STACK #192 Oct 2020

MUSIC FEATURE

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JON BON JOVI: GIVING LOVE A GOOD NAME

E ver since Jon Bon Jovi implored fans to take his hand, with jacket- fringes flying, mermaid hair wafting, and dimples dimplin’ – Livin’ On A Prayer being just one of the delights in the chocolate box of hits that is 1986’s Slippery When Wet , Bon Jovi’s third and break-out album – the global public has obsessed over the New Jersey vocalist in every fashion fathomable. But despite the runaway success of his band – 130 million albums sold, consistently top- grossing worldwide tours, and a 35-year career – at 58, Bon Jovi finds ultimate pleasure in turning the adoration he’s received back out onto a world he sees is in need of unity and love.

Still from 2019 documentary To be Of Service

the uniform, the thing that they’re so identified by is no longer what identifies them,” Bon Jovi says. “These men and women come back and have to adjust to being a civilian. They are certainly never

Jon and the band

the musician at his non-profit, volunteer-based community project JBJ Soul Kitchen in New Jersey, simply helping wash dishes. The Soul Kitchen is just one of the many brilliant arms to Jon’s JBJ Soul Foundation, which aims to “rebuild pride in one’s self and one’s community” by breaking the cycle of hunger, poverty and

going to be the same.”

“It’s not a political record, but 2020 is unlike any year I can remember,” the musician says of this month’s Bon Jovi 2020 , the 15 th album from the group. “I was moved to write these songs as a witness to history, [because] I believe the greatest gift of an artist is the ability to use their voice to speak to issues that move us.” Join us as we look at the new record under three banners of inspiration: photos, film and family. PHOTOS The concept for the album’s cover image – shot by the celebrated Clay McBride – came to Jon as he contemplated an image of former

FAMILY “What if it was your loved one lying on the ground?” asks Lower The Flag . Purely musically, the track is a masterclass in simple beauty – comprising just Bon Jovi and his guitar – while conceptually, it lays bare the shocking fashion in which the news cycle whizzes through gun- horror after gun-horror before there is even time to lament each massacre. The track finishes with Bon Jovi listing the places still grieving the loss of their people: Las Vegas, Nevada, Sandy Hook Elementary, Orlando, Florida, and Columbine. “I was thinking,” says Jon, “What if it was my own family?”

Dishpig Jon at the JBJ Soul Kitchen

US President John F. Kennedy, captured by photographer Michael Ochs (most well-known for his massive archive of rock-related images). The photo depicts the then-POTUS deep

homelessness. Bon Jovi posted Dorothea’s pic to his Instagram on March 19 with the caption: “If you can’t do what you do, you do what you can.” This quote became a lyric within the moving Do What You Can , which describes the adaptable American public facing the COVID-19 pandemic. FILM To Be Of Service is a 2019 Netflix documentary film which follows the lives of war veterans who, having returned from combat, find themselves battling a new and shadowy demon – post-traumatic stress disorder – and how service dogs can change their lives. Bon Jovi wrote the album’s closing track Unbroken especially for the film. “It was a difficult song to write because I had never served, and I wanted to honour those who served, in a very honest way,” he explains. “I wanted to write something those men and women could be proud of.” The result is nuanced and sensitive. “I was looking for a twist in the lyrics where the soldier – who is an idealist – comes back and finds that once they hang up

in thought, prior to addressing a California crowd in August 1962. JFK is reflective both in mien and quite literally, as we see his audience mirrored in the lenses of his sunglasses. “I saw this photo and wondered what the president

The thought of one’s family is, of course, not just about comparable heartache – it’s also the biggest source of joy in Bon Jovi’s life. The Story of Love opens with the line: “Fathers love daughters like mothers love sons,” and Bon Jovi admits he began the track as an ode to his children – Stephanie (27), Jesse (25), Jake (18), and Romeo (16). From there, it expanded. “I realised I was writing it about my entire family: my children, my wife and my parents,” says Jon. “From ‘hello’ to ‘goodbye’, that’s the story of love.” Bon Jovi 2020 by Bon Jovi is out October 2 via Universal. Jon and son Jesse enjoying a tipple of HamptonWater, the rosé the pair developed together in Southern France

was thinking,” says Bon Jovi. “Since there are so many socially conscious songs on the record, [along with] my admiration of the photo of JFK, I asked [McBride] to capture it as the cover of Bon Jovi 2020 .” In Jon’s version, he stands outside the New York City courthouse. A second photo, which inspired one of the most important tracks on the album, wasn’t taken by an artistic luminary at a huge event – quite the opposite, and that’s what makes it special. Snapped by Bon Jovi’s wife Dorothea, it presents

80 OCTOBER 2020

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