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Dry County Archives: Bon Jovi Facts
Slippery When Wet
Translated by Erik (100621.3074@compuserve.com)
"Slippery when wet" is a warning that you see at the side of swimming pools in America, but that is not where Jon and his buddies got their inspiration from when their new album needed a title. David: "During the recording of the record we frequently wound up in a striptease club where incredibly good looking girls were putting water and soap on each other. They became so slippery because of that, that you couldn't hold on to them even if you wanted to really bad. "Slipper when wet!" one of us yelled out and the rest of use immediately knew: that had to be the title of the new album! Originally we were going to put a picture of some huge brests, the really big ones, on the cover; but when the PRMC (a moral board under command of Tipper Gore, the wife of the current vice-president of the United States, ed.) found out we were in big trouble. So we made it into a very descent cover."
When they recorded the first versions of 'Slippery when wet', they went over to the nearest Pizza Hut to 'recruit' some kids to listen to the music, see what they thought. Jon: "We wanted to hear what they thought of it, being representative for the record-buying public".
The ruling British metal magazine Kerrang! described the music on 'Slippery' back then as 'perfect adult oriented rock for the late eighties'. See, that's a lot better than the 'teenybopper band' label!
"Slippery when wet" made it to the first slot on the American album charts. World wide they sold about 8 milion copies. But we're not completely sure since we haven't counted the sales slips of the Free Record Shop of this pas month.
Because of they amazing amount of sales of 'Slippery when wet' the respected paper The Times was talking about 'the Beatles of th eighties'.
To promote 'Slippery when wet' our new superstars did a monster tour of 130 shows! They picked the correct name for the tour: 'Tour Without End'.
The superstar status, that the band earned after "Slippery", was confirmed in the summer of 1987 when the band after Cinderella, W.A.S.P., Anthrax, Metallica en Dio climbed the stage as the main act at the 'Monsters of Rock' festival in Donington, England. The party started with a smile but ended with angry, unhappy faces. In his enthusiasm Jon went up to Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield (Metallica) back stage with the words: "Let's jam together, we'll do 'We're an American Band' from Grand Funk Railroad." But instead of a friendly answer the New Jersey cowboy got yelled at. Later he found out why. To enjoy the view of some many metalheads the Bon Jovi's had circled above the stadium for minutes in helicopters. Metallica, the band that was playing at the time, didn't really appreciate the constant noise, to say the least.
After the 'Tour without end' was over the wallets were filled and the heads empty. Physically and mentally exhausted the rockers went to bed. At the same time Bon Jovi manager Doc McGhee was arrested for possesing an amount of drugs that were definately not for personal use (to be exact: twenty thousand kilo pot). So that was for dealing, which is still illegal. The unfortunate business man was sentenced to five years of prison but got out by setting up the 'Make a difference foundation', a fund that would help out with alcohol- and drug abuse. One of the first initiatives of the MADF was organizing the Moscow Music Peace Festival, an enormous heavy metal party in the 'Lenin stadium' in the Russian capital. Other than headliner Bon Jovi they had acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Cinderella, Scorpions and eh, eh, Gorky Park.
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