Old habits die hard karaoke movie#

In 1986, their album Slippery When Wet - which included the songs “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “You Give Love a Bad Name,” and “Wanted Dead or Alive” - proved to be a massive hit, spending eight weeks at #1 on the Billboard 2000 and becoming the top selling album of the year. VIDEO: Jon Bon Jovi Dishes On HIs New RestaurantĪs Bon Jovi recalls, “We started to gel and we liked each other,” so they extended their arrangement beyond the three weeks. And then came guitarist Dave Sabo, Bon Jovi’s childhood neighbor and bandmate - although he soon decided to go back to college and was replaced by Richie Sambora, who had his own independent record out and was touring as Joe Cocker‘s opening act. Next was bassist Alec John Such was in a successful cover band. Then came drummer Tico Torres, who was in a band that had a record deal. Keyboardist David Bryan, a childhood bandmate of Bon Jovi’s, signed on first. Soon thereafter, Bon Jovi began to put together a band of his own - to be called “Bon Jovi” because of his newfound name recognition - for what he thought would be just three weeks. As a result of that visit, “Runaway” wound up on a compilation album of local talent that got wide airplay throughout the country, generated great interest in its singer, and, in 1983, led to a record deal as a solo act. He walked into WAPP, a radio station in New York that was so new that it didn’t even have a receptionist yet - which he says is “probably the key to my success,” because he was able to walk right up to the DJ booth and schmooze the DJ. In the early eighties, Bon Jovi penned a song with which he was pretty pleased called “Runaway.” It got no response from any record company, so Bon Jovi - who at that time still spelled his last name Bongiovi - decided to do a little direct lobbying of “the loneliest man in the record business,” the radio DJ, who at that time wielded more power than ever. STORY: Bon Jovi Announce ‘Because We Can’ Tour When high school came to an end, most of Bon Jovi’s classmates didn’t head off to college, but instead joined the service or went to work in factories. He always wanted to be a part of a band, though, not a solo act, so he would assemble various guys to perform at little showcases with him, or serve as the opening act for bigger bands, or just entertain friends at backyard barbeques. He started writing original tunes, got a day job as a gopher in a recording studio, and would stay late many nights to record demos. I loved it more than it loved me, but eventually I learned the craft.”Ī pivotal moment came when Bon Jovi realized that there was no real future in performing other bands’ songs. And, as he took his first steps into making it - learning to play the guitar and piano at 13, and subsequently forming his own cover band and then joining another guy’s band - it was clear where his strengths lay. Growing up in the late 1970s, he listened to all kinds - Mo-town, soul music, R&B (the roots of which come from Jersey Shore), and, of course, rock ‘n roll. “You don’t know if you can get in the ring or not.”įor young Bon Jovi, getting in the ring always meant only one thing: a career in music. He explains that growing up in Jersey, in the shadow of New York - “close enough to the center of the universe, but far enough away where nobody was really watching” - tends to leave a bit of a chip on one’s shoulder.

The Sayreville native hasn’t even lived in the Garden State for the last few years - he’s now a New Yorker - but he says that he totally gets it: New Jersey is less a place than a state of mind, and one that he continues to share with its residents. When people think of Bon Jovi, they tend to also think of New Jersey. Of course, he was most excited to discuss “Not Running Anymore” and “Old Habits Die Hard,” the two songs that he contributed, free-of-charge, to Fisher Stevens ‘ low-budget indie, onto which Oscar winners Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin signed after he had already agreed to pen the tunes. That might explain why he was willing to talk, at such length and in such depth, about his past, present, and future.

The 50-year-old - who, as you can see in the footage of our conversation (above), looks about 20 years younger than his age - says that he has never been at a happier place in his life or career.

Old habits die hard karaoke movie#

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