Born to be Beautiful

Another article from the HeraldSun. Click here for the whole text.

A little about the guitars that tour with the band -- this kind of little detail is the stuff I love; though we've seen this particular statistic before...

This rock star from the same working class roots as Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen flies in a private jet from gig to gig these days.

But that's about as far as his conspicuous consumption of wealth goes. He's not dripping in bling, his uniform remains a T-shirt, jeans and leather jacket and his most treasured guitar is an old black acoustic number that has AP 95 scratched into its varnish.

The initials stand for Al Parinello, Jon's guitar teacher who died in 1995.

"Jon scratched that on there after (Al) died. It's his numero uno guitar. That's the guitar that keeps us all working," says Mike Rew, one of the backstage bosses who keep The Circle tour running smoothly.

Around the corner from the road case that houses Jon's six touring guitars is Richie Sambora's collection of close to 40 instruments.

The Bon Jovi guitarist's on-the-road collection is valued at more than $2 million according to Rew, with one axe alone, a '57 Gibson Les Paul, worth $150,000.

"Richie just loves playing different guitars. Each one has its own sound, a different tone," Rew says as he continues to show us around the backstage precinct.

Jon goes on to talk a little bit about Oprah:

Added to their Australian concert tour, which includes seven stadium gigs, isa performance for Oprah Winfrey at the Sydney Opera House.

As a rock star, he gets the hysteria that has greeted the talk show queen's visit here.

"It's like going to see Santa Claus. Oprah has been good to a lot of people and she's a nice lady," he said.

About the Oprah reference, this article, posted in the Sydney Morning Herald, claims that Jon's name is not on the itinerary. Not sure what's up with that -- is it like in the NFL when the coaches put all their star players on the "questionable" list?

~ Hath