USA Today Article

Bon Jovi getting down to business, as a band and brand

NEW YORK — These self-made Jersey guys, they know the deal. Just look at The Boss. And Tony, of course. And especially this Jon Bon Jovi out of Middletown, by way of Perth Amboy, Metuchen and Sayreville.

Here he is, in a new documentary about him and his mega-successful rock band, pitching himself to a rep from a group of potential NFL franchise-buyers: "I'm the CEO of a major corporation who has been running a brand for 25 years."

Here he is recently at his manager's office in Manhattan, explaining to an interviewer how that band and brand have survived in the entertainment world's fool-filled fountain:"By the time you're 47, if you haven't learned how to run it as a business, you're not going to make it."

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And here he is just before that, brightening at a mention of his charitable foundation's Hurricane Katrina home-building efforts in Houma, La.: "The thing I'm proudest of, by the one-year anniversary, those 28 people were in their homes. By cracking the whip, yelling, finger-pointing – we got it done."

Now, the suburbanites' heartthrob/philanthropist/family man/slightly graying rock star is trying to get it done again, corralling his sometimes wayward but ultimately loyal bandmates into another grueling and gratifying round of international brand extension. At the center is the release today of Bon Jovi's 11th studio album, The Circle, a work full of arena-friendly rock anthems stylistically different from its platinum-plus predecessor, 2007's country-inflected Lost Highway. Producer John Shanks (Lost Highway, Have a Nice Day) returns

Some of the songs were inspired by news events that occurred just before and after the election of President Obama, for whom Jon campaigned, and reflect the despair and determination of working-class Americans. It's a social stratum to which he and co-writer/guitarist/New Jerseyite Richie Sambora, despite their wealth and success, have always related.

"I'm not on that (unemployment) line, and I do have a different lifestyle," Bon Jovi says. "But I'm not too young or too naive to understand what's going on now. ... Those people's voices are in the songs."

Says Sambora: "You never forget where you came from. You just don't."

Other songs aim for a universal message, particularly the current single, We Weren't Born to Follow. It has found its mark: On Monday night, the band performed it at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, staged at the Brandenburg Gate.

Sambora's all in

The album also marks the return of a fully engaged Sambora, 50, who spent much of the Lost Highway period dealing with a divorce from actress Heather Locklear, his father's death from lung cancer, a broken arm, and a rehab stint to deal with addictions to alcohol and painkillers.

"I thought I was showing up 100%, but I wasn't," Sambora says. "I didn't hit rock-bottom or anything, but I was limping. And the people around me said, 'Hey, he needs help.' "

Now, he says, "I've straightened that stuff out and I'm working on all cylinders."

His friend concurs: "On this record," Bon Jovi says, "I had to be on my game because he was way on his game, and it's so great to see it. Just so, so great."

That theme of loyalty tested by turmoil emerges on Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful (named after a Circle track), a documentary directed by Phil Griffin that made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and is airing on Showtime. (A deluxe version of the album contains the DVD.)

The reasonably revealing portrait ("We'd been mulling it for years and finally decided to pull the trigger," Bon Jovi says) explores the band's first quarter-century, set against the Lost Highway tour, the highest-grossing outings ($210 million) of 2008.

The band will try to top those numbers with another global jaunt, which launches Feb. 19 in Seattle. It will encompass 135 dates in 30 countries over nearly two years.

Tying everything together is a promotional deal that epitomizes the Bon Jovi organization's business acumen: Last month, NBC Universal announced an "Artists in Residence" program, with Jon and the band as the first partners. Under the agreement, the group supplies interviews, performances and guest-star appearances exclusively for the company's broadcast/cable news and entertainment outlets. Included in the two-month deal (neither side would disclose financial terms) are appearances on Today (every Wednesday in November) and Saturday Night Live (Dec. 12) and a guest spot on Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio (Monday).

Bon Jovi says the outlines of the idea originated with the band's manager, Jack Rovner. He and Island Def Jam Music Group chairman L.A. Reid summoned NBC head Jeff Zucker, who liked the approach and secured corporate approval. The program is expected to continue with other performers.

When asked whether the concept of being an in-house artist for a corporation would have made him gag when he was a rebellious long-haired punk in the 1980s, Bon Jovi snorts. "Nah, the whole model was so different then. Five years ago, you wouldn't have considered something like that. But the business has changed, and every time I know the rules, they change."

Fortunately, he says, fully aware of the irony, being The Man instead of sticking it to The Man "is socially acceptable now!"

Jon's the quarterback

Swept up in these ever-shifting enterprises are Sambora and the other integral players, keyboardist David Bryan and drummer Tico Torres, all of whom have followed the leader, with varying degrees of satisfaction, since the group formed in 1983.

Bryan, who concedes in the film that he was "semi-bothered" by the lack of democracy in the band, nevertheless says "life is good" and channels his excess creative energy into composing music and writing lyrics for theater. His and Joe DiPietro's Memphis rock musical recently opened on Broadway to decent reviews, their Toxic Avenger is playing off-Broadway, and he's working on other productions.

"All of us celebrate and support each other's outside work," he says. "But the band is always first for all of us."

Torres praises Jon's "very good business mind" and leadership skills, which he says have benefited all of them: "I've never seen a football team grow without listening to the quarterback." His non-band time is devoted to golf, his Tico Torres Children Foundation and painting – he'll show 50 works at the Art Basel exhibition in Miami Beach next month.

So with everyone focused and armed with a proven plan of attack – 120 million albums sold and 2,600-plus concerts performed for more than 34 million fans – Jon strives to lead the band toward a more elusive goal: induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He and Sambora are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the group has won a Grammy and People's Choice awards. But they were eligible for Rock Hall recognition this year yet were left cooling their heels outside those gates in Cleveland, along with the Pet Shop Boys of the world.

Never the 'critics' darling'

Why, given their undeniable success? A lack of "originality or depth," says veteran rock journalist Robert Hilburn, author of the new Cornflakes With John Lennon memoir and a member of the Hall's nomination panel. "You could throw out all their music and it wouldn't have affected rock 'n' roll's history one bit."

The group has heard similar criticism throughout most of its career. Three of the members say they're happy just being the "people's band" and aren't bothered by the snub. "We've never been the critics' darling ... because we were labeled with that 'hair band' thing when we came up," Sambora says. "It will come."

But the CEO sees it as a dis, and a challenge. "It bothers me a lot," Bon Jovi says. "Yeah, I'll tell you that it bothers me. It disappointed me greatly. Who wouldn't want to be in a club along with The Beatles and the Stones?"

Fortunately, after all these years, Jersey's favored sons know how to confront the problem: Keep working the deal, keep nursing the chip on the shoulder, keep taking fresh music to the people.

"Come see us," Sambora says. "We'll convince you!"

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Some photos from the article:

~ Hath