Great David Article

These are the best of times for David Bryan.

Not only does the New Jersey native play keyboards in Bon Jovi, one of the most popular rock bands in the world, he's also written the score for a Broadway musical that recently received eight Tony nominations.

"It's killer," Bryan says about "Memphis," a musical he and Joe DiPietro wrote in 1991 about the first white DJ to play music by blacks.

"And my other gig is doing all right, too."

Bryan's other gig brings him and the other members of Bon Jovi to Hersheypark Stadium for a Wednesday night show. The band, which formed in 1983, is touring in support of "Circle," its 12th studio album, which was released last year.

After the Hershey show, the band heads home to New Jersey for three shows at the new Meadowlands Stadium (a fourth show has been scheduled for July).

"It's unbelievable to play a stadium and it's unbelievable to play at home," Bryan says. "We're opening up the new Meadowlands. That's exciting. But anytime you walk onstage, you're not going to give a better or lesser show just because of where you are. You just get up there and kill as hard as you can.

"But I guess the thing for us is that it's the building we drive by. That's where my team plays."

Bryan and singer Jon Bon Jovi have been friends since they were teenagers. They played in bands together while in high school and recorded demos at the Power Station, a New York recording studio owned by the singer's cousin.

Bryan, a classically trained pianist, was in college and pondering attending the Juilliard School when Bon Jovi called and said he had landed a recording contract.

"I flipped the old coin and said, 'You know what, I think a rock band's going to be fun; let me take a shot at this.' I believed in Jon and I believed in what we could accomplish.

"Thank God, I was right."

And how.

Bon Jovi has sold about 120 million albums during its career and has topped the charts with huge hits like "Livin' on a Prayer," "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Bad Medicine," "I'll Be There for You," "It's My Life" and "Who Says You Can't Go Home."

The band has been able to sustain its popularity as both a recording act and as a concert draw throughout its career. In recent years the band has even attracted a following among country music fans through "Can't Go Home," which was recorded with guest vocals by Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, and the album "Lost Highway," which featured duets with LeAnn Rimes and Big & Rich.
"Circle," however, is a return to rock, though it's a serious album that explores some gritty themes.

"It's a serious time," says Bryan, "and when those songs were written, the world was crashing. It looked like 1932 again, the Great Depression. It was the Great Recession. But, at the end of the day, it still talks about positivism and hope."

He says the band is playing seven songs from "Circle" as part of its 24-song set during its current tour.

Though the band, which also includes guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres and bassist Hugh McDonald, never broke up, it did go on hiatus in the early 1990s.

"We just needed a break," Bryan says. "Everybody's heads were just spinning. And it wasn't like it was years and years and years. It was a year. Everybody was tired and then we got back together and wrote the record 'Keep the Faith' in '92."

During that hiatus, Bryan got together with DiPietro, who wrote the story for "Memphis." The musical bounced around a lot and it took eight years before it landed last October in the Shubert Theater on Broadway.

"It took a long road to get there," Bryan says. "It's a show that educates and entertains. It's about the first white DJ to put African-American music on the radio. It shows what racism is and how stupid it is.

"If you can entertain and still make the world a little better place, why not?"

Bon Jovi: The Circle World Tour
Wed. 6 p.m. $59.50, $95
Hersheypark Stadium, 534-3911
www.hersheyentertainment.com

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