Original subtitles

[film reel clicking and whirring]

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Jon Bon Jovi] [over phone] Johnny.

[John "Johnny" Lassman] [over phone] How are you, buddy?

[Jon] I'm well. It's good to hear your voice.

[Johnny] Are you ready to take the world by storm once again?

How's Omaha?

[Jon] Omaha is wonderful.

[Johnny] Have a little reunion to get you ready.

[Jon] Yeah, buddy.

[Johnny] [over radio] Rockin' 101, the Rock Station.

The Johnny Rock Show.

You know, people always say to me,

"Ah, Johnny, yeah, you say you know Jon Bon Jovi.

Sure you do. He never does any interviews on your show,"

but look who's on the phone.

Jon Bon Jovi,

welcome to the Johnny Rock Show.

[Jon] [on phone] Hey, Johnny, my old

dear friend.

[Johnny] You walked into WAPP,

gave me a cassette of Runaway,

and as they say, the rest is history.

Well, look, without you guys,

who knows if we would've been having this phone call 40 years later.

[Johnny] Right on. Okay, the tour, what can we expect?

[Jon] Plan to show up.

After that, who knows?

You know, we're sort of working it out.

It's been a long time since we've been on the road,

so we're excited and anxious and wanted to go back

to a handful of cities on this, our 39th year of existence

just to get my feet wet and then next year,

of course, being our 40th,

I think there'll be more of a celebration.

[Johnny] Alright, listen, you knock 'em dead,

uh, opening night and we will see you Sunday night.

[Jon] Thank you very much, buddy.

Proof that this story was true.

[Jon] I haven't really figured that out yet.

I'm going through some cleaning out

of the closet in my head.

Is it, I'm dealing with old muscle memory of things

that weren't working right?

You know, then-then you're like, I-I can't wait,

and on the other hand, you're going, "Ugh, again?"

[exhales]

So it, you know, you're torn.

[snapping fingers and clapping]

-[Jon] Yes, yes. -[cheering]

Ah-ha!

Yes, yes, yes!

[Tico Torres] It's just the calm before the storm.

It's not fear, but it is an energy

that I kinda harness.

-We're all in this together, man. -Yes.

-Come on. -All in this together.

Everybody together, huh?

-Fun moment. -[David Bryan] Kill it. Woo!

-Alright, come on. -[band clapping]

Oh, you know, I'm so looking forward to this.

Just to walk on that stage.

You know, we're like race horses that are

just sitting in the stall.

It's like, just get us out so we can run again.

[crowd cheering]

-[♪ playing "Limitless" by Bon Jovi] -[♪ band vocalizing]

[Tico] As soon as you hit the first note, then you're in it.

Then we're all together.

It's not one entity, it's all.

♪ Wake up, everybody, wake up ♪

[David] There's so much joy in just playing

and you're just right there in that moment

and you're looking out

and you're looking at all these faces

that are smiling,

and it, and I'm smiling just as much as they are,

'cause it's that energy keeps feeding back and forth

and it's godlike to me.

♪ On a night like this... ♪

[Jon] To truly become one with the sound

and that it was all encompassing,

the band, the singing, the crowd,

you're really not there.

You come down afterwards and you go back into your body

and it hits you when you're walking down the hallway,

back to the dressing room.

[David cheering]

[Jon] When we're all together, none of us are there.

♪ On a night like this ♪

♪ One prayer, one wish ♪

♪ Step out off the edge ♪

♪ It's worth the risk ♪

♪ On a night like this ♪

♪ One touch, one kiss ♪

[crowd cheering]

♪ Step out on the edge ♪

♪ It's worth the risk ♪

♪ Life is limitless, limitless ♪

♪ Limitless, limitless ♪

♪ Life is limitless, limitless ♪

♪ Limitless, limitless ♪

♪ Whoa oh ♪

♪ Whoa oh ♪

[crowd cheering]

Hi.

-Hi. -Hi.

I'm with Jon Bon Jovi of Bon Jovi

and tonight we're at the Municipal Auditorium

-with Scorpions. -She's nervous.

I am not.

-Are you married? -I get married every night.

You keep asking me this question. This girl needs it bad.

Look, 'cause a lot of people out there wanna know.

I mean, you know, you're kinda cute,

and you're really popular with all the girls

and you write some neat songs,

and, and so tell us about the songs you write.

You write most of your stuff, don't you?

-Uh-huh. -Or does all the band together or...?

We come up with different ideas in, uh, separate places.

You know, everything's working out well.

I usually write a lot of this stuff

and take it to the band

and then we make records.

[Richie Sambora] Jon, you said

you're not married, man.

-[laughter] -My baby.

Jon, I'm sorry to disappoint everybody out there.

Exactly, th-that's the funny thing about these things.

Obviously, everybody has their own perception

about what happened and how it happened to them

because obviously when you're in a band,

people experience fame and fortune...

or debt or whatever that is that comes along

with it all in different speeds.

Before that was happening, I was recording my originals

and, uh, creating relationships at all these different labels

and stuff like that.

Jon was doing the same thing.

He was a go-getter, he was a hustler,

kind of just like I was.

He was leader in his band, and I was the leader in my band.

Jon had had a song called Runaway,

which, you know, I kind of disliked very much but...

[chuckles]

I saw something there.

He had the it factor.

Hi, we're Bon Jovi, and this was the debut single

on the brand new first video of our first album called...

[all] Runaway.

[band vocalizing]

[Jon] It was 1983.

I'm signed, we're signed, the band are together.

Now it's time to get a manager.

A guy named David Krebs,

who was the biggest manager at the time.

They had AC/DC, Aerosmith, Def Leppard,

Joan Jett, and he had Rex Smith.

That one went over your head, didn't it?

And he takes me into his office and he says,

"You could be like Rex Smith."

Hmm, okay.

What about AC/DC and Aerosmith and...

But the name that was running around the hallways

of the record company was a crazy man

by the name of Doc McGhee.

I woke up this morning.

I woke up this morning.

-And I said to myself. -I said, "Self..."

-"Self..." -"Self..."

[both] "...what a great fucking day for rock and roll."

[Doc McGhee] My job is to

do one or two things that change your life,

not good moves, change your life.

♪ Break out ♪

I was at Polydor Records.

I had, uh, Mötley and everything that was blowing up at the time and...

the interim president said, "You should see this kid we're looking at

"called Jon Bon Jovi.

He's got this Runaway on WAPP."

So I said, "Well, I'll go see this."

Doc McGhee is in a place called International Falls on vacation.

Oh, well, we're playing at the Garden tonight.

All these managers are coming.

[Doc] Jon told me, he said, "I'm gonna play tomorrow night,

'cause somebody had canceled for ZZ Top." I said, "Don't."

We had no manager and no equipment, you know, no big stuff.

You know, we're doing the Garden.

We're, like, calling up our friends and going,

"Come on, man, I don't wanna lift my own amp at the Garden.

I gotta have somebody to help me here." You know?

McGhee knows that if he's not there in that hallway

in that night, he's gonna lose this band.

He shows up by renting some little prop job of an airplane,

which was a big deal to us.

Had his own limo driver, which was a big deal to us.

And he puts on such an entertaining act

to get our attention.

Started dealing with Doc and he's a great gentleman.

But we didn't listen. We just wanted to play the Garden.

[Doc] I wish it was as easy to tell people

what to do, but you can't.

You know, when you think you can do that,

then you're completely delusional.

[Jon] Richie was meant to start a song,

one that we had written together.

[Richie] I go, "Listen, I'm gonna get out there.

"It's the guitar crowd.

"Just give me like, you know, 20 seconds.

I'll just blast some stuff."

And his guitar didn't work.

[guitar feedback squealing]

The crowd went from polite applause to silence

to, [chants] "ZZ Top."

[chanting] "ZZ Top, ZZ Top."

And I'm thinking, "Oh, Christ, this is over before it starts."

[Richie] It was the longest 18 seconds.

Everything went into slow motion.

I take off my guitar and I give it to Richie,

and I said, "That's what we got. Let's go."

And he starts soloing.

[♪ discordant guitar music playing]

Oh, that was horrible.

[laughs]

But it was the first time I played the Garden.

[♪ concert recording of "Runaway" by Bon Jovi playing]

[Doc] They had fun, but it was a disaster

because you have to have the confidence

to be able to, to pull that off.

It was the fastest set ever, ever played.

I think it was, like, about 18 minutes.

We were like The Ramones.

-[mimicking electric guitar] -[sings] ♪ Get ready ♪

[crowd cheering]

[Jon] We were scared shitless.

Good enough to get by.

[Richie] The magic of denial.

We thought we did a great job.

[laughing]

[Doc] We went back to my office, and we all sat around

and talked about why it was a bad move,

and I listened and let them talk.

They have to get it... not me.

Hmm, Doc clicked with me.

He knew how to run a circus.

[Doc] It wasn't like they all have the same viewpoints.

They're all completely different,

and so the sum of all those guys,

I went, "This has gotta happen.

This has gotta work."

[Jon] We fell in love with McGhee's rap,

and then I flew out to California with him

to go and see Mötley Crüe.

Jon had him checked out, uh, by a private detective

and said that, you know, he was a crook,

and I said, "Perfect, hire him. He's the guy."

Doc's an imposter.

He's the guru of rock and roll.

The man behind the plan.

A voice on a telephone.

Well, I'm in an interview right now, Doc.

Wait, hold on a minute, okay?

See, Doc, this is like Charlie's Angels.

You know, like on Charlie's Angels, you never knew who Charlie was,

but they got all the commands?

That's Doc.

[Jon] I remember him taking me

to a record store and saying,

"Well, what do you want to be?"

And he says, "If you're with me,

I want you to be the biggest band in the world."

He said, "You see that, you could be that.

You see that, you could be that."

That's what my job is, is to make 'em bigger

than what they are, and they have to believe it

and they have to go after that next step.

[Jon] And I was just enamored, and I signed a deal with him.

Had a lot of adventures with that guy.

We-we signed with Doc, this is all in '83, right?

So this is after the ZZ thing,

and we got from September 'til January

before our record comes out,

but we're not ready to sit home.

We want to be on the road, you know?

And he says, "Well, you know, you got a road crew,

"you got a bus, you got this,

you got that?" We says, "Nah!"

Let's throw it on a station wagon,

hooked it up in a U-Haul, and we drove, right?

[♪ "Get Ready" by Bon Jovi playing]

After we recorded that in '83,

and in '84 we went out to tour.

[Jon] That first tour was amazing.

It was the American wet dream.

[Doc] They were really, really a good solid band.

They could sing, they could play,

and they had that attitude and the more confidence

that they built up, the better they were.

You only get that by being out there.

[Jon] We were gonna do, I don't know,

25 clubs in 30 days kind of thing,

and, uh, I was the first one to show up on the bus

because oh, my God, we had our own tour bus.

We were so excited.

When you get your first tour bus,

you think you died and gone to heaven.

♪ No Romeos who'll love and leave you... ♪

[David] My house is 20 grand. The tour bus is like 500 grand.

I'd never seen anything that nice in my life.

[Jon] I mean, I was there so early, I just kept walking in

and around it and on it

and in the bunks and out of the bunks.

[David] All the neighbors came out, you know,

in their curlers

and smocks on and everything going,

"Oh, your kid made it, look at this."

And sure as fuck, David shows up

with a bowling ball... [chuckles]

fishing pole.

Basketballs, every... Like...

Alec had a gun.

[Richie] I mean, it was the stupidest thing.

Everybody had 13 pieces of luggage.

Who knew? We didn't know what this was about.

[Richie] Like we were gonna have time to do

any of that kind of stuff.

[David] Then we couldn't fit all the shit in the bus.

So then we had to go back to each of our houses

and drop the bowling ball back off,

'cause we didn't have any fuckin' room.

[bus zooming]

[Jon] So the adventure began.

[Tico] Doc always believed in playing the band live everywhere.

I mean, what we would do one stop in a state now,

we would do six, seven, eight stops.

I believe that you have to take the bands to the people,

not the people to the bands.

[Jon] I remember playing in Texas places where,

you know, like, the Blues Brothers should have played

with the chicken wire and them looking at us

with our long hair and the cowboys thinking we was cute,

[chuckling] 'cause we were probably cuter than their girlfriends.

[Richie] We looked better than half the girls we ended up with.

I thought that was kind of funny. [chuckling]

[Jon] I remember the bus breaking down in the desert.

I remember going to California for the first time

as a band pulling down the Sunset Strip,

playing some little theaters

with a Los Angeles band called Ratt.

[announcer] LA's newest, hottest band, Ratt.

Performances were so raw and so energetic.

[Jon] Not bad for a bunch of kids from New Jersey.

What do you guys think?

[Obie O'Brien] And then you hear the audience

responding to them. You go, man,

th-there's something happening here,

and that's early on.

[Tico] It's fun, it's chicks, it's rock and roll.

It's the whole thing.

[Doc] It was about playing.

It wasn't about how much money you made.

It's a thing that I love about the music business.

It's called before the zeroes, when it was fun.

[Tico] Yeah, so the key was never to play

while under any influence, you know, by not drinking.

I never did, that was never my thing,

'cause you should get high off the music.

We were always about the music.

We never walked on that stage fucked up.

Here I'm standing with Jon Bon Jovi

and the band Bon Jovi.

[crowd cheering]

You guys have opened for Hall & Oates...

-Yeah. -...and, uh, ZZ Top,

and, uh, things are going real well.

Well, we're on tour right now

in support of our new album on Mercury Records.

-[Alan Thicke] Mm-hmm. -Uh, we're doing

a headlining tour right now, and then we'll be out

with the Scorpions doing the arenas.

-[Alan] Great. -[Klaus Meine] California,

there is no one like you!

[♪ rock music playing]

[Jon] So we did that first month playing the bars.

The Scorpions, the German band, take us out on the road

to open for them in arenas.

So we graduate to playing as an opening act.

You have 35 minutes, and you have to cut your teeth,

you have to win a crowd over.

We went out and learned a lot from the Scorpions.

I thank them very much to this day.

[Jon] They were a great live band,

taught me a lot of tricks.

We call them, like, the Panzer tank, just ride, rolled on.

There was no such thing as less than 120% every night.

-[♪ energetic rock music playing] -[crowd cheering]

[Jon] I wanted to tour with The Cars or Bryan Adams,

and Doc McGhee said to me, "You have to go out there

and earn an audience," by touring

with what he called the black t-shirt crowd.

[Richie] When Doc had told me that we were slated to go out

with the Scorpions and we're singing...

♪ Ooh, she's a little runaway ♪

You know, I'm going, "Oh, shit."

[Doc] Jonny would say, "They're gonna throw shit at us,"

because, you know, he was kind of a pop band

compared to what the rock bands were.

[Jon] We couldn't be categorized so easily

because we weren't heavy metal

and we weren't pop.

[David] And people fucking hated us.

Every night was a fucking war.

[Jon] I remember Tico wearing a plastic baseball helmet

from the quarters that were pinging off of his head.

I'd be hearing... [imitating pinging]

quarters, nickels, this and that, and the other thing

'cause people wanted to hear some heavy stuff.

[Tico] 'Cause you never know what they'd fly out.

-Oh, when they, when the lights went out. -Put the head down.

Oh, let's hit the drummer.

-I like that. -Touch the chin.

Definitely, uh, made our skin thick.

[Doc] Kind of forced them into going to that direction

of being that rock band.

[Richie] You know, we started to, to make a bit of progress,

and we went out and worked harder than anybody else did.

[Jon] Used to be the worst guy in the world

you ever wanted opening your show, me.

The worst motherfucker you ever wanted to see,

because I'd do anything to upstage the headliner

to try to win that audience over.

As far as the new album's concerned,

we're gonna do the Japanese tour, come home for three weeks,

and then we're doing our European tour with Kiss.

So, uh, we're lucky enough that our first album is a world tour.

♪ Are you ready Tokyo ♪

[Doc] Then when we went to Japan

and the record company, they were building Jon

like an idol band, they called it.

[♪ "She Don't Know Me" by Bon Jovi playing]

We're like, great, where's Japan?

I think, you know, at that point, I drove with my parents

in a station wagon to Florida.

I think it was the most I ever made it outta New Jersey.

[Doc] We played all through Japan.

They were like the Beatles there at the time.

♪ What more can I do ♪

♪ There's nothing that I haven't tried ♪

[Tico] Kids were lined up singing songs,

500 in front of the hotel.

We weren't used to it. I mean, we were barely getting on radio.

[Richie] Oh, yeah, well, we were the Beatles there.

It was the most unbelievable thing.

It was thousands of kids waiting

at the airport and screaming.

[David] Had little dolls of you and stuff, you know?

It was hu... You're like, "Really?"

[crowd cheering]

[♪ band plays "Get Ready"]

[Jon] Hello, Tokyo.

[laughing]

Here we go.

♪ Come on, come on ♪

♪ Get ready ♪

♪ Come on, come on ♪

[Jon] Give yourselves a nice hand, Tokyo.

We'll see you all again.

We are back and talking with Jon Bon Jovi.

-Hey. -Second visit to MTV for Jon.

-A Jersey kid goes to Japan. -[Jon] That's what it is.

-[host] How was it for you? -[Jon] Oh, it was amazing.

Uh, th-the kids are amazing. [chuckles]

[host] So they love Bon Jovi over there.

[Jon] Yeah, fortunately. I'm-I'm glad somebody

does besides my mother, you know?

[David] We really went around the world

and played lots and lots and lots of countries.

[Jon] Doc McGhee took us to Europe.

We opened for Kiss in the no-makeup stage.

[Richie] Taught us a lot, you know,

being on the road for two years now,

it kind of gives you an education, what the world is about.

Singing their solid gold classic, Runaway,

here's a band everybody's talking about, Bon Jovi.

[audience cheering]

[Jon] The first album comes and goes. We have a nice little run.

You have your whole life to write your first record.

You have six or seven weeks to write the second.

I am, as you are, impatient for results.

[Obie] He would do a show and record it live

and send it to me, and I would mix it.

Then he actually did his second record at my studio

in Philadelphia at The Warehouse.

[Jon] Last album, uh, was a feeling of writing songs.

I was writing a lot from point of view

of a, a kid in New Jersey.

You know, you're writing from only a limited background.

We write. In fact, David and I co-wrote the first single,

and it barely breaks the top 40.

And it was just like, "Oh, let's go write some more songs quick

because people have heard of us."

Let's get another album in their face right away.

And instead of taking our time and thinking it out

and letting the songs really breathe,

we really, really rushed.

Your brand new LP is called 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit.

That, by the way, is the temperature which rock melts.

Cute, huh?

[Tico] The second record was not great,

and the band was still going through a lot of growing pains.

[Jon] If you're smart enough to learn how to play

your instrument, check.

You're incredibly fortunate enough

to have written that song, check.

Now I'm supposed to know how to make a video?

No check. You know? [chuckling]

[band members shouting incoherently]

[band member] Where's the video?

[singer] Where?

[Jon imitating drumroll]

[host] Tell us about your tape and then put it in.

This is the first video of our brand new Mercury album.

This is called Runaway.

It was our first video and what did we know?

And we saw it and we almost died.

[Richie] We made five videos in our first two records.

We look at 'em and now we say, "What?"

-Man, you sold us out. -[David] What the hell were we doing?

[Richie] We were very naive, and we didn't know

-what the hell to do. So we like... -[Jon] Just have to learn.

[Richie] So people are going, "Okay, wear this and go over there

and act like that," and you go, sure.

Man, they are not nice people.

[Doc] I said, "What are you?

"You're a fun rock band.

"It can't be, you're, uh, selling hot dogs

"and then he comes over and gets out of the car,

and the other guy's a cab driver."

What the fuck is that?

[Jon] For the first videos that everybody's seen up until now,

um, I can honestly say that I had nothing to do with whatsoever

because they hire these directors and storytellers

who have nothing to do with our songs.

[Richie] Plus, we looked like crap.

Basically, our whole outfits were about $20.

We would just take t-shirts and cut 'em up.

The West Coast stuff, they were like rock and roll pirates.

So we're like, "Okay, tie shit on you like a pirate

and wear, like, a pirate shirt."

So I think bands were formulating, you know, whatever that look was.

[Richie] The music is the important thing,

not the pictures, not the album cover, not the videos.

The music is the thing that the kids are relating to still.

We had a gold record, you know? I don't know how.

You know? But I guess Jon wiggled his ass enough

and we played some loud guitars and had some decent songs.

[Jon] Not my favorite record, but it did a little bit better.

We went out again on the road and worked our asses off.

And every night, we're establishing ourselves as a live band.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Richie Sambora.

[♪ playing guitar solo of "In and Out of Love" by Bon Jovi]

Bands like Bon Jovi, they have a sound.

It sounds like them live, which is different from the record.

[Tico] We're starting to gel,

but playing it live is a different game too.

It comes from time and time and again, you keep doing it,

where we kept getting better.

[♪ thrilling guitar music playing]

[Richie] You know, the band was a steamroller,

but it wasn't becoming the alchemy of the band yet.

♪ In and out of love ♪

We've been out since April.

Uh, we hit Japan first, you know,

and we did, uh, four weeks of headlining over there

and then we bopped over here to Europe

for five weeks, and then we went straight to America.

[interviewer] Yeah, it looks as though it's not gonna end as well,

you were saying a moment ago?

[Jon] No, it could be.

-This is... -Rumors, rumors.

This is our manager's, uh, Count de Monet tour, you know?

-[laughs] -[interviewer] I do.

[Jon] I think, uh, the idea is

to finish the year out in America

and then sit back and think

about a new producer

and take in a-a-a while to do the next album.

It could have been worse.

The single-minded focus as to what the, you know,

the vision was didn't happen until the third album.

[Dean Grillo] Let's get you sound.

[sharp exhale]

Still got 26 miles to go on this marathon.

[Jon] Yeah.

Jon does a lot of work preparing himself as a person

and as well as preparing for, for what this is.

How's the body feel for those couple of runs?

[Jon] You know, calm before the storm or a little beat up,

-I can't decide. -[Dean] Okay.

He's very physical out there,

so his whole body has to be maintained,

but then specifically muscles that are involved in singing

have to be constantly

-loosened and relaxed. -[Jon exhales deeply]

[Dean] When you're out here, the mental aspect of performing

at this level takes the forefront.

See, this is much better right now than it was two days ago.

Once those physical needs are met,

nothing else will work in a connected way

without the mind and the spirit aligned.

[Jon sighs]

[Jon] I was watching TV a couple of weeks ago,

and the talk was, is that Tiger was coming back.

[commentator] Tiger Woods, a winner again.

[Jon] He has a horrific, most likely career-ending,

maybe, you know, life-changing car accident.

A year later, he shows up on the podium of the Masters.

The reporter says, "Are you intending to win the Masters?"

[reporter] So the question is simple.

Do you think you can win the Masters this week?

I do.

[Jon] I looked at the TV screen and I said,

"Of course he's gonna win the Masters.

Of course I'm going to be great tonight."

-[golf club whipping] -[crowd cheering]

[speaker] Alright, Tiger!

[crowd groans]

[Jon] He didn't win the Masters.

He played his heart out, it hurt like hell.

Did he put the clubs away and say,

"Oh, well, I'm done?"

No.

[announcer] Tiger wanted to get to Mount Everest,

-but he definitely got to the base camp. -[crowd applauding]

[Jon] I understand what that is because I too believed

that I was going to be great.

I've put in the time, I've put in the effort,

and what could be worse than, it's still not working out?

-[♪ downbeat music playing] -[indistinct chatter]

[Jon] Here we are, tonight's show 10 outta 15.

We started this journey asking about the question of joy

and on show one in Omaha, Nebraska, there she was.

[crowd cheering]

I remember coming off the stage that night

and feeling pure joy,

something I hadn't felt much of

in a number of years.

It got a little bit better the second night.

Her lipstick may have been a little worn, but she still looked good.

Day three, it's there, but in-in truth,

I took a couple body blows,

I read some things, and I don't often do that.

[reporter] The legendary rock icon Jon Bon Jovi,

who has been rumored to be losing his voice in recent years.

[writer] Sounds like he's super tired.

[columnist] They're not gonna be able to tour anymore.

There's no way.

[Jon] And it hurt.

It hurt because I've worked so hard physically,

mentally, spiritually, to want to be here again,

and I had to ask myself,

"Is it worth going forward?" Or is it worth saying,

"Okay, you tried but the body can't do it anymore?"

[band member] Same song, from the top.

[Jon] So when I use these analogies of running

the long race or the sports icons,

it makes the impossible possible.

It helps me remember how hard I've worked

and that all of that training doesn't get thrown away

because somebody said so.

[singing] ♪ Like this ♪

♪ On a night like this ♪

They don't know what's behind it and what's gone into it

and what is still left in the tank.

You know, one thing you can't be in this world is a quitter.

So I'm good.

Me and joy are holding hands. [chuckling]

Come on, baby.

[band applauding]

[indistinct chatter]

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[crowd cheering]

[♪ downbeat music playing]

[Jon sighing]

[interviewer] You left it out there.

Well, I didn't leave much.

That was by far the worst show.

[interviewer] Did you feel pooped?

I was exhausted.

I just had no gas.

My eyes are puffy,

just couldn't lift my arms or my legs.

[sharp exhale]

[♪ tense music playing]

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Jon] In my journey

to try to keep on top of my game,

especially when I was broken vocally,

there wasn't anybody that was really dealing with this.

So a surgeon, you meet him and he wants to cut you,

and then he'll tell you things like, it's extremely risky.

You might not ever sing a note again.

Other ones just want to give you drugs,

and we were reaching.

We were going with sports guys, talking to them like,

"What do you got? How do you do it?"

None of them could understand that our economy runs

on something as big as your thumbnail.

This big runs the 120-person organization,

but I've had a problem.

I don't mind the humility of it.

The journey has sucked, but it's made me wiser,

greater appreciation for any and everyone involved.

The real true understanding that everyone out here

sacrificed so much to just to be here,

and I mean more than the band, the crew,

th-the team around me...

and I see when I look in the eyes

of those people that joy.

They don't mind that I don't hit a high note.

Judging by the reaction I see in that crowd every night,

I don't think they mind.

But it's the tarring and feathering

of me on a nightly basis.

You know, this is the real me, the gray hair, the whole 10 yards.

If I can't be the badass, then I'm not here.

My legacy is too important.

[film reel whirring and clicking]

[tape clicking]

Shelly, Shecky, are you out there?

[Doc] The best thing that happened to Bon Jovi was,

he didn't have a hit.

He had mediocre success for the first two records

and gave us time to play him

about 500 shows around the world.

Every day, Jon got a little bit closer to where he wanted to be.

[crowd cheering]

[David] The biggest mistake you could do was try to be big too early.

Like, we're gonna headline and then have empty seats.

Like, y-y-you have to wait.

[Richie] People liked us, but they didn't attach themselves

to the most important thing, the foundation, the song.

I don't give a damn who you are.

You ain't got a song, you ain't got shit.

It's that famous story of any big band's third album,

the make-or-break year.

[David] The second record sold 800,000, not platinum,

and the record company's like, "Well, if you don't sell

a million, then we're gonna drop you."

It's like do or die.

[Richie] We were having a hard time

bringing guys in to the audiences

'cause Jon was a very good looking guy.

So we needed to come up with something

and that was gonna be Wanted Dead or Alive,

and so the whole cowboy image came into that.

I went to the guitar company and got a double-neck guitar.

[Jon] Wanted Dead or Alive was written in Richie's mother's basement.

Some of them I wrote in my bedroom in New Jersey by myself,

and I said to Richie,

"What we need to do is write a song

for somebody else,"

because I'll never forget seeing Bryan Adams writing

a song for Tina Turner and then doing it as a duet.

So we called up Derek Shulman, who was our A&R guy,

and one of the names that came up was Desmond Child.

They wrote with me because they thought,

"Well, Desmond could help us to get cuts with other artists."

[Jon] I said, "I know who that is.

"I remember a poster of his band being hung outside

of my dressing room at the Fast Lane."

And I was all for it 'cause I-I... we needed a jumpstart

and we already had Wanted Dead or Alive and Never Say Goodbye.

I walked in to meet them for the very first time

at Richie's parents' house where Richie was still living,

started talking this and that.

I said, "Well, you know guys, I brought a title."

And so outta my back pocket written on a little piece of paper

was You Give Love a Bad Name.

♪ Bad name ♪

And I saw for the first time the smile...

♪ Shot through the heart ♪

[Desmond Child] ...the billion-dollar smile.

Jon threw in, "Shot through the heart and you're to blame.

You give love a bad name."

Well, holy shit, that sounds like a hit.

[Jon] When we finished it, we all saw the obvious,

which was, "Oh, that's too good, we'll keep it."

He knew the next level of writing

that made us better at what we did.

[Desmond] When they started writing with me

and I started looking at telling stories,

let's not just talk about how hot a babe is,

which is what all the other bands were doing.

[Richie] Living on a Prayer was a very important song

'cause it was the first time we ever used characters

turned into a cinematic sonic recording at that point.

I remember the day we wrote that,

not thinking much of the song.

It's a piano, an acoustic guitar,

and us sitting there with notebooks.

The entire verse is one chord, and there's no bass line.

Gonk, gonk, gonk, gonk, gonk, gonk.

♪ Tommy used to work on the dock ♪

Gonk, gonk, gonk.

There's nothing else there.

So when we walked out of the room, I went, "Eh, it's okay.

Who knows? It's fine."

♪ Doesn't make a difference ♪

Uh, you guys, I don't think you're singing.

Maybe "oohs" or anything.

♪ Got each other ♪

♪ And that's a lot for love ♪

Richie and I got on our hands and knees,

half joking, half for real,

and begged him to at least cut it.

Oh, we'll save that for a movie soundtrack.

I said, "Jon, that's the best song we've written to date."

And Richie said, "Boy, you're stupid.

It's gonna be great."

-Something like that. -Okay, sure.

Now I know everybody wants to know

what's happening with you right now.

When's the new album coming out?

We're working on it right now.

We just started rehearsing.

Uh, we'll be in the studio

mid-March in Vancouver, Canada

with a new producer, and, uh, hopefully it'll be out

on the streets... June.

[David] It was Jon helming the ship as he does.

At that point, he found a, a record producer.

I was in my hotel room one night listening to some new bands,

and one of 'em happened to be Black 'N Blue.

So I threw this cassette in, and it sounded better than the CD.

The background vocal arrangements

and the recording sounded so interesting to me.

Who produced this?

"Bruce Fairbairn."

We researched this guy, we tell him who we are,

he obviously knows, and he's interested enough

to hear some of the songs.

And he says, "I'll do it, but you have to come to Vancouver, Canada."

[David] We went all the way over there, away from New Jersey,

away from everything we knew.

Get away from everybody and just be a rock band.

Just concentrate, just do it there.

We came together and everyone was times 10.

This sonic boom happened,

and we recorded what became Slippery When Wet.

[♪ "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ And you're to blame ♪

♪ Darlin', you give love ♪

And it was the most fun

a rock band could ever have making a record.

♪ A bad name ♪

♪♪

[Richie] Vancouver was going through a resurgence

because it was the year the World's Fair was there.

So there was a lot to do.

[Jon] There was great rock bars, there was great strip bars,

there was beautiful women.

It was the Wild West.

You're sitting here before the zeroes

so you can have fun.

You can explore what you wanna be.

[Richie] I remember the first time we walked

into Little Mountain Sound, and I heard Bob Rock

and the sound that he got on the drums

and I went, "Oh, yeah, this is gonna be something."

[Tico] Recording it, it came easy.

It was magic.

It was, you know, we did a lot of practicing,

pre-production, let's say,

and we went into the studio, and I remember doing the rhythm tracks

in three days, four days.

It was just one of those magical moments

that they went in

and just knocked it out without thinking.

We didn't even have a name for the record.

[Dee Snider] You have any idea of title or anything like that?

Right now, it's Wanted Dead or Alive.

-I think that's what the beard's for. -[Dee] Ah-ha!

[Jon] The visionary must have hit his head,

because I grew a long beard and a mustache.

We were all wearing dusters,

and we went into a cave in Vancouver

and took these cowboy pictures like you get at the Wild West Show.

I go, "You're from fucking New Jersey.

"You're not a cowboy.

"Okay? Get in the car.

This is over with."

This title Slippery When Wet,

could you explain that title?

Well, Slippery When Wet, it really came from a strip bar.

'Cause there was a, a shower in,

this-this, uh, drinking establishment

where young ladies seemed to dance to, uh, rock and roll songs.

And a local photographer in New Jersey by the name

of Mark Weiss shot an album cover

based on dancers in the bars in Vancouver.

[Richie] We wanted the album cover to be this bodacious woman

that we found on the beach in Jersey, Angela, oh.

[Jon] PMRC in America, which is like

really, really cracking down on sexual things,

said they wouldn't shelve it, they wouldn't rack it.

The record company, they said, "Too late,

we've printed a half a million copies."

In a great management moment, McGhee says to the label,

"We'll get you another cover."

[Doc] It was three o'clock in the morning, I'm with Jonny

and when we couldn't use it,

we couldn't come up with an album cover.

Finally, Jonny takes a garbage bag,

put-puts it over the garbage can.

I squirted the water bottle on a black Hefty garbage bag.

Took my fingers, I wrote "Slippery When Wet."

-Take a picture. -[camera shutter snaps]

So we said, "Here's a black cover

that says 'Slippery When Wet' on it,"

and let the music do the talking.

[Jon] So, we take the record back to the label

and shoot Bad Name as a single.

Just going great. We're gonna shoot our new video

this week out in LA,

and it'll be to You Give Love a Bad Name,

and, uh, right now, I have decided that any director

who tells me concept and storyline,

I'm not talking to. [laughs]

We knew that we had to be perceived

as being an arena headliner.

Let this, this video

be the infomercial for your live show.

[Jon] We've made a video that told you what we were like live.

That was a big reason for the success of it.

[indistinct singing]

[Obie] Jon sent me a cassette tape to the studio in Philadelphia,

and I went, everyone's life is gonna change.

♪ I play my part ♪

♪ And you play your game ♪

[Jon] Immediately, the reaction was through the moon,

and the company was like, "Wow,

I don't know what you've done, but you've done it."

[host] Whether it's Angela's chest or a wet Hefty bag,

New Jersey metal has made it to the top.

Our new number one,

You Give Love a Bad Name from Bon Jovi.

♪ Shot through the heart and you're to blame ♪

♪ You give love a bad name ♪

[interviewer] Where was Bon Jovi when, uh, you-you had

your first number one, was that Living on a Prayer?

Uh, Bad Name.

We were in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

opening up for .38 Special.

[David] We already had contracted to open up for them.

I think it was like a month.

[Jon] You know, after our 40 minute set,

we get word that Slippery is gonna be number one

the following week on Billboard.

Calling everyone we could on the payphone.

You got telexes from people.

You know, I mean, it was a big deal.

I mean, we did this group hug

at Holiday Inn, man,

the first time we were number one

and, uh, to say, you did it.

And here we are, we had the number one record

on the planet everywhere.

Number one record, number one album.

You Give Love a Bad Name, everybody's playing that record

and we're opening up for .38 Special.

So then all of a sudden, they were making a ton of money

because they were selling out like crazy because of us.

[Jon] It wasn't long before their manager was like,

"Anything we gotta do to keep you on this tour."

And McGhee was, like, saying,

"Thanks, but, you know, it's time to move on."

In, um, basically a month, we outsold, you know,

uh, what we did last year.

[♪ "Raise Your Hands" by Bon Jovi playing]

[Jon] Any and everyone involved in that project

had a multiple of 10 next to their name after that.

The Slippery phenomenon began.

[reporter] Slippery When Wet became the fourth heavy metal album ever

to make it to Billboard's number one.

[Doc] It was a validation of what they had

put themselves through for five years.

And then once we flipped the headliners, we sold out everywhere.

There was no more middle fingers, so that was the nice part.

♪ You got a nasty reputation ♪

[Tico] Now with the ability and funds to be able to put on a show like that,

it gave Jonny the opportunity to use the whole arena.

I mean, that's probably what he had in his mind when he was a kid.

I was like, "Got this motherfucker now."

-[imitating rocket whooshing] -That was the rocket ship.

[Kaity Tong] One of the hottest tickets around tonight,

It was to see the world's hottest rock group.

Rockstar Jon Bon Jovi

has come a very long way

since growing up in Sayreville, New Jersey.

[reporter] The third album from Bon Jovi,

Slippery When Wet, has become the first number one LP

in their career, and it looks sure to go down

as one of the biggest selling heavy rock albums of the year.

♪ Raise your hands ♪

♪ When you want to... ♪

[Doc] This was just about low IQ, high RPM.

This was about having fun.

It had to be dangerous.

Ooh, yah!

Uncle Richie gotta take his medicine now?

[David] I mean, it really was from living with my parents

to living the dream.

I went from nowhere to everywhere.

I still say it to this day,

I am like, the luckiest

fucking guys who ever fucking lived.

Get the hell outta here.

[band members speaking incoherently]

[anchor] Your album is still at number one in the States,

selling over 100,000 copies a day.

[host] Jon, let's say that there are actually some people out there

who have never heard heavy metal music,

never heard of Jon Bon Jovi.

-Now what would you say to them? -Where have you been?

♪ Got to raise your hands ♪

♪ When you want to let it go ♪

If you were to put the music you make

into a certain classification, what would it be?

Good.

[David] But I don't think we changed.

I think the world's perception of us changed.

Everyone goes, "Hey, you're famous." I'm like, "I don't... okay."

[Jon] But when people ask us about money,

we say, "Well, this is our manager,"

and we point at him and say,

"He's rich and we're famous."

[band laughing]

I adore his looks.

[fan] Remember the first time I saw him on a picture.

[crowd interviewer] You didn't even hear the music

-and you knew you loved them? -[fans screaming]

[Jon] These stories have been repeated by others since,

and it happened from the time of Elvis and Sinatra

and The Beatles, but in our moment in time,

you know, we were everywhere.

[Richie] Now I'm gonna work twice as hard.

So we weren't out there messing around,

but I got a fair amount of messing around done

in that time myself,

you know, with the use of some other things that I actually...

well, whatever it was.

This Tuesday night, 60 minutes of nonstop

bop-till-you-drop Bon Jovi sweatshop.

That's right, we are going to be your guest VJs.

[Doc] Back then, we had the biggest tipping point of all,

which was MTV.

[Jon] We were at the forefront

of MTV's influence on the world.

Hi, I'm Jon Bon Jovi, and I want you to spend a weekend

of unbridled hedonism with me and these guys.

[band] Hell yes.

MTV.

[Doc] If you were good

and you got on MTV,

that would explode you.

[all] Hi, we're Bon Jovi.

[Jon] Fill in the blank with five cute guys

in a rock band, MTV was all excited...

Music television.

[Jon] ...about taking us to Southeast Asia and Japan.

We had to start our world tour right back in Japan

where all the best things happened, okay?

We have us a brand new album and the song

that you're gonna see on MTV.

[Richie] We were working so hard through it, especially Jon and I

because we were the ones that were waking up

and doing early morning radio.

We were the ones that were waking up and doing all the press.

Some... the people wanted to talk to us.

Well, we just left, uh, Helsinki last night.

-[Richie] Yeah. -[Jon] And we stopped here to see you.

You guys just don't get tired, do you?

[crowd cheering]

Is this the rock and roll capital of England or what?

So you're having a good time in Australia.

-Absolutely. -You-you had your...

You've been in Melbourne, you're in Sydney.

Good evening, Vancouver, Canada.

Come on, Tokyo!

I got three more nights here in Philadelphia.

You guys are getting... [chuckles]

You're getting to wear my ass out already.

The, the key to the band's success is that we tour,

tour and tour and tour and when we're done touring we tour.

[Richie] Our philosophy is, is that

we're not the show, but the kids are the show.

We're just the host of the party.

[Jon] Are you ready?

[Obie] If you're there when they open the gates

to a stadium show, you watch how they enter.

They run top speed because they want to be

at that bar up front.

[Desmond] In those days, I'd go to a Bon Jovi concert

and watch Jon just give it all on stage

and I'd hear him sing, like, the highest notes

with all of his force.

♪ Livin' on a prayer ♪

♪ Take my hand ♪

[Desmond] Like, wow, that's not just

in the recording room.

He can actually deliver that.

♪ Livin' on a prayer ♪

[Tico] Jon is, he's feeling something, and he takes it there.

We'd follow him, anywhere he went anytime.

So that's the key, to be that on the money as a band,

and if he wants to take it to that way,

and he's never took it there before, that's where we're going.

[crowd] ♪ Livin' on a prayer ♪

[Jon] Being a fan myself, I've sat in the 99th row

and every time, swear to God,

the singer was looking right at you.

What I try to do is exactly that

and look at the kid in the 99th row.

[Obie] I would go out on the stage and stand in the wings

and just look at that sea of humanity,

and they're all there for one reason

and it's to see this band and see him perform.

Bon Jovi was arguably, at that point, the biggest band in the world.

♪ Ooh, we gotta hold on ♪

[Jon] I had blinders on for Slippery When Wet...

♪ You live for the fight when that's all that you've got ♪

...because 240 shows was something I had never done.

♪ Oh, oh ♪

It was exhausting for me.

It was fun, but it was exhausting.

I was completely dead. I was exhausted.

I was doing cortisone to get the cords working.

We tour so much

that you don't have a, a chance

to enjoy the luxuries of it.

It ends in the States in August,

and it's back to, you know, England

for the Donington Festival.

From there, Australia, Japan again,

Anchorage, Hawaii,

and then sleep like a big old bear.

I'm gonna hibernate.

[Richie] It's the, the correlation between

the cowboy of yesteryear or whatever

and the modern day rock and roller

because the cowboy would ride into town on his horse,

rob a bank, hit the bar, drink some booze, you know,

grab the women, take the money and run, and do the same thing in the next town,

and we kinda do the same thing

except we don't rob a bank, we go play a concert.

[David] I mean, it felt like from day one,

like that first time we got together,

it felt like five guys against the world.

[Doc] I think it was very important to Jonny

to have that feeling of family in the early days,

and that came from Slippery,

and that was what it was about.

[Jon] I know that I would still be back at Kinney's

had it not been, you know, for the team of me and Doc

because, uh, we're best friends, you know,

and that's what made it work.

[Richie] Bon Jovi is a family.

We've been doing this now

for four and a half years straight.

You're brothers, you know.

[♪ "Wanted Dead Or Alive" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ It's all the same ♪

♪ Only the names have changed ♪

[Jon] The bond that was created from that time forward

was constantly evolving.

It-It changed our lives, being in this band.

It-It-It defined who we became as men.

The Bon Jovi band is definitely, um, a family.

[Tico] The only band I've ever been in that gets along this well.

-Family, family, I say. -Plasma.

[interviewer] Now is it just another band or

is it more of a family, would you say?

[Tico] No, it's definitely different. It's like a family.

Been in a lot of different bands.

This is like, I don't know, we get along together.

We kinda take vacation holidays together.

[interviewer] You do hang out together when

you're not actually playing on stage?

Yes.

[David] There was that brotherhood.

It was us five guys and... on a bus

and then five guys in an airplane

outta seven billion human beings.

Not a lot of people get to experience what we did.

[Jon] And it changed the face of pop radio.

Those songs changed the landscape,

and that was our defining moment with songs like

You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin' On a Prayer, Wanted Dead or Alive.

They were all big monster hit songs.

[reporter] Do you feel like you're at the top of the ladder?

No, I think, uh, every time you get there to the, to the place

where you think is the top, you find out that it just,

there's another extension on that ladder, you know?

So we're not, uh satisfied, and we're not done.

[crowd cheering]

[Jon] Thank you.

Good night now.

I was pretty exhausted but there was no way

that we were gonna slow down.

None.

And I was also very cognizant

that I had to do it again.

And... every day, I was thinking about,

"How the fuck are we gonna do this again?"

[jet engine whooshing]

[♪ tense music playing]

[tires squealing]

[static crackles]

[Jon] This is Little Mountain Sound Studios.

This is the beginning of our show, folks.

Fourth album.

No one's supposed to know the title but me.

[chuckles] Guess what I didn't think of, though?

I just locked myself out, and it's nine o'clock at night.

We went back in and wrote New Jersey,

which was initially gonna be called Sons of Beaches,

and thank God, you know, even then we were wise enough to say,

"Don't be that kind of cliché rock dude."

You know, you can get away with that once with Slippery When Wet.

I can't believe it. Come on, follow me.

[cameraperson] Okay.

I'm going to take you now into the room

where, where, where this new record is being made by Bon Jovi.

Them guys are assholes, so you gotta watch them.

This is Bob Rock's House of Sin, they call it.

-Come in, come in. A lot of work here. -[Jon] From the top.

Hi, I just came here, and I'm nuts already.

[laughter]

[Richie] We had toured for 16 and a half months

with a two week break after eight months.

Woo-hoo, and back to the grind.

Whoever's gonna watch this in the future,

here's one for you.

Cheers, let's put the fucking thing down.

[♪ heavy guitar music playing]

♪ Everybody ♪

Fuck, missed that one.

[♪ heavy rock music playing]

I used to be in this band, Bon Jovi.

Now I-I'm illiterate 'cause I drank tequila.

[interviewer] What did I ask you?

A band that stays together, plays together.

We went right in there, banged another one,

and the juices are still flowing again,

kind of recreate the same feeling,

and let's take it a step further.

[band] [chanting] Be like Tico, be like Tico,

be like Tico, be like Tico.

[cameraperson] Oh, no, welcome to Vancouver.

[Jon] Look at these guys, can't take them anywhere.

[Doc] You're on a roll.

They've worn out Slippery.

It's not like Jon goes, "You know,

I gotta take a year off and I gotta find myself."

He's not that guy.

Jon quit school because there was recess.

[♪ upbeat rock music playing]

[screaming]

[technician] That felt good. Let's do one more, then we'll have...

[Jon] Thanks, guys.

Working hard.

[technicians snoring]

-Bob. Bob. -Oh, what time is it?

[Jon] Fuck you, guys. Fuck you! Fuck you!

[laughter]

[cameraperson] Oh!

Now that was history.

[Jon] There you go.

We mixed everything until last night,

about one in the morning,

1:30 or so, and, uh, that's it.

We've had enough.

[interviewer] You know what your first single is?

Bad Medicine.

We were doing some Fuji tape commercial

in Japan, believe it or not,

and I had found out that the girl

I was going out with was a prostitute.

[laughing]

I mean, that'll shake you up a little bit,

and I was just, I was sitting there in this black water

that looked like Fuji tape,

and I just went,

[sings] ♪ Your love is like bad medicine ♪

♪ And bad medicine is what I need ♪

♪ Whoa whoa, shake it up just like bad medicine ♪

[♪ "Bad Medicine" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ Bad medicine ♪

♪ Bad medicine is what I need ♪

♪ Whoa oh oh, ♪

[Jon] A year after that

240 show Slippery tour,

which was as exhausting as anything I'd ever done,

we were back on the road.

You know, I mean Slippery was

everybody's dream come true.

It, uh, it gave us a job.

It gave us the opportunity to tour and play

whenever and wherever we want to.

I want to do that again.

I mean, we did three on,

one off, two on, one off,

three on, one off for like a year.

Went back into the studio, did another record, did that again.

[Doc] And he was begging me, just before he was saying,

"Doc, can we go out? Just, let's just do 300 shows."

-Just 300. -Just 300 shows.

We'll take 65 days off.

I said, "Well, okay."

[gasps]

[both laugh]

There's no relax, there's never a wasted moment.

You have to keep pushing it along,

and especially in those days, it was conquer the world time.

[David] Touring is the whole thing.

I mean, the whole thing of playing in front of people,

making records is fun and all that kind of stuff,

but the whole reason that we happened as a band

was because we got in front of an audience

and rocked their asses off.

[Jon] Third album comes out, explodes.

Fourth album comes out and has to do better, you know,

so we're there now, right? Tough.

[Richie] A good comparison is like a prize fighter.

We have the title, we have the belt,

and every time we walk into the ring with our record,

you have to defend it.

-Best concert I've ever been in my life. -Oh, absolutely.

-Everything. -The lights, the music.

Everything brilliant, everything.

[all] We love Bon Jovi.

[David] And at that time, as we're gaining

all this fan appreciation, if you will, around the planet,

we were never the critic star.

Rolling Stone, when Slippery When Wet came out,

they called us a "smudgy third generation copy of Quiet Riot."

The group Bon Jovi has been riding high

since their album Slippery When Wet

sold a paltry 14 million copies around the world.

Now their new album hasn't done quite that well.

It's called New Jersey, but it's doing just fine

and it's selling in the millions.

[Jon] When New Jersey came,

we had gotten to that point

where everybody says, "Okay, I'm sick of them."

You know, "Get lost,"

and we were the brunt of, you know, a lot of finger pointing.

The Grammys didn't even nominate Livin' on a Prayer,

You Give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive.

It was hysterical and ridiculous.

But who cares, you know what I mean?

With people, we were always the people's choice,

and that's who you're playing for.

[all singing] ♪ Your love is like bad medicine ♪

-♪ Bad medicine is what I need ♪ -[fan] Woo!

♪ I'll be there for you ♪

[David] We were the chip-on-our-shoulder guys,

especially Jon, and it was a motivator.

Fuck 'em, you know, if they don't like us.

The people love us, that's all that matters.

[band cheering]

♪ Words can't say what love can do ♪

♪ I'll be there for you ♪

And the winner is Bon Jovi.

[Jon] What we need to do is, um,

to give this one to all the critics

who said that Bon Jovi was a flash in the pan,

who said that Bon Jovi was nothing.

This was the dream, this was the goal.

If it's all over now, it doesn't matter.

We made it to the dance.

Giants Stadium, it's like the biggest gig we ever played, you know.

[Richie] We're going to have 80,000 people tonight.

Couldn't be happier if I was twins.

♪ Whoa oh oh ♪

[Jon] No one's ever done this, man.

The Stones, the Who, the... no one.

We were just crushing it, doing as many shows

anywhere where we wanted,

and we had five top 10 hits on that record.

We were absolutely the guys of the moment.

Jon Bon Jovi and his band returned to their native state

of New Jersey Wednesday night

and turned the group's sold out show

at the Meadowlands Arena

into a rock and roll carnival

for 20,000 cheering fans.

I think if I said it was great to be home,

that would be the understatement of the year.

-You know what I mean? -[crowd cheering]

[Kurt Loder] Along with the platinum albums

the group was presented,

a proclamation was also read

proclaiming it Bon Jovi Day statewide.

[crowd cheering]

Yeah, we had a party for 20,000 of our friends.

Got the key to the city.

Yeah, got keys to the city,

got plaques from the governor.

We've got a probably what, eight, nine foot cake here.

It was a hell of a party.

Ten thousand balloons, 20,000 people,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

-[glasses clink] -Cheers.

It was all the decadence of the '80s.

It was a kid in a candy store.

It was whatever you want, whenever you want it times two,

without giving away too many secrets

because anything that every one of those bands talks about,

you know, we did it too, and it was fun.

It was real fun, you know.

It was not only girls and drugs and booze,

but it was one-upsmanship with gifts and cars.

It became silly.

You buy me a Ferrari

and I'll buy you a Porsche,

and you buy this piece of art

and I'll buy you that house.

It was dumb kid rock and roll star stuff.

[reporter] No connection between sex and rock and roll?

[Alec John Such] Oh, there's a connection.

I mean, when I was a kid, I played violin.

Now I play bass guitar.

-I get laid a lot more now. -[band laughing]

[Tico] I think the hardest thing that for-for-for anybody

in that situation is that,

how do you collect your ego and keep it in check?

[Jon] Just got to be so ridiculous

that there was nothing we couldn't do.

If I want to play 10 nights in New York, book 'em. We could do it.

If you want to tell the promoter

we want five pinball machines...

[pinball machines ringing]

...okay.

-Pool tables? -[pool balls clacking]

-Done. -[fireworks exploding]

I want a '69 Corvette convertible.

-I got it. -[car engine roaring]

We could get away with anything and we did.

[interviewer] I mean, now that you're so successful,

do you ever feel like sitting back a bit

and not touring quite so hard and working quite so hard?

Uh, it wouldn't be any fun.

This '80s was pretty tough

'cause everybody, there was so many drugs.

I mean, I had a wing of rehab people

and not that Jonny and them were even close to any of that stuff.

[David] We never were the band that just, you know,

was so fucked up that you're supposed to go on

at nine o'clock and you go on at two in the morning.

Like, nobody overdosed. That's a good thing.

[Alec] I know I've gone out the next day and he's just coming in

and I'm going, "Hey," and he's going,

"Yeah, see you later."

I'm very much interested in, uh, how a bar works.

I can't get off the stage and be...

just go to, go to room and relax

because I'm too hypered up from doing this marathon.

So I needed to let my hair down and have a few drinks, party.

You know, Tico could really get outta control.

He-he wasn't a easy, fun drunk.

Shit. I put it right the fuck down.

[Jon] Alec could really get outta control.

He too was not a easy, fun drunk.

David and Richie were much easier,

but they certainly had more than their fair share

of too much fun.

So somebody had to try to keep it together.

For whatever and all reasons, it was me.

In a situation with drugs, I've been asked often,

so often that I finally said, "Look, I don't do 'em.

I don't like 'em, I don't approve of 'em."

There's nobody that was more dedicated

about his voice, his warming up, his...

I mean, Slippery, we... I mean, every tour he had troubles,

but he worked through it.

He didn't drink, he didn't smoke.

He was actually pretty boring when he was doing all this stuff

because he didn't, he-he wouldn't do anything

because he had to try to save his voice.

Are you still with me?

[Tico] We just lived on the road to the point

of almost the band's demise,

because if you do anything too much, you will get a scar.

[Desmond] Jon was also the guy that would get up

at 5:00 in the morning to make it to a radio station.

At 5:00 in the morning, most of the guys in the band

-were just getting to bed. -[alarm beeping]

[Jon] These guys are pissed off that they're at soundcheck.

I woke 'em up at 8:30.

They're still hung over from last night.

Bribery's not even working.

We can't wait for the tour to end.

[David] I was like, I'm gonna have a lot of fun,

but I'm gonna make sure that my love of music

is more than my love of partying,

and I think once you turn that corner...

uh, you've lost it.

[Jon] We certainly jumped back in the ring and we're all just,

you know, haymakers swinging for any and everything

that would come our way...

but it almost killed us.

Good afternoon. We're at Raleigh's Broughton High School,

where Rockstar Jon Bon Jovi is appearing

to give a very special anti-drug message

to thousands of Wake County students.

[Mike Caplan] Bon Jovi's appearance is being sponsored

by a nonprofit group called the Make a Difference Foundation.

[Doc] When you're a celebrity...

at this point,

comes with a responsibility too

to try to do good things.

To try to give back a little bit.

Jon Bon Jovi's appearance is also tied

to an unusual drug probation handed down by a judge.

The manager of the Bon Jovi band pled guilty last year

in a marijuana case.

[Mike] But instead of ordering that

that manager go to prison,

the judge in the case decided

to let that manager use his influence in the rock industry

to help spread the drug-free message

to the nation's teenagers.

[Jon] That was a very difficult place

for a young kid to be,

you know, with the guy that was supposed

to be the grownup in the room

was now in some kind of incredible legal trouble.

Your manager, Doc McGhee, of course, had a few problems

with drugs, an alleged

5,000 tons of grass he was trying to import.

[Doc] As you sit and you try to understand

what you've done so you don't do it again,

it's just learning from your mistakes.

We had to do things to keep McGhee outta jail.

-[glass shattering] -I'm Jon Bon Jovi.

So you were asked to do things and you didn't even know why.

You're thrust into a situation

that is way above and beyond your pay grade.

Today, the world looks expectedly to signs of change,

steps toward greater freedom in the Soviet Union.

[Jon] Doc's lawyers came up with a plea,

which led to a concert in the former Soviet Union

because we were one of the great exports

of American pop culture to the Iron Curtained countries.

Now the Soviets are opening their country to American rock music.

A number of top rockers, including New Jersey's own Bon Jovi,

are getting ready to jet to Moscow.

[Doc] Nobody played Moscow.

Nobody with electric guitar did.

You could play with a piano or something,

but there's no way you could play with an electric guitar.

You couldn't even get an electric guitar.

[Jon] I did it because he was my friend first,

but also because he was the manager.

So I felt that obligation,

but I really never had any idea just how big it was.

You know, when we grew up in school, you... that's the bad guys.

You can't go there, no one goes there.

There's no records there, there's none of this there,

and our attitude was, let's go over there.

Let's make this happen.

Welcome to Bon Jovi world, Russian style.

[reporter] A world which began back in December

when Bon Jovi made a quick trip to the Soviet Union

to lay the groundwork for the main event.

I remember going as a band to set it up

while the Wall was still up.

Brr! It's freezing.

[Tico] And snow coming down, and KGB and CIA,

and the lady who handled Cuba right next to me

and the sleigh horses.

It was like a movie.

[Jon] We were very aware that we were being watched

and if you had a western rock and roll record,

you could be imprisoned.

The only way that folks had heard of Bon Jovi is on the black market.

We were, like, officially sanctioned by the government

to come in, although Billy Joel went, you know,

and of... and other bands have gone,

they didn't go there with the government's...

blessing, let's say.

If anything can be said about Bon Jovi,

it's we make people smile.

We make 'em a part of what we do,

and there's no political overtones to it.

It's just rock and roll music and entertainment.

If that's gonna help bring the world together.

I'm the first guy over here.

[all] Peace and my love and rock and roll.

So we're going to Russia

and we're gonna introduce them to rock and roll.

[♪ "Born To Be My Baby" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ Na na na na na na na na na na na ♪

♪ Na na na na na na ♪

The message to the youth will be a little bit different

than it was 20 years ago for Woodstock,

and I'm really proud that they've all taken their time and effort

and their support to help the foundation

to bring awareness to kids on drug and alcohol abuse.

[Jon] I remember parts of the plane ride

and it was egocentric lunacy.

There was real debauchery going on in-in the back

with booze and drugs, and we were going there

to do a anti-drug concert, and there was...

We're starting to get rowdy at this point.

Yeah, man, we're starting to get rowdy and you know,

of course there's no alcohol

or anything like that on this plane, so...

Obviously not.

♪ Beats like a drum all night ♪

♪ Flesh to flesh ♪

[Jon] No one's sleeping, everybody's walking around.

It's, uh, two o'clock in the morning

and we're all, like, pretty delirious

'cause we've been held up, you know,

on the runway and in the airport.

[Doc] Now, did we think it was gonna change the world?

Did we think it was gonna... the Wall was gonna come down

and that they were gonna let us do this?

No.

[helicopter whirring]

[crowd cheering]

[Desmond] We went to this stadium

that was one of the biggest structures I'd ever seen in my life.

It was a, um, variety show

because you had Ozzy Osbourne.

[Ozzy Osbourne] Go, go, go, go...

Mötley Crüe was there, of course, famously.

[Vince Neil] How many girls we have in here today?

And the Scorpions, I just remember that just so clearly.

[crowd cheering]

There were so many people there,

and you could just feel that desperation to be free.

[Tico] There is a magic to music that curtails

anything political, anything bad in the world.

It's the most spiritual thing in the world, I believe,

and we saw it there.

If you wanna make it a better world, you start with yourselves.

And in the name of friendship

and good God blessed rock and roll,

this is for you.

It's called Blood on Blood.

[♪ "Blood on Blood" by Bon Jovi playing]

One, two, three, four!

[David] You're looking like everybody you thought would be a monster,

'cause that's all you've ever been taught.

They kind of looked like us.

They were humans.

You know, all this whole thing

that you've had in your head,

it was... it's just people.

[Tico] They were just like any other crowd.

They were exuberant.

Imagine having your first glass of water

after walking a desert for your whole life.

They'd never experienced anything like that before.

♪ Blood on blood ♪

♪ One on one ♪

♪ We'd still be standing when all was said and done ♪

[Richie] I mean, that astounded me at first.

I couldn't believe it, you know what I mean?

These people couldn't sing English, man,

but they were singin' our lyrics.

[Doc] It's that emotional connection.

It's that honesty that moves to the heart of the people

and gave them some hope.

♪ And I'll be there for you till kingdom come ♪

[Jon] The music isn't dissimilar from sport

in that it's tribal.

You're finding that one common thread

that you have with people from all different walks of life.

I've seen that languages don't matter,

and that to me is something beautiful

about the power of music.

It's universal.

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

[Phil X] There are shows where something just really magical happens

with all seven members on stage.

It's on stage, man, 'cause the fans, you know what,

there's kids, kids that know more lyrics than I do,

and that's, that's good parenting,

but the whole point is...

[Jon laughing]

[Phil] ...what we're spreading this message

that's been spread for 30-something years

-and we just keep... -[Jon] Forty.

[Phil] Forty years next year.

I met super fans,

and it's something about Bon Jovi

that changed their life for the better

or saved their life.

There was a lyric in a song or...

a Jon Bon Jovi's smile.

Something did something to them that

they have to see their band

as often as possible,

and I don't think that's crazy.

I think that everybody has different passions.

People build model cars, people parachute.

These people love ju-just going to Bon Jovi concerts.

So that's pretty amazing.

[Jon] Well, we're not at the end yet.

I'm not gonna be able to give you an honest answer for a week or two,

but where I think I am today,

when I'm good, I'm great,

but I don't feel like I got everything in the arsenal.

Were you with me then when I used to do this?

I'm thinking about starting the show black.

[engineer] Okay.

I jump up, acapella Prayer.

Let them sing it. Keep just lights on me only.

No-No black up there.

[engineer] Okay.

Me and this fucking audience.

[engineer] So, house lights go, and you-you pop up.

-I walk up there, then you hit me. -[engineer] Yep.

You know, I could give you a thumbs up or something.

-[engineer] Yep. -Adulation, adulation for however long.

-[engineer] Yep. -Acapella, they start singing it,

band starts playing, then it's your show.

[engineer] Then you walk. Awesome.

[Jon] My speedball's not... it's not quite there.

Does that mean it's not coming back?

Or does that mean I just have to stick with the plan?

If somebody could tell me, factually, the best you can do

is 100% of 80%,

then I gotta walk away.

[inaudible]

-[David] That's it, motherfucker. -[clapping]

-Don't hurt me. [laughs] -[Tico] Yeah!

-[Tico] Oh, yeah. -I'm back, motherfucker.

-[Tico] I know you are. -[David] Stand, stand down.

[indistinct chatter]

[David] Oh, that's a good one.

Fuck, he's old.

[Jon] I don't have a Messiah complex,

which some guys get stuck in.

No, I'm not looking for that,

but I have come to realize...

[sighs]

[♪ pensive music playing]

I am not letting you see me...

Um...

I have come to realize that...

[sighs]

I used to say to the band, "Just trust me

"and I'll take us where we need to go,

"but you gotta put your whole fucking everything

into what I'm gonna do."

Those people who hear that...

[sighs]

I never bullshitted them, you know, so...

[♪ pensive music continues]

Anyway, that's why the legacy matters,

'cause they believe it.

So I believe it.

I love y'all.

-Love you back. -Love you too.

Play with love tonight.

[band cheering and applauding]

-[crowd cheering] -[♪ solemn music playing]

♪♪

[crowd cheering]

♪ We got to hold on ♪

♪ To what we've got ♪

♪ It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not ♪

♪ We got each other and that's a lot for love ♪

♪ We'll give it a shot ♪

[♪ "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ Whoa, we're half way there ♪

♪ Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer ♪

♪ Take my hand we'll make it I swear ♪

♪ Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer ♪

♪ Livin' on a prayer ♪

♪♪

♪ We've gotta hold on you ready or not ♪

♪ You live for the fight when that's all that you've got ♪

♪ Whoa, we're half way there ♪

♪ Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer ♪

♪ Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear ♪

♪ Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer ♪

♪ Whoa, we're half way there ♪

♪ Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer ♪

[crowd] ♪ Whoa, we're half way there ♪

♪ Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer ♪

[crowd cheering]

[♪ downbeat music playing]

Like Humpty Dumpty, man.

-Aw. -Back together.

[Jon] That was really fun.

-You were amazing. -[Jon] Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

Ready to drink?

[Jon] That was fucking awesome.

[band laughing]

That's the way to leave 'em.

-Yeah. -Wanting more.

[♪ downbeat music playing]

[sighs]

[crowd cheering]

[Jon] By the end of the New Jersey tour,

we're in Mexico.

It's show 239 and 240...

[crowd chanting in Spanish]

[Jon] ...and there is a uprising at a college.

Riots.

[crowd] [chanting] Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi,

Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi...

Yes, this is the end of it.

This is the very last show as we're hoping

that we, uh, we get to have our last shows here.

And the students come in and take over the stadium

and barricade everybody, and the band's still at the hotel.

The band is here. We want to play.

It's just a matter of them working out the politics.

They don't want the show to happen

because of the disagreement they're having with the university.

It's nothing against Bon Jovi.

[indistinct chatter]

There's... they're starting to gather people.

There's audience with their tickets that they're getting,

starting to get a little bit pissed off.

[Doc] So I have to go and negotiate with the students

who are in masks and baseball bats.

See if we can get the Juan Carlos and th-the Federation people

to meet me in my hotel in my room,

and we'll work, and we'll work it out there

because otherwise we're going home.

[Jon] Although they were doing their job

and trying to assure us that everything would be alright,

there was, um, a lot of confusion.

You know, suddenly we were important men making decisions,

but really we were just scared boys with a lot of money.

[Jon] I'm not rolling. We're not rolling, just listening.

[Obie] When you're together like that,

that becomes your second family.

Sometimes it's your first family.

Sometimes families get dysfunctional.

Was it my favorite time in the music business?

No, it wasn't.

[band member] I love it here, but get me the fuck out.

[Richie] That's five men in close quarters that are not supposed to...

We took vacations together, we were idiots.

It was ri-ridiculous that we did all that kind of stuff.

[Tico] If you're on a merry-go-round and you're still

on a merry-go-round for so long, you get dizzy.

So we got dizzy, you know?

It was at a point where it could break up the band.

[Richie] A lot of stuff goes on, you know,

divorces, deaths, births,

you know, like the real stuff that happens to a band also.

That's what people don't understand,

how complicated that whole band is,

like, be it the band concept itself.

[Richie] Imagine abomination number one,

we're all sick of each other

and at that point, you know, pff,

everybody was getting pretty hammered.

[band member] Make a difference, yeah, make a difference.

[David] After Slippery happened, now you're the biggest thing in the world.

That's four more years

of nonstop fame, fortune, and gigs.

You know, it just was taking a toll on, you know, a couple of the guys.

[David laughing]

[Jon] Alec is a drunk mess. Tico is a drunk mess.

I want to get the hell out of there.

Everybody's seen enough of me.

My mom's seen me enough, I seen enough of me.

Go away.

[Jon] So we went back to McGhee and said, "How about this?"

A matinee and a night show,

just to get out of here.

[Richie] Let's do two shows the next day

and then you'll hit the bricks,

and, uh, we're all,

we're gung-ho for that one.

[Jon] [over radio] [indistinct]

We're doing two shows tomorrow.

First one's 11:30 a.m.

You're saying we open the show, we play at 11:30?

[Jon] Yeah. Re-regardless.

Alright.

Go ahead. There's nothing new you could throw at us.

We-We have it all.

-We've done it all. -We've done it all.

I'm not postponing, 'cause I'm not staying here for another minute.

Wimp band. Can only do two shows in one day, not three, right?

Love that.

That's why we're here.

[laughter]

We have no idea why we're here.

[crowd chanting]

[crowd cheering]

[Jon speaking Spanish]

[Doc] I don't know how we got through those two shows,

but everybody was pretty hammered.

[Tico] There was margarita makers on stage.

All we did was drink through the whole afternoon show

and the whole evening show.

[Doc] It wasn't the fun tour.

You know, sometimes it's just, you just move apart,

and you lose the theme.

It's not us against the world,

it's me against the you guys and everybody.

Couple more shows. Ah!

We hang out at the venue to get the stadium crowd out,

to get another stadium crowd in to perform the night show.

[crowd cheering]

This is the final show...

and after 20 countries,

three million and some odd people,

a lot of cold beer and warm nights...

I learned a long time ago from a guy on TV,

you never say goodbye, you just say goodnight.

[Doc] My job was to make them the best entertainers in the world...

and they became some of the best entertainers in the world.

[Jon] From inception through 1990

was that rocket ship to success.

It was everything you'd ever dreamed of

and were willing to sacrifice to get to that place

that you thought was the it.

It was being on the precipice of what was

to become greatness and longevity

or falling backwards and being the end.

[Doc] And now there's nothing else to prove.

What is it, just another better record or go tour again,

you know what I mean? 'Cause you're not doing anything

but you're unhappy.

[Jon] In and of the moment for the New Jersey album,

I wish that those in control, whether it was the managers,

the lawyers, the agents would've said,

"Hey, guys, I believe in you.

We're gonna take another year off,"

as opposed to, "Get out there and do it again."

Just because we said we could didn't mean that we should.

I never had the thought that Jon would ever stop,

I mean, or Bon Jovi would stop.

Bon Jovi's forever.

I didn't care. [chuckling]

I don't think anybody cared if the band was over.

[Richie] Ah, you just wanted to go home

and have some assemblance of order in your life.

You know, it was one of those moments where,

"Get me the fuck home."

[David] We just gotta go the fuck home.

Everybody's fucking exhausted,

and then that was the first time we ever stopped.

We were done, so I'm like, "I want to get the fuck outta here,"

and what I meant was out of Bon Jovi.

[Doc] Did he work hard?

Did I book him in a really aggressive way?

Absolutely.

This isn't poor Jon.

This is his gig. This is what he does.

[Jon] He was working the band against me,

me against the band, playing all sides,

and not for the betterment of the band.

[Doc] I said, "Listen, you got a problem.

You know, you can always..."

You know, he was just like my son.

"You know, you can call me," and he said to me,

"What if you're the problem?"

[♪ "Wild Is the Wind" by Bon Jovi playing]

♪ I tried to make you happy ♪

♪ Lord knows I tried so hard to be ♪

♪ What you hoped that I would be ♪

♪ I gave you what you wanted ♪

♪ God couldn't give you what you need ♪

♪ You wanted more from me ♪

♪ Than I could ever be ♪

♪ You wanted heart and soul ♪

♪ But you didn't know, baby ♪

♪ Wild ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ That takes me away from you ♪

♪ Cold is the night without your love ♪

♪ To see me through ♪

♪ And, baby, wild ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ That blows through my heart, oh ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ You got to understand, baby ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ You need someone to hold you ♪

♪ Somebody to be there night and day ♪

♪ Someone to kiss your fears away ♪

♪ I just went on pretending ♪

♪ Too weak, too proud, too tough to say ♪

♪ I couldn't be the one ♪

♪ To make your dreams come true ♪

♪ That's why I had to run ♪

♪ Though I needed you, baby ♪

♪ Wild ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ That takes me away from you ♪

♪ Cold is the night without your love ♪

♪ To see me through ♪

♪ Baby, wild ♪

♪ Wild is the wind ♪

♪ That blows through my heart tonight ♪

♪ And tears us apart, whoa... ♪