Yes, yes, I nod. One of the more interesting songs is Tokyo Road, that begins with an interesting music-box melody and continues as rough rock. The antagonist (Jon himself?) is sitting in a bar, breathing smoke, drinking whisky and coke. It continues:

This guy turns me around and he's pointing up the stairs
I found myself in her doorway but there wasn't anybody there
She walked in the room with nothing on but a red light
And with a smile she got so close to me.
She whispered something 'bout midnight
You know I didn't understand a word she said
But it felt so good
She knew that I didn't have any money
But baby I knew she would...

- Well, first the music-box. Japan was the first country where we really broke through. When we were touring there, we got hundreds and hundreds of gifts from the kids. We got Bon Jovi -dolls and all sorts of stuff, six big boxes that we sent home to NJ to. Then we got the music box that played that melody in the beginning of the song. That kickstarted the song and it was our way of saying thank you to our Japanese fans.

- Then there are my lyrics. I've said that I sing of lust, not love. And that's true. The first song on this album, In And Out Of Love, has the real lust-attitude. I guess I've become a liitle macho after spending so much time on the road. I meet a lot of girls, but it impossible to imagine having any deep love affairs with them.

Have you met any Finnish groupies yet?

- No, Jon sighs and grabs "Erotica"-magazine on the table. - These are quite the women. I wish I could them at our shows.

In Finland the heavy shows are mostly populated by ugly dudes, I tell Jon, who sighs again - now even deeper.

- It's alright. We have a truckload of French photo models with us. There are two divorcees, two guys kicked out by their girlfriends and one saved in this band - we're free to have our adventures.

To act like asshole's as well?

- No. Of course we do the same stuff that everyone else does on tours, but we don't want make any fuss about it. I don't like going around talking about booze and women. I prefer rock'n'roll as a subject.

At this stage in the restaurant where I'm talking to Jon - the bassist Alec and the keyboardist David notice the "Erotica"-magazine that Jon's flipping through in an ever increasing pace. They sit down with us, open up beers, say "cheers" in Finnish ("kippis") and want to also see a glimpse of the nude ladies in the magazine.

It seem like these creeps enjoy each others company.

- Oh yes, David says. - We're always together, weather it's in the road or home in NJ. We pratically live together. We're happy sons of bithces, we're having so much fun…

- Alec is our only problem, Jon continues and points at the bass player with a funny soul patch. - His nickname is "the cat" because he seems to have nine lives. He's a difficult person, he spends his last pennies on gambling. Besides, he has a habit of disappearing after the shows. So we travel to the next show worrying, me practicing the songs on bass just in case. So far he's always appeared on time…


Ice