All language subtitles for Thank.You.Goodnight.The.Bon.Jovi.Story.S01E01.WEB.H264-SuccessfulCrab.en[cc]

[air whooshing]

[♪ "Runaway" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ Girls talk about their social lives ♪

♪ They're made of lipstick,
plastic, and paint ♪

♪ A touch of sable in their eyes ♪

[audience cheering]

♪ All your life all you've asked ♪

♪ When's your daddy gonna talk to you ♪

[audience cheering]

♪ Ooh, she's a little runaway ♪

[host 1] [on radio]
Welcome and will now announce...

[host 2] [on radio] He's one of those
fortunate guys

who is so full of himself

and he's got loads of self-confidence

that nothing will hold him back.

He's got his debut out now,
it's selling extremely well.

-A very big warm welcome to you, Jon.
-[Jon Bon Jovi] Thank you.

[radio host] Nice to see you.
How old are you, Jon?

-[Jon] I'm 22.
-[radio host] Right age.

[both laughing]

[radio host] Okay, so you grew up
in New Jersey.

Had you always been into rock music?

[Jon] Oh, yeah, sure. I think since, uh,

you know, I've always said
I was born with sunglasses

and a guitar.

You know, I mean, I've been playing

since I can remember.

[radio host] What were your parents'
reactions

when you decided you were gonna go

into rock and roll music?

[Jon] They probably thought
we were crazy, you know,

wondering like,
"Why don't you get a real job,

make some money."

[Jon laughing]

[♪ soft music playing]

This is our high-tech setup.

I've spent the last week or 10 days

going through archiving
a lot of cassettes.

Here's what we found.

All this was in boxes.

I wanted to do it because of the 40th,

but if I was 100% healthy,

I probably wouldn't be paying
as close attention.

Here's Blaze of Glory,
the writing session.

So here's Runaway before there was a band.

This has a song that I was writing

for the Tom Cruise movie,

Days of Thunder,
and I wrote on it, "not good."

[laughs]

It's validated for me
the, uh, body of work is legit,

but more importantly, it got better.

This is cool

because it's the first time
we ever played there.

[cassette player clicking]

That's us walking to the stage.

[♪ "Lay Your Hands On Me"
by Bon Jovi plays on video]

Kid's a little excited.

The first time we played Giants Stadium,

you know, it was as big as it got.

[audience cheering]

[♪ "Lay Your Hands On Me"
continues playing]

♪ They say that to be able
to free your body ♪

[audience cheering]

♪ You gotta free your mind ♪

♪ So come on ♪

♪ Check this out ♪

♪♪

[audience cheering]

[news reporter 1]
One of the hottest tickets around tonight

was to see the world's hottest rock group.

Bon Jovi records have been
selling by the millions,

and his concerts have been selling out.

♪ If you're ready, I'm willing and able ♪

[news reporter 2]
Bon Jovi has been riding high

since their album Slippery When Wet

sold 14 million copies around the world.

♪ For the taking ♪

♪ The rules we've made
are meant for breaking ♪

♪ What you get ain't always what you see ♪

♪ But satisfaction is guaranteed ♪

[interviewer 1] You're
knocking down records

that've been there for years.

Does that frighten you?

[Jon] Nobody really knew
that it could get this big.

♪ If you want me to lay my hands on you ♪

[interviewer 2] What does it feel like
to know that Bon Jovi

probably is at the moment
the number one rock act in America?

[Jon] We're not, uh,
satisfied and we're not done.

We're just hitting stride.

[♪ "Lay Your Hands On Me" continues]

[audience cheering]

It don't get no better

[echoing] than this!

One, two, three, four!

It's going great.

Kids are rocking, we're rocking.

[interviewer 3] I mean, you really are
earning your reputation

as the hardest working band, aren't you?

-[Jon] Absolutely.
-♪ Lay your hands on me ♪

♪ Lay your hands on me ♪

♪ Lay your hands on me ♪

♪ Lay your hands on me ♪

If you're healthy, it's the greatest thing
in the whole world.

You know, when you can hit the high notes,

there's not a higher feeling in the world,

you know, there's nothing
better than that.

[static crackling]

[Jon] We are in day one

of what will ultimately culminate

in the 40th anniversary of the band.

Technically, it's year 39 and a half.

We're about to start rehearsals

in a place that I dreamt of
playing when I was a kid.

That's where we're having pre-production.

That's the Meadowlands Arena.
It's not used anymore.

We've just taken it over
for the next three weeks to rehearse.

Go out, do some dates,

take the rest of this year
to figure out what the 40th is,

and then go out
and celebrate that journey.

[♪ soft upbeat music playing]

[people chattering indistinctly]

Oh, hello, Snooky.

-How are you, then?
-Good.

-I know, I love this stuff.
-[Snooky] That's the stuff.

-[Jon] I know.
-[Snooky] It's the, the vocal magic.

[Jon] Obie! [laughing]

It is good to see you before you
turn the six, the big six-0

and everything
just totally turns to rat shit.

You look good for 40, though.

[Obie O'Brien]
I know. How are you feeling?

[Jon] I feel great.

How could this be the place
where time stood still?

Why wouldn't you play here?

[agent] I don't know.

I would play here in a minute.

-[agent] It's a good venue.
-[Jon] I love this place.

It's always been so good
'cause they're on top of you.

When I was a young guy,

right around the time where
we were just starting out,

and, you know, you always think someday.

And then I remember going
to shows at the Meadowlands

and then I remember meeting
a very famous agent saying,

"Someday, you know,
you're gonna be my agent."

And then saying to that agent,

"Someday, I'm gonna headline here

and golly gee, we're gonna put on a show."

You know? [laughing]

And then, uh, you know,
how many times then

of course we went on to play there.

So it's almost like full circle

of the success of the band
to go back there.

I think we should fucking book a week

and just say "Fuck you" to everyone else.

[agent] Hey, you call it.
We'll-we'll sell it.

[Jon] I could sell it, that's for sure.

We never, in 40 years,

have done three weeks rehearsal.

Maybe we did four days.

We never did this kind of rehearsal.

But in a weird way, we all want that.

We wanna sit in a room and just,

no pressure, no... nothing.

It's like a fuckin' time warp.

What fucking year is this?

Floor monitors in the Meadowlands.

-Ooh, ooh! [chuckles]
-Oh, no.

[♪ drums thudding]

[♪ piano plays slowly]

[sound tech] Hey, hey. Shh.

[Jon] A lot of guys aren't there.

Big changing of the guard.

The stalwarts are the band.

Starting with David Bryan, my
keyboard player, dear friend.

David's been with me since
we were 16 or 17 years old,

all throughout the band's career.

Same with Tico Torres.

He was a drummer that I never thought in
a million years

would ever play with me.

You know, he was the grownup in the band.

He's-he's 10 years older than I am.

Hugh McDonald, the bass player,

actually played on Runaway
before there was even a band.

So, you know,
although Hugh wasn't a member

of the band for the longest time,

I've known him,
he's played with me a bunch.

John Shanks, playing guitar,

is, uh, co-producer of every record

since Have a Nice Day in 2005.

Everett Bradley is playing percussion
because truthfully, uh,

he adds a different dimension to the band,

and he was there at a time
when I, I needed him

to fill out the sound.

And then Phil X came in a couple of times

during the times when, you
know, Richie wasn't up to it.

And then finally, you know, he stayed on

and he's an incredibly talented cat.

So he fills those shoes fully.

So that's the band.

Whoo! Come on.

I used to run around these things

like a motherfucker.

[♪ electric guitar playing]

So potent, fucker.

One of the best there ever was.

[♪ electric guitar playing]

Now the champ is tired. [laughing]

Unfortunately, the truth is,
is I'm all over the place.

You know, I have one foot in

and one foot off the ground.

Some days, I wake up

and I, and I can't wait to get back

in there and swing.

And others, I-I regret

that I'm doing this interview

and that I'm going back on the road.

To me, the greatest goal

is that I truly just have joy
in this next run.

[♪ "Beautiful Drug" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Tear off your mask, no need to hide ♪

♪ There's a prescription
that no doctor can prescribe ♪

I don't need to do this,
I want to do this.

So, my drive is much different.

I'm not doing it for success.

I'm not doing it for accolades or money.

I just wanted to be good at it.

I wanted to work hard at it.

♪ Love is a beautiful drug ♪

The joy is that oneness with the song,

it's that connection to that place

that takes you off of the stage.

-♪ ...beautiful drug ♪
-♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

If the other side of it were to come back

and you're too in your head,

it's an anchor around your neck

in every word of every song, every night.

It's sheer torture.

And I know what that is too,
and I ain't going back.

♪ The taste, the touch,
the stuff of dreams ♪

♪ The paradise that's in between ♪

♪ Honey of another hit ♪

♪ You'd almost bite through your own lip ♪

♪ The thorny rose that makes you bleed ♪

♪ A kind of hurt that makes you scream ♪

♪ Love ♪

♪ Love is a beautiful drug ♪

And with every decade
comes another life's lesson.

At 25, all I was thinking about
was fun, success.

At 30, I got married,

I had looked at success differently.

By 40, you start to measure,

did you accomplish what you set out to do.

By 50, you start to think about a legacy.

By 60, I think
as the Chinese proverb says,

it's basically, "You are the man you
were meant to be."

That's good.

So at 60, it's like when I look back,

did I become the man I wanted to be?

-[reel clicking, whirring]
-[audience cheering]

[reporter] President Kennedy
sitting in the front seat

being helped out by Secret Service...

[Jon] We were born into an era

where the American dream was
very much alive and well.

We choose to go
to the moon in this decade...

[Jon] We were born when John Kennedy
was elected president.

Not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.

[Jon] When he talked about
sending a man to the moon.

[NASA crew] [over comms]
That's affirmative. Program alarm.

[Jon] They would tell you that anything
you wanted to be, you could be.

[narrator 1] Just about
the only thing that

can make a 10-year-old sit still

long enough for you to catch your breath.

[Jon] That your parents
were going to be the ones

to buy their first home in suburbia.

[narrator 2] The isolation of the suburbs,

[narrator 3] 70% of the people
in the metropolitan area

own their own homes.

It was just a wonderful
little mix of European

first and second generation
families who came over

and didn't get any farther
than New Jersey.

[laughs]

[narrator] New Jersey
is more than meets the eye.

A place to study, a place to learn,

a place to prepare for the future.

And sometimes, New Jersey
is a place to dream.

It was very much the privilege

of being born in a certain place,

at a certain time, looking a certain way.

And although all of our families

come from very blue collar working class,

we also had a leg up

because we didn't want for things.

Our parents taught us all a work ethic,

but then you-you felt like,

we didn't have a care in the world.

You had a roof over your head

and shoes on your feet
and food on the table.

That was all part of the American dream.

You can do anything that you wanna do,

and the whole world's out there, man,

and it's just waiting for you to take it.

-[bat smacks]
-[audience cheering]

-[engine roaring]
-[audience cheering]

-[♪ soft music playing]
-[audience applauding]

I always say we were like
America's greatest export

because it shows the American dream.

It's like five guys from nowhere.

And if you work hard enough

and you dream big enough, you can make it.

[♪ upbeat music playing]

My dad was a trumpet player.

He would always have big band like Al Hirt

and Dizzy Gillespie.

And he taught me trumpet when I was five.

And, uh, I knew I had no career
'cause I stunk.

But I love music. I-I just loved
the feeling about it, you know?

And then at seven,
I started piano lessons,

I auditioned for piano lessons.

[♪ upbeat piano music playing]

He was a Julliard graduate, Mr. Hack,

I remember he had a Hammond organ,
like this one with pedals.

My first impression,
I said to my dad, I'm like,

"I don't wanna play
the thing with the feet.

[laughing] "It looks too hard.

There's too many things.

It looks hard enough
with just your hands."

And then he went to the piano,
he started playing that,

and he started playing,
like, Brahms and Bach

and Schubert and Mozart.

All this beautiful noise and sound

was coming out of this piece of wood.

And I went, "Whatever that is,
I need to do that."

[Jon] I would've been aware
of music on the periphery.

We did not have a musical household.

It wasn't as if my parents
ever sat down and said,

"Listen to this."

My mom was a florist,

and she had
a little gift shop at one point

and somehow she brought
an acoustic guitar home

and the Roy Clark learn-at-home
guitar book and record.

[Roy Clark] That was my Roy Clark
Big Note Guitar songbook.

[Jon] And I was seven, eight years old,

so I had no desire.

I remember throwing it
down the basement stairs

and breaking a tuning pick.

And hey, you're makin' music.

[Jon] But as you hit 12 and 13 years old

and you're listening to the AM radio

and the pop songs, you start liking them,

and you start singing along a little bit.

And that's when I found music
in my own way.

[♪ "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin playing]

♪ I can hear the ocean's roar ♪

♪ I don't think so ♪

[audience cheering]

That's when a guy named Al Parinello
moved in across the street

and he was the hipper,
younger version of my parents.

He played guitar in a lounge band.

[♪ soft music playing]

And then I thought to go down
into the basement

and pick up that guitar

because he's the one that had the patience

to show me a couple of chords.

And when I was lazy about it,
was also stern enough to say,

"Stop wasting my time.

Learn this or get out of my basement."

But that was exactly
what I needed to hear.

[David Bryan] An instrument is honest.

If you don't practice, you suck.

You can't lie to it.

You can't just go, "Hey, I'm great."

No, you're not great.

If you put in the hours,

that's the only thing. It's-it's honest.

You put in the work,
you get back the craft

and then when you love it,
you keep going forward,

and then figure out songs
and then, you know,

it grows from there.

And so then I worked hard,

got my first calluses,

and, uh, one thing led to another.

And then you understood song structure.

And when you looked at it
like a little jigsaw puzzle,

and the verse and the chorus
and the bridge, you went,

"Oh, it's like that."

So then around that time,

my very first band was in a talent show.

And, you know, of course we lost.

[David] It was like right around,

like, my bar mitzvah.

My father got me
a Farfisa Deluxe Combo organ

and a Univox piano.

He would always support my music habit.

So I had great equipment.

[Jon] It's probably a part of me
that needed to be seen

by not people, by and large,

but by those who love you the most.

It wasn't as though I woke up one morning

and was the best singer in the school

or on the block or in my house. [laughing]

That's not saying much,

but I just had a desire and a work ethic

that was always the driving force.

[reporter] He was just
another kid from Jersey

living a pretty routine life

on this pretty routine suburban street

in a house Ward and June
Cleaver would have loved.

[Jon] In the town that I grew up in,

the amount of kids
that went to college were,

I can't tell you they were even slim.

They were really slim.

And I can remember all the parents were
really happy

about their boys being in a band
and kept 'em off the streets

and it kept them busy with something.

But when it was time
for these boys to graduate,

parents said, "Okay, guys,
it's time to grow up."

[Jon] You worked in the factory
or you took up a trade.

But it was something to be proud of,

working in the trades.

Uh, my father was a hairdresser,

my grandfather was a plumber.

These were considerations
for me as a youth,

simply because that's what we knew.

My three best friends joined the service.

[soldiers] Sir, yes, sir!

[Jon] It wasn't for me

because I was already pursuing music.

And we're coming up on beautiful
Sayreville High School.

The junior high for two years,
you're supposed to go for three.

So I left there to go
to a different high school,

'cause I was failing.

So, um, I-I-I bolted from that school

and went to Sayreville High School.

I mean, I remember being in some kind of
high school class

and the singing teacher saying,
"You haven't got it."

Or my dad taking me
to a singing lesson once

and the guy basically saying,
"I don't think so."

I walked out of both
of them saying, "I think so."

[people chattering indistinctly]

-Hey, good to see you.
-Hey, bud.

-Everything alright?
-Yep.

[Jon exhales]

[Jon blows raspberry]

You know, I have COVID
brain fog like everyone else.

Was it '18 or '19 when we were out last?

I, honest to God, would have
to look on a calendar.

[vocal coach] [over video call]
How was your weekend?

[Jon] Uh, wonderfully uneventful.

-How 'bout yourself?
-[vocal coach] Oh, that's wonderful.

Did you get any singing done or...

[Jon] Uh, no, I didn't,
but that's alright.

-[vocal coach] Awesome. Awesome.
-I have been very ready

and raring to go today.

-[vocal coach] Excellent.
-Mm-hmm.

[vocal coach] I like how you took
a couple minutes to do your look behinds,

we're pressing up into the molars.

And then on either side
of the soft... hard palate.

[Jon] I'm gonna guess it was
the fall of '19.

We were in South America.

But I do remember
at that time saying to myself,

"Maybe it's time to walk away.

Maybe it's time to cool it."

[vocalizing]

And it's the idea of wanting
to achieve excellence

but also knowing the price
that you pay to do that,

physically, mentally, emotionally.

Coming to terms with who I am now

versus who I once was.

As I got older and the drive
to maintain that being

on the stage, you know,
it takes more and more.

[vocal coach] You're working that one.
[laughing]

No, yeah, it's good.
Good, good, good, good, good.

[clapping]

For the New Jersey tour,
I started to take,

you know, vocal lessons,

and I just got better
and better and better as a singer.

You know, 2008, '10, '13,

I was great. I was really enjoying it.

[vocalizing]

-Hmm, I don't like where it's going.
-[vocal coach] You got it.

-I got it, though.
-[vocal coach] No, take your time with it.

Take your time with it, it takes a minute.

[vocalizing]

[vocal coach] Good, rest for a second.
Reset your body.

-Yeah. [clears throat]
-[vocal coach] Let's do that again.

[Jon] But after '13 is when
the problems really started.

Just wasn't up to what I wanted it to be.

And so, you know, the last couple years,

I've just tried so many different things

to get back to what I liked 10 years ago.

[♪ soft music playing]

And at 50, things change.

And at 60 it's like, "Holy fuck."

Is it tiring? No.

But it's like a workout.

You know, you feel like
you did your... time

and on a Monday morning, it's usually got

a little bit of spider webs.

This, uh, four-headed laser
is aimed here at my chords

and the vagal nerves.

And what it does is
it stimulates blood flow,

trying to alleviate as much
inflammation any way we can.

There's three different vocal coaches,

there's a couple different lasers,

there's a boatload of vitamins.

If I can't be the very best
I can be, I'm out.

I'm not here to drag down the legacy.

I am not here for the
"Where Are They Now" tour,

I'm not ever gonna be the fat Elvis,

ain't happening. [laughing]

[♪ soft guitar music playing]

But it took voodoo and science

and a lot of hard work

to get it to where
I-I figure I can do this.

[♪ strumming "Blaze of Glory"]

It's got little cracks
just from leaving it out.

Alright, what else you wanna do?

[♪ upbeat rock music playing]

[camera clicks]

[Jon] It's the late '70s.

On my bedroom walls were the '70s icons,

Led Zeppelin standing
in front of that 747...

[engine roaring]

...Rolling Stones,

Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

-[♪ rock music playing]
-[audience cheering]

[Jon] That was impossible.

♪ Comin' home to you ♪

[Jon] But 25 minutes south
of Sayreville, New Jersey

was this place that was making music.

[announcer] Southside Johnny
and the Asbury Jukes.

[Jon] Southside Johnny
and the Asbury Jukes.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

The songs that they wrote
were from the places in which we came.

The Stone Pony, a landmark in Asbury Park

and the spawning ground
for some of the greatest rock and roll.

Southside Johnny and the Jukes.

[laughing]

It's like a disease, you know,
it, uh, never leaves you.

A sexually transmitted disease,
being from New Jersey.

All across the East Coast

an-and in Asbury Park is an amazing event.

[Southside Johnny] Well, Asbury Park was
the happening place

because there were
a lot of bars with bands.

So when we started playing,

there was a bunch of clubs

that we could get into.

So it was a chance
for all of us to go and jam

and hone our skills and perform
in front of an audience.

And it was really a formative time,

Bruce, Steve Van Zandt, Garry Tallent.

And we just really wanted
to find our own voices.

[♪ "Love On The Wrong Side Of Town"
by Bruce Springsteen playing]

♪ When I needed you by my side ♪

This concert was as hot
as those hot dogs next door.

It's hysteria, it's excitement.

[Jon] As I got a little older

and with older friends able to go down

to Asbury Park,

there wasn't any chance

that you wouldn't run
into at least one of them

on any given night. [laughs]

-All we wanna know...
-Yeah?

...is what are you people doing
in my town?

-[fan] Right on!
-[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Southside Johnny]
Steve Van Zandt and I saw

Sam and Dave one time,

and we thought,
"That's what we want to do."

And I thought, "My God,
what an incredible thing to do

to have all these people
in the palm of your hand."

For me, that was the kind
of music that was alive.

[♪ playing "This Time It's For Real"
by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes]

♪ Baby, don't slow me down ♪

♪ I've come too far to ever turn around ♪

I think that we all learned
from The Animals

and the Rolling Stones
and Paul Butterfield Blues Band

that white people could play Black music,

along with rock and roll,
Jerry Lee Lewis and that kind of stuff.

And I guess we started to influence people
by doing what we wanted to do.

And they thought, "Well, if these guys
can do it, I can do it too."

[Jon] I was 16,
and the drinking age was 18,

which is really integral to this story,

is at 16 you could sneak in
pretending to be 18

and seeing any one of those
10 members of The Asbury Jukes,

seven members of the E Street Band...

[air whooshing]

...it made the impossible right there.

One of the things that, uh,

critics have been saying
about rock and roll in the '70s

is that there's been
very little substance.

Well, ladies and gentlemen,

I'm here to tell you Bruce Springsteen

and the E Street Band are substance.

No one wanted to be associated
with New Jersey.

I mean, even when I went
to make my first record,

they wanted me to say I was
a New York-based artist.

[♪ "The Promised Land" by
Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band plays]

♪ On a rattlesnake speedway
in the Utah desert ♪

♪ I pick up my money
and head back into town ♪

It was unusual at the time

for an artist to identify
himself with New Jersey

and all of its glories, you know?

I just sort of embraced it as my identity,

the Boardwalk and Asbury Park

and all the street people from the city.

And I said, "Yeah, these are the people

"I want to write about,

and this is who I want
to be and who I am."

[Jon] Now you could touch the dream,

'cause there it was.

It wasn't those pictures
on my wall that you think

I aspire to be, you know, Led Zeppelin.

It was way too big for me to fathom.

Let's go!

But those guys,

who were singing about

the highway that was out our window,

that made it incredibly possible.

♪ And I believe in a promised land ♪

[audience cheering]

[Jon] By the time I was 17,

I was sneaking into those bars
and, and performing

with the Atlantic City Expressway,

my first real band.

[♪ soft upbeat music playing]

The bass player's name was Steve Pretti.

He was one of the three guys
that joined the Navy.

The guy I went to high school with,

by the name of Willie Hercek,

he was really into the whole

Asbury sound and taught me a lot about it.

And he was in the Expressway,
right at the inception.

His father owned a bar in Perth Amboy,

and Willie told me about David.

David's father owned
a surgical supply store

in Perth Amboy and had a van.

I got the gig just because
of the equipment,

and I had a van.

[Jon] He had a Hammond organ in the van.
He's in the band.

I don't care what he looks like
or what he plays, he's in.

And that's when I had
a big Hammond organ like this,

a big Hammond, and I had this piano,

I had all this equipment by then.

He could play.

He was, he was the kid
who took lessons for real.

He was a far better musician than I was.

[David] I'm like, "Great,
where does he live?"

I'm like, "Sayreville." I'm like, "Okay."

It's right across the bridge.

They did a cover band.

They were like Springsteen and Jukes

and a couple originals.

And at the time I knew

Born to Run and We're Having a Party.

And so Dave fit,

you know, we carried
that son of a gun B three

down into the bass player's
mother's house and set it up.

And between that and the horns

and the two loud electric guitars...

it was the sound of a band.

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[David] I wasn't into that kind of
blue-eyed soul and soul music.

And, uh, it just won my heart over.

I was like, "Wow, five horns,
everybody's loud.

There's like 10 people making music."

-[♪ upbeat trumpet music playing]
-[camera clicking]

It was the closest to God-like
I think you could ever get.

I was like, "I need to do this."

♪ I know it's been a long time ♪

[Jon] The Expressways
now playing high school dances

and a bar emulating Southside Johnny.

And fortunately, back in Asbury Park,

in the late '70s and early '80s,

there was a place called The Fast Lane.

And that's where David used to do
his high school homework.

[David] And when we did
the first gig, I was like,

"Wow, he's great. This is great.

"The money's not great.

We got, like, 150 bucks for 10 people."

[Jon] You had gas,
and you had the bar bill.

So there was no money in it,

and that wasn't what any
of us were motivated by.

[David] We had to pay a buck a beer.

So I think I ended up being
in the hole every night.

But I cheated him out of like 10 bucks

for gas money or something,
I was... Don't tell anybody.

[camera clicks]

[Jon] You know, when you're
that young and naive,

blind faith is enough to get you by.

Alright! Thank you very much.

I'd like to remind you
of the name of the group,

we're the Atlantic City Expressway.

We stole that sign off the highway.

[♪ strums chord]

It was him, officer, it was him.

We would play the Fast Lane,

then we would play up
and down the Jersey Shore.

There was a lot of clubs you could play.

[Jon] And that's when, you know, we'd go
to get the van

to fill it with gear
and drive down to do a show.

-[engine rumbling]
-[♪ upbeat music playing]

I'd get done playing,

I'd get all the equipment
and the horn players,

drive back up to Sayreville,
drop them off,

go over the bridge, go into Perth Amboy,

drop all the shit off
into my father's warehouse,

get my car, get back home
at 5:00 in the morning,

and I have to get up
at 7:00 for high school.

[laughing] So I was, uh,
just trying to survive.

[Jon] What was wonderful about my parents

and their support of it was,

they said, "We knew you were in a bar

"until 2:00 in the morning,

"but at least we knew where you were.

"And if we had seen that you were

"not working at this every day, all day,

"we may have had to step in and say,

"'Wait a minute, son, you have
to go apply for a trade.'"

Saw them at the Fast Lane,
when he was like 17 years old.

And I was very impressed
with his stage presence

and you know, all of that.

He really hadn't found himself yet.

[Jon] If you want anything in this world,

if you want it bad enough,

anything is possible.

I remember we'd have
to walk to high school.

I was always talking about things like,

"This is our tour jacket."

[laughing]

Not so much, you know,
practicing four days a week,

but we need a photo session

and we need to see Southside somewhere.

So all those great memories
of what was Asbury

and what was, uh, original music

and what was a community
of up-and-coming musicians

as well as those who had
already landed record deals.

The pinnacle of all of this
was a record deal.

Once Bruce got his record contract,

all of a sudden, we were more respectable.

And then when Born To Run came out,

all of a sudden, everybody wanted to sign
somebody from New Jersey.

[Jon] In 1979,

I was singing a song off of

that album called
Darkness on the Edge of Town.

And I looked up,

and there's Bruce on stage with me.

[♪ "The Promised Land" resumes playing]

♪ ...dark cloud rising
from the desert floor ♪

♪ I packed my bags
and I'm heading straight into the storm ♪

That was the guy, you know?

And he jumps up
and sings his song with me.

And I like to play.
I like to play, you know?

♪ Blow away the dreams that tear you... ♪

[Bruce Springsteen]
I think that was what...

well, there's some young kid
around here from New Jersey

who's making some kind of noise, you know?

That was the first thing I knew about Jon.

He is a hardworking guy,
you know, put everything

he had into his music.

[David] We did Promised Land.

It was the second verse,
I still have a cassette tape of it.

And it was like, "Oh, my God,
that's Bruce. He's singing with us."

♪ And I believe in a promised land ♪

[Jon] So you go to high school
the next day, needless to say,

you look at the teacher
and you look at the kids and you go...

"I got a story to tell."

And it's a lot better than history class.

Bruce and, and anyone else in that band,

or you know, in that
whole clique down there,

was always very, very,
very supportive of-of myself

and the groups that I played in.

[♪ soft music playing]

It made me even more
single-mindedly focused

that the impossible was well within reach.

Shortly thereafter,
I stopped playing covers.

I stopped being in-in any band

who was gonna rely on playing
other people's material.

In our senior year, then Jon,
uh, then Jon quit.

[air whooshing]

[Jon] By the beginning of 1980,

in my senior year of high school,

I quit my own cover band.

But I said, "I'm out. I have to go.

I gotta go figure this out the right way."

[David] He had a vision to know
that if you're gonna be in a cover band,

you're gonna play somebody else's music.

And if you're an original band,

you're gonna have cover bands
playing your music.

And that's the only road to the future.

[Jon] I joined someone else's band,
wasn't my vision,

wasn't my band, I was just the singer.

I didn't know enough about songwriting

and I certainly hadn't written
enough songs yet.

So I would rather make no money
and learn the craft

because that was the only way
that there'd be longevity.

Songwriting is the hardest thing to do

and the most satisfying.

When you come up
with something that you go,

"Oh, yeah, that's it. That's what I was

trying to say."

Because you have to have an idea,

and you have to have thought
about something, hopefully.

And the deeper you've thought about it,

probably the better your song
is to a certain degree, you know?

[Jon] So going and joining someone's band

was again, a teachable moment.

A, I didn't know how to do it.

And B, you learn what not to do.

Most importantly,
don't not be a visionary.

There was no way that I could live and die

on someone else's decisions,

and The Rest didn't last very long.

He had that real desire to prove himself,

'cause we had to, you know?

We weren't from New York
or LA or whatever.

He just had that energy, that edge.

He's gonna make it work. He'll find a way.

I like our audiences to come to see us

and to sweat as much
as I sweat on the stage.

You know? Or if I can get them
to sweat half as much as I do,

I know I've had a successful show.

To me, your heart is,
is 80% of the whole thing.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good evening, welcome down
to The Fast Lane.

We'll be here tomorrow night
and every Wednesday night.

Come on down, free admission.
Drinks are a buck.

-Come down this weekend.
-[audience cheering]

You know, there's two
different kind of front men.

There's the guys
that stand there and just go,

"Here's our next song.

Here's our next song. Thank you."

And there are the guys like him that go,

"Tip your bartenders.
How you doing tonight?

"We're gonna get this together.
Put your hands together.

We're gonna be there. We're all together.
Hands up, clap."

Which was, uh, more of the Jersey school

like, you know, a banter
between you and the audience,

and then make the whole thing one.

[Jon] From '79, '80, I'm playing
down in Asbury a lot,

starting with The Expressway

into being the singer of The Rest

to now having my own band.

Writing on my own,

Jon Bongiovi and the Wild Ones is born.

It's not easy 'cause there's no money.

There's not even opportunity

when you're playing original stuff.

You know, you're writing
about cars and girls.

What else was there?

Those of you have, um, seen us before,

I'm very anxious to get down
to the new stuff.

-[crowd cheering]
-This is something new.

This is by the Wild Ones.
This is for the wild ones.

-[audience member] Yeah!
-[Jon] This one's named after the band.

And this one's called The Wild One.

-[audience member 2] Yeah!
-[Jon] And this has gotta be for you.

[♪ upbeat rock music playing]

[David] And at that time, that's when

I was a Wild One

and, um, I graduated high school and

then I was going to Rutgers.

So once again, I found myself

having to go to school again.

[Jon] David was going to college.

His nice Jewish mother
wanted him to be a doctor.

There was no plan B in my life ever.

It was all or nothing.

-Thank you, thank you.
-[crowd cheering]

In September of 1980,
I call a second cousin of mine

who was a recording engineer,

produced the first Talking Heads record,

the first Ramones record,
who had seen The Rest perform.

Had told my dad, "The band stinks,

but the kid's got
something going for him."

Never met the guy,

but obviously curious about my future.

He allowed me to be
a gopher at the Power Station.

I would go run to the bank,
the dry cleaner,

the food pickup, the OTB,
make the horse bets.

Anyone and everyone
would've given their right arm

to work at the Power Station.

And so sometimes you had to bring girls,

sometimes you had to bring drugs,

sometimes you had to do favors,

sometimes you had to do stuff.

And I met Obie there.

He was quite the character,
to say the least. [laughing]

I was working at the Power Station.

I was doing projects for Jon's cousin,
Tony Bongiovi.

[Jon] They gave me the opportunity

to-to record on weekends and nights.

[David] So we would go in
at, like, 4:00 in the morning

till 10:00 in the morning
and start doing original songs.

He played songs for me
that he was working on.

And he was so energetic about it.

You know, there are people sometimes
when they walk in the room,

you go, [snaps fingers] "That's somebody."

[Jon] The Power Station was
the epicenter of record making.

I watched through the window
the Rolling Stones.

I saw Queen and Bowie
doing Under Pressure.

To see Kiss, to see Diana Ross.

You know, Stevie Tyler
would let me sit in the studio

one night, 3:00, 4:00 in the morning

and I was the only guy
in there watching him singing.

And that's one of your idols, you know,

watching Aerosmith working on a record.

He just wasn't the cleanup guy.
He asked questions.

He saw how a console worked.

He saw how the engineers worked.

He saw how producers worked.
He took it all in.

And when he was done working
at the studio all day,

he was writing, sleeping,
you know, on the floor.

[Jon] I had a, I don't know

if I had a vision or I was just

more faithful than everyone else,

but that really played into it.

We're going there, I'm doing this.

Who wants to come?

[♪ piano playing]

[Jon vocalizing]

[humidifier humming]

So the purpose of doing that,

so your tongue doesn't get tight

and then it restricts everything else

that covers the larynx.

It's like if you ran a marathon,

would you... walk it off

or would you lay down and go to bed?

The answer is you'd walk it off.

So if you just take 10 or 15 minutes,

do some cool-down exercises like that,

it makes tomorrow morning
a pleasant experience.

[♪ soft music playing]

So everybody feels
physically tired, right?

-[band member] Yeah, yeah.
-[laughter]

-[band member] Yeah.
-[band member 2] Yes.

It's okay, man.

You are not alone, my brother.

-[Jon] Okay.
-I think this is gonna take us a minute...

-[Jon] Gotta check.
-...to get back into this.

-[band member] Oh, yeah.
-You were standing this whole time.

-Did you sleep last night?
-[Jon] Like a motherfucker.

I think it's a hunt. I think the hunt

of getting alright is draining.

[band member] Day one.

It's also stress.

[Jon] You know me, I wanna sing.

I wanna sing. I wanna sing.
I just wanna make sure...

-[band member] That everybody's tight.
-Yes.

If I'm gonna be tired,
I want to just know that,

you know, I'm not pushing myself
that hard.

[♪ soft music continues]

[Jon] Well, in as much as you're aware

that it is what you have been
defined by for so long.

But I'm not gonna get any bigger.

So for me, now it's just
maintaining it at a level

that I'm A, having joy,

and B, I'm good at.

But holy fuck have I worked,
I've never worked so hard.

You know, you realize
how easily it came to you...

and then it changes as you get older.

You gotta work so much harder.

It's not definitive
that I'm gonna do a 40th.

[coughs]

It's all a byproduct of for what?

So this is day 13 of rehearsals,

the last day...

of rehearsing.

It's been great.

We've never rehearsed 13 days
for any tour, ever.

[laughs]

[♪ electric guitar playing softly]

One observation.

This show was absolutely sitting
at about 2:40.

We could cut down.

I could cut down a easy 20 minutes

and still give them
way more than they ever thought.

[band member] That's too long, right?

[Jon] It doesn't have
to be that right now.

It can be, but it doesn't have to be.

It's been a number of years

since I was doing those
three-kind-of-hour shows.

It takes a lot of physical
and vocal strength.

We certainly have the catalog of music.

My aspiration is to get back to that.

[Jon laughing]

[David] I mean, I just turned 60,

Jon and I just turned 60

so we're definitely not young,

but I feel like I'm 18.

You know, it's like eternal.
And then you look on stage

and we all know we have
each other's backs.

-We're together. We're a unit.
-Good.

[David] You know,
you're not up there alone.

[Jon] One other crazy observation,

we could end the set with Prayer

and have Medicine be just more raucous

at the very end of the night.

-You know? Um...
-[David] I'll switch 'em.

[Jon imitates explosion]

[Jon] It was that, to me was where

I thought there might have been a lull,

but they're both so easy to sing.

And then, the potential
of doing This House, Prayer,

and then Love's the Only Rule, Medicine,

then they're like,
show-stopping, fun, upbeat,

bit of a boom, boom, you know?

Okay, let's warm up a bit.

[David] That first week,
we started working songs

and working songs,
and everything was tired

'cause it was... Jon was going
through his challenges

and he had to figure it out for himself.

Second week is a little less exhausting.

Third week was like, "Okay, I'm good."

[♪ uplifting music playing]

[Jon] I don't need adulation.
That's not what fuels me.

It's changed with time, you know,

and a better understanding of who you are,

why you did things, and why you continue
to do things,

when you get to a level
that is much deeper

than girls and guitars.

[David] You know, we're still standing.

We're one of the biggest bands
in the world. It keeps happening.

And I'm fortunate because
that's a blessing to me,

is that you get to keep doing
what you love to do

and you don't have
to either fizzle out or retire.

It's really so joyful

to do what you're made to do and love.

[Jon] Forty years doing anything
is reason to pause

and to acknowledge and to celebrate,

to look around at those
who helped you along the way.

And there are hundreds of them

that all helped tell this story today.

You know, I'm just
the ringleader in that circus.

[♪ uplifting music crescendo]

Rock and roll has not been

a parent's favorite thing since Elvis,

but, uh, remind your parents
that they were kids

when Elvis and The Beatles were, uh, big,

you know, current stars.

When you guys all grow up
and your kids look at you

and they go, "Who was that Bon Jovi band?

You know, those old guys with long hair?"

-We can all have a laugh over this...
-[crowd cheering]

...and, you know, they have to,
they have to understand

that, that rock and roll is,

is our way of, uh, of letting out

a lot of excess energy, you know?

As a kid, I was taking
the New Jersey Transit bus

into New York City.

And I was observant.

There was a lot of kids
workin' the street.

You know, New York was pretty
rough and tumble back then,

and there was a lot of street walkers.

So, Runaway was an observation.

That was just one of, you know, a bunch of
songs I had written

or co-written at that time.

And I didn't have a band.

We had done, uh, Runaway
in the studio with, uh...

[sings] ♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da, da ♪

You know, I came up with that.

Jon went back in and, and recorded it.

[Jon] I recorded it at the Power Station

with a bunch of cats, as we call them.

[Bruce] The first demo I got
of Jon's was a good song.

I mean, Jon's great talent
is these big, powerful,

pop rock choruses
that just demand to be sung

by, you know, 20,000 people in an arena.

[David] And then took
that and shopped that around

to the record companies.

It was Jon, it wasn't...

there wasn't a band, it just was him.

[♪ "Runaway" by Bon Jovi playing]

[Jon] Sent Runaway out
to anyone and everyone.

To managers, labels, production companies.

I-I think it was 11 record companies then,

and everybody said no.

[Jon] Nobody returns a phone call.

Nobody answers a letter. Nothing.

So it was just this kid
knocking on doors with no luck.

I finally said, "Listen, I've gotta see

"if I'm way off the mark here

and should consider another,
you know, form of work."

And at that time, my frustration,

a light bulb moment happened, and I said,

"Who's the loneliest man
in the music business?"

[announcer] [on radio] Rock 104.

[Jon] The DJ.

Because he's probably in a dark room

talking into a microphone,
preaching the gospel of music,

telling you to listen
to this band and this song.

And there was a new radio station
in New York City.

[announcer] [on radio] WAPP.

[Jon] WAPP.

[announcer] WAPP is the Apple's,
New York's newest FM.

Rock on the summer.

[Jon] It was so new

they didn't have a receptionist.

And fortunately for me,

a young guy by the name of John Lastman

and a guy named Chip Hobart,
who was the DJ on the air.

[Chip Hobart] [on radio]
This is Chip Hobart at 4 o'clock.

[Jon] He says, "Well, you're in luck,

"because we want to do a homegrown record

of local talent."

I played him Runaway, and he said,

"That's a hit song."

And I said, "I know!"

[David] And of course APP
is gonna promote themselves.

So they started playing
hometown heroes from New York.

[♪ intense music playing]

[Jon] But the miracle
of miracles happened.

Doubleday, the book publisher,

they owned eight radio stations
in some big markets.

They started playing Runaway

on all eight stations.

[changing radio channels]

[David] And all of a sudden,
from getting turned down

by every record company,

we were the most requested song

'cause everybody's calling up,

"Who's this Bon Jo...
What is this? What is this?

We want to hear this,
we want to hear this."

[Jon] So now all those same record guys

that had that cassette on their desk

went looking for it.

And lo and behold...

it was me.

♪ On the street where you live ♪

♪ Girls talk about their social lives ♪

So, they'd come and see
what was ultimately,

you know, the band.

I had the band together for what was meant
to be three weeks

of let me promote this

so I can make $100, $200 a night, now

as an original band.

♪ Living in another world ♪

♪ Trying to get your message through ♪

It was meant to be three weeks,

not 40 years.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to greet
some gentlemen

who are from New Jersey.

Their tours I'm sure will take them

all over the world

before this year is up,
please greet Bon Jovi.

[crowd cheering]

♪ Ooh, she's a little runaway ♪

♪ Daddy's girl learned fast ♪

♪ All those things she couldn't say ♪

♪ Ooh, she's a little runaway ♪

[Jon] I'd asked Dave who was
still going to school...

And I says,
"Well, here's what I want to do.

"You know, I wanna get the band together

and this is gonna be like the band."

And he says, "Okay." He quit school.

[David] I said, "Listen, I love pre-med,

but I'll give this, like, a year."

It looks like it's way more fun
than being a doctor.

[Jon] I asked Alec John Such
who sang his ass off

and was in a cover band
that was making $3,000 a night.

I had seen Alec play in Phantom's Opera,

which was a huge club band in Germany.

Told Dave about him and he agreed.

Alec was a great bass player,
really cool-looking dude.

He had, he had the shit on his chin,

smoked these little
brown menthol cigarettes,

and you just looked at Al and you go,
"That motherfucking guy's cool."

[Jon] I asked Tico Torres,

who was in a band called
Frankie and The Knockouts

who had a record deal.

He was married, he had a house,
he was on the road.

[Tico Torres] I did own a house.

And, uh, eventually,
i-it destroyed that marriage.

But I don't think I should have
been married at that time anyway.

♪ She's a little runaway ♪

[Jon] I used to go see him play.

I was in awe of Tico Torres as a drummer.

[Tico] I initially met Jon,
the first time I heard from him was Alec.

And I knew him since I was 15.

I lost my virginity
at his house for God's sake.

I remember I'd seen Tico, like,
two days before and he said...

[in gruff voice]
"Yeah, we'll jam together." You know?

[normal] And so, he... Jon said, Jon said,

"You know, get him down."

I called him, I said,
"Tico, remember you said

we're gonna jam together? We're gonna."

[Tico] John came over and

played me his tape of Runaway

and we had a little jam session.

I said, "This kid's a star."

I mean, he had an aura about him.

I saw him and I says,
"Look at this guy go."

And I'm looking like this,
I'm playing the drums, going,

"This kid's got something,"
you know, the chicks loved his butt.

I says, "Alright,
I'm gonna hang with this."

[all laughing]

He was the best drummer I ever saw

or played with in my life.

And still is.

I was looking at him like,

"He's the baddest motherfucker
in the land."

We're allowed to curse, aren't we?

[Dick Clark] Let me jump in the middle.

You guys gather around
like a football huddle.

How did you meet Richie to begin with?

Richie was in the audience
one night at a show

-while the other four of us were playing.
-Yeah.

And he came up to me and says,

"I want to be your lead guitar player."

-What, are you crazy?
-Uh, no.

This is now how
to ingratiate yourself to people

and say, "I'm gonna be
the lead guitarist."

Dick, it worked.

-[laughter]
-Right.

[Jon] Alec, who was also

in an original band with Richie, said,

"You gotta see this guy.

There's something about this guy."

[Richie Sambora]
Alec had called me up and said,

"I'm playing with this new band, you know,

"Jon Bongiovi and the Wild Ones.

Come down and see the band."

So I said, "Yeah, sure."

And after hearing him play

and talking a bit, you know,

we found we were really
on the same track, you know?

[interviewer] And the rest,
as they say, is history.

-The rest is history.
-[Tico] He walked in and says,

"I'm your new guitar player."

That's what I did. I was very cocky.

[♪ "Get Ready" by Bon Jovi playing]

[Jon] We immediately hit it off.

I knew that this guy
was incredibly talented.

He could play, he could sing,
he could write,

and I thought he would be
an incredible complement.

[Tico] There was a combination of,

it was all of us playing together
that clicked.

But Jon and Richie,
their vocal styles together

made its own style.

You know, you could say, there's-there's

Simon and Garfunkel,

there's, uh, Lennon, McCartney,

certain voices just go together.

And that had a magic to it.

♪ You need someone to make it last ♪

[Obie] The energy of the band,

undeniable,

like a freight train coming at you.

But Jon and Richie
singing together, magic.

[Jon] The song Runaway
that really started it all.

It triggered the whole thing.

But that was basically because

of, of that hometown record.

We would've won that national contest.

But I pulled out
because fortunately by then

I had so much interest from

a couple of labels

that we didn't need it.

[David] And we signed with PolyGram,

thank God he had the vision.

And I just was like, I said,

"You charge the hill,

I'm behind you charging with you."

[Jon] I had laid down months

into years of groundwork,

you know, trying to get that major label

and making the contact.

When it broke nationally,

it was by a guy named Jon Bongiovi.

There was no band, there was no manager,

there wasn't anything at the time.

Now, if somebody ran up
to you in a bar and said,

"What's your name," you'd say?

Jon Bon Jovi.

It was someone at the record company

who had suggested
in the way that Van Halen,

Bon Jovi, two words, could work.

[David] Van Halen had Jump,

the first time a guitar band
had a keyboard song.

Number one song and they broke up,

which is not what you do.

That left a big hole in the world

for, like, here we had a keyboard song,

we had a great-looking front man

who could sing his ass off and entertain.

We had the guitar-slinging guy
who could do it.

There was like
a little bit of a hole there.

And then we just came right in.

-Show 'em!
-Look, it's my favorite band!

[all cheering]

-Oh, nice work.
-Cute kid, huh?

[band member] Look at that.

[excited chatter]

[Jon] Where's the video?

And so we made that first record...

and the adventure began.

[foot tapping]

[♪ electric guitar playing]

[camera assistant]
Richie Sambora IV, take one.

[♪ electric guitar playing]

[interviewer] I'm excited for this.

I'm... Hey, I'm excited.

Are we telling the truth
or are we gonna lie?

What are we gonna do?
Let's-let's-let's figure it out.

♪ She's a little runaway ♪

[♪ "Runaway" by Bon Jovi resumes playing]

♪♪

♪ No one heard a single word you said ♪

♪ They should have seen it in your eyes ♪

♪ What was going around your head ♪

♪ Ooh, she's a little runaway ♪

♪ Daddy's girl learned fast ♪

♪ All those things she couldn't say ♪

♪ Ooh, she's a little runaway ♪

♪ Daddy's girl learned fast ♪

♪ Now she works the night away ♪

[♪ song fades out]

[♪ soft music playing]

[♪ soft music continues]

[♪ soft music continues]

[♪ music fades out]