Source: The Daily Herald

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Jon Bon Jovi, who lives in New Jersey just eight miles from New York City, found himself writing songs that tried to capture the sadness, anguish and anger that victims of the tragedy felt.

In the end, Bon Jovi felt those songs never reached fruition. Instead, the songs that relate to Sept. 11 on the latest Bon Jovi CD, "Bounce," focus on the redeeming outgrowths of the tragedy, particularly the resiliency of people to move forward after that terrible day.

That Bon Jovi gravitated toward the silver linings of Sept. 11 shouldn't come as a surprise. Even Bon Jovi himself realized that the songs he wrote were consistent with the uplifting personality of most of the band's music.

"If there's been one recurring theme in all of our records, even the ones that are in retrospect the darker records, I've tried to find optimism," he said. "And if 'Livin' On A Prayer' was a role model for people to feel that they could be those underdogs, I found that that was true. If 'It's My Life' or 'Keep The Faith' or 'Everyday,' became those kinds of songs over the course of the last 17 or 18 years, I find those to be true as well. It wasn't something that I thought 'Hey, this is my niche.' It came to me naturally. But as it came naturally, I embraced it."

So while Bon Jovi experienced Sept. 11 from a vantage point that was disturbingly close ("The smoke was wafting over our house literally," he said), the several songs on "Bounce" that relate to the aftermath of the attacks are anything but mournful.

For instance, the song "Undivided" celebrates the unity among Americans that emerged in the wake of the attacks. The title song also relates to Sept. 11, although Bon Jovi said it didn't begin that way.

He said "Bounce" was originally inspired by sports and the way professional athletes and coaches rebound from intense scrutiny.

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