuggling container loads of weed into the USA). You were loyal beyond belief when he had his legal problems. "I'm a loyal kinda guy I guess, but it just got to a point where his and my sights for the future weren't the same, and I'm guestimating, but I think he's getting less and less involved in the music business and finding other mediums to excite him. So he isn't doing the stuff he used to do."

With this promo trip downunder and the 1993 world tour, you seem to be organising as heavy a workload as Doc McGhee would have. "We wanted to do this promotional tour to get back to grass roots. We haven't done anything for such a long time we were excited about it. But the pacing is much different now." Do you consider yourself a workaholic? "You don't want to seem 'I just wake up in the morning and work work work'. I wake up in the morning and can't believe I actually get paid to do something I love and it sure is a lot of fun too so I don't mind doing what I do and people think I'm being a workaholic dialling on the phone if I'm not playing, promoting or something, but it's cool, it's actually a great job if you can get it." You've written some really classic pop songs. Are there any of those hits that you don't want to live with now? "I don't regret anything I've recorded or wrote because at the time each one was like a capsulised version of the very best I could do and who I am at that point. I like playing some more than others, some maybe will stand the test of time better, but even 'Runaway' stands up. It's certainly not 'Keep The Faith' but it held up okay for ten years." Richie Sambora (wearing

shades) arrives at this point, "My man!" exclaims Jon. So there's no cool rivalry between these two. Ritchie also talks jetlag too, from London via Stockholm yesterday — did these guys jog or fly first class across the North Pole? I didn't tell them my jetlag story, Auckland to Sydney's is rather pathetic, it's a bit like commuting, but I worked right through the night before flying and then nice airline people offered me whisky before breakfast. If Joan Collins can say 'No' why can't I?

Really, Richie arrived at the wrong time, we were just talking about their classic pop hits (I'm a big 'Bad Medicine' fan, true) and the role of the professional songwriter is next. So with hair flying towards the North Shore. Is Desmond Child the sixth member of the band?

Jon: "No, not at all, he's a friend first, he's a very capable songwriter second but he's not a member of the band by any means, just a talented acquaintance, I guess I'd call him." There's a stony silence as I try in vain to solicit more wisdom concerning collaboration and Desmond Child's role in writing the mega 'Keep The Faith' or the other standout track on the album, 'l'll Sleep Whenl'mDead'. Even the wind is silent . A change of tack is required: Did you welcome the breakthrough of bands from the alternative field, like Nirvana? "Sure, they brought back rock 'n' roll in a time when it was all computer techno dance stuff, and the lyrical content — those guys from Seattle have got a lot to say, it's great, I welcome them with open arms, for sure." Trying to get a bit of debate

going it's curly question time. With a new found stutter — it's a term I loathe (I've been unfairly accused of personifying the mentality), but what do you say when someone calls your music "corporate rock"? Jon: "Probably it's somebody who has a chip on their shoulder to begin with or they don't look into it deep enough, but if you've gotta be pigeon-holed, like we all do, I guess you gotta handle it, I don't lose sleep over

it. I wish the reporter would look deeper into it but that's his, you know, option." It's ironic that you come from a club background, do you still find stadiums rewarding to play in? "Oh yeah, I enjoy clubs just as much as I do the stadiums but I enjoy the stadiums as much as the clubs, yeah." Managing yourselves, do you think you'll want to move away from stadium spectaculars? Richie: "No, I won't. It's wild man, I think it's a thrill to walk on stage in a giant stadium, the event itself, it's a great thing, it's a totally different kind of energy level than a club. Jon has a great way of making an intimate atmosphere, he uses rising screens and lights and stuff like that to kinda bring the people into the show." Currently a few acts like Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones are signing contracts that'll take them up to the 60 mark. How do you feel about that kind of contract? • . Richie: "Well maybe I think they sign my first kid, they own

everything, so shit, as long as I'm still alive to make records I'll be making 'em for Polygram when I'm 60." You've supported a lot of young acts coming through, such as Skid Row. Do you still see the validity of an act like the Rolling Stones? Jon: "Oh fuck yeah. Did you see that last tour? It was spectacular, I mean the Stones were just great, words can't even tell ya how good they were, with-

out a doubt. Like you said, we're talking about Keith, I mean you look it up in a dictionary and there's his picture, he is rock 'n' roll, there's no doubt." Was the”decision to do some remixes with Mike Edwards (Jesus Jones) for 'Keep The Faith' you guys or . . . Jon: "No, Bob Rock suggested it." Richie: "We tried it, great idea in theory but in practice it didn't hold the integrity of the song." So they never got released? Richie: "No, we really don't have any idea of how to do dance mixes or anything so we left it to other people. It was a great idea, it's just when we heard it it felt forced, so we didn't release it." Did you find doing solo projects a fulfilling experience? Jon: "Absolutely, by having no boundaries with something like that you learn the time and the confidence that it gives you, the satisfaction, it far outshines having the success." Richie: "The freedom from that mould as an artist, it's a very good one. It opens you up

a lot like there's no definition." Did you find it harder to finish the job? Richie: "In some respects yes, not really harder but just kinda like, finding your footing. The direction, on my particular record was pretty much a lot of different ways. I let the songs follow themselves instead of me. I think with Bon Jovi, millions of people bought our records, so there's a character to Bon Jovi that we have to

stay tuned." Did you consider it a guitarist's record? "No I didn't. I think everyone expected me to make a guitar masturbation record or a Bon Jovi record with Richie Sambora's vocals on it but I didn't thnk that's gonna be good for the band or me and I kinda rewrote myself." Will you do further solo records? "I don't know. The time came at the end of the New Jersey tour that we all needed to take a break, so when that kind of period comes up again, if it does, maybe." Does 'Keep The Faith' reflect an optimism in the States? Jon: "To me, the 'Keep the Faith' idea is faith in yourself and the world. The whole thing that went down with the election, everybody really paid attention to it and more people voted since the Cold War. A lot of people talk about negativity, the whole world's pretty much going to hell in a handbag, you and I know that, and instead of writing the world's going to hell in a handbag I thought you

could do something, you could do anything to make the world a better place if you want to try so in essence it was 'Keep The Faith'. And you can apologise for the mistakes you've made in the past and move on to things in the future. Maybe, it's a bit of a hopeless romantic, the eternal optimist kind of thing." But the optimism's probably there in the change of government, which was inconceivable a year ’ago. Jon: "Absolutely. The voting turnout seems to show disillusionment." Richie: "People woke up, people want to get involved. It's an exciting time right now." The concert market has been a bit dull in America over the last couple of years. You chose the right time to be off the road? Richie: "I'll say, it's miserable out there right now, it's just a huge global recession." Jon: "We're gonna try to do a lower price ticket, try to make it a little easier for folks to come out and see us." Do you have a fondness for Australia? Jon: "I have a good time every time I come here once I get used to the jet lag. It's a nice place, got a small town feel, you know, in Sydney and Melbourne." Would you say New Jersey had a small town feel? Jon: "Yeah, there's no cities where we grew up, it was all little towns, there were no high rises or anything like that." Have you ever wanted to record in a New Jersey environment?" "I'm not opposed to it but there's no need for it. We do demos and stuff around there, I have a studio and there's several studios around. I don't ever want to go to New York,

I'd much prefer to go to Vancouver. It's out of the way and a place where the record company, if they want to come they've got to really want to come." Richie: "The mindset of leaving home and going to this specific place is good for us because we know we're there to make a record. If we stay home it would be our family and friends -" Jon: "Yeah, you know, 'I gotta cut the grass, I'll be in, in a little while.' There's always something else on your mind when you're at home." After your massive success Vancouver became a very popular place to record. Has that ever worried you? Jon: "No, 'cause the studio's still a studio, it's a good studio with great engineers. It's not a great studio by any means, it's a good studio in a great city with great engineers. It makes it like you want to go there." Was the change to Bob Rock from Bruce Fairburn a reluctant change due to scheduling or an opportunity that worked? (Bruce has been preoccupied with the next Aerosmith album for yonks!) Jon: "A very wanted opportunity. Bob engineered our stuff for us. This time he was in the production seat and he differs from Bruce in that Bruce is more like a George Martin style of producer, he's a trumpet player in his background, he's not a songwriter. Bob's more like Keith, he's a guitar player, he writes songs, he makes his own records. His was a different style in preproduction and that kind of thing, and challenging you all the time and contributing too. Whereas a lot of the magic

with Bruce was that he let us be us. He just captured what we'd been trying to capture on the first two albums. Where Bob would come and we'd do like a month of pre-produc-tion, it's a lot for us. We used to do four or five days. We write and write, argue and try things, it was cool." And you did all the preproduction up in Vancouver, it's become a bit of a mecca.

Jon: "Yeah, but keep the myth in your mind because it certainly isn't what you think it is when you get up there. The rehearsal studio is this smelly little place and the studios are just good studios, not great by any means. They're beat up, they're breaking down but it's just a great place to be. And those guys, that's their act, that's their place, they know every nook and cranny about that place and it works for them cos they get to stay home, it works for us cos we get to get away." It's people isn't it? Richie: "Yes, most definitely, most definitely." In the past you've attracted a lot of press attention. As well as fortune you've had fame — has that embittered you at all? Jon: "I don't understand the question, I'm sorry."

The sense in which both of you have become more than musicians, in the sense that you're the subject of popular press speculation. Jon: "Oh, I get it — does it bother you?" Laughing, I respond (quickly), "No." Richie: "It's not something I've really paid much attention to. I think if you don't believe what they're saying it's really not a problem." Richie is being cool but if I mention titillating tabloids

and Cher, Jon is going to be pissed off. I'm going to have to go back home and face Donna without having even mentioned Hollywood's Ms Plastic Fantastic. To Jon — there was a point at which you became a pin-up icon everywhere. Jon: "It's not something that you go after but it happens and if you can accept it for what it is and not play it up or push it away . . . you can't demand respect. That whole Slippery era was just a . . . education." Did you have a hiatus working on other projects to get the pin-up era behind you? Richie: "I think it was to come up for air because it was four albums, four tours consecutively." Jon: "We needed to go and live life so there was something to say." Do you find you're quite able to disappear into obscurity on the street? Jon: "Sure, definitely. I was out all morning. 1 think a big misconception in this line of work is that you're a prisoner of rock and roll. I don't believe that. I think if you want to go out just go out, if you want to cause a scene you can cause a scene. I think if Madonna wanted to go jogging she doesn't have to have ten bodyguards, she could just go jogging. I never want to become a prisoner." You're quite happy to cultivate some of the classic sounds of Bruce Springsteen. Is that a conscious ode to New Jersey music? Richie: "No, it's just the opposite of that." Jon: "If there's any reference to the New Jersey sound it's just because we live there

and you always hear that music as a kid. It certainly isn't a conscious thing, that's for sure. The last thing I ever want to do is jump on somebody's coattails or chase the tram, that would be silly, suicidal, you'd always be a day late." But you're still exploring rock and roll?

"Without a doubt, but to do something that somebody else is doing for the sake of exploitation and commercialism or whatever, it would be silly for anybody who wants to have longevity." Finally, I noticed the fan club address on the new album. Is that your family? Jon: "My mother runs it, they have for years. All the mothers go down and lend a hand, I think it gives them something to do, so it's good." Ms Polygram arrives so we wind it up with that cool note about the fan club and sticking with your Jersey roots, respecting your family and all that.

Jon complains to Ms Polygram about having done an

interview in the sun. (Who's idea was it?) The next journo (an Aussie), sees an immediate solution to Jon's predicament, saying "No problem, mate, have a beer." Jon ignores the advice.

"IF YOU WANT TO CAUSE A SCENE YOU CAN CAUSE A SCENE. I THINK IF MADONNA WANTED TO CO JOCCINC SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO HAVE TEN BODYGUARDS ..."

NIRVANA? "THEY BROUGHT BACK ROCK N ROLL IN A TIME WHEN IT WAS ALL COMPUTER TECHNO DANCE STUFF, AND THE LYRICAL CONTENT —THOSE GUYS FROM SEATTLE HAVE GOT A LOT TO SAY,

MURRAY CAMMICK

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