ABOUT THAT SEX SYMBOL THING.

Female fans swooned. The camera loved him. The media grew obsessed with "the hair" and Jon Bon Jovi was slapped with the label "rock 'n' roll sex symbol" much to his dismay. Believing the music should take centerstage, Jon has never gone to great lengths to play up his good looks. For the record, the hair has been cut, in stages, over the course of the past ten years, the chest was waxed for his first starring film role (it has since grown in) and his physique is that of an avid runner who works out daily.

The media may have devoted an inordinate amount of time and energy to covering Jon Bon Jovi's good looks but none of this attention can diminish the acknowledgment of Jon's incredible talents nor his unbelievable successes. In the end, the music speaks for itself.

"We looked like every kid in the mall in Jersey in 1980 to '84"

"I hate the whole sex symbol thing. I hate photo sessions. I hate videos. I'm not a model."
On The Hair: "To be honest, I'm sick of the whole subject. I'm the same person now as I was ten years ago. I might have been through some changes in the course of those ten years, but changing the way I look, I have to say, wasn't one of the major ones. Are you just sitting there looking a my hair and my clothes or are you looking at me?"

"When you are a kid you dream of being on the cover of Rolling Stone and then, when I was, all the journalist talked about was my haircut. It broke my heart. When we made the New Jersey album I refused to be on the cover and the record company had to fight just to get me to agree to a shot in profile inside the sleeve. I'm past all that now. I had to get in great shape for 'The Leading Man', so if you want to take my picture now, that's fine, because I'm never going to be this fit again. I was annoyed by all those stories about my hair and shaving my chest because I didn't want to be one of those guys who was flavor of the month because he's cute. Fortunately I'm still around and I don't have a problem with people saying I've got sex appeal."

"I was in the gym this morning, I stunk like a two-dollar whore and I needed a shave. I don't wake up and crimp my hair. This is how I got out of the shower this morning. Jesus Christ - I'm going grey, I'm losing my hair, I'm getting fat - that's life."

WHAT'S THE SECRET OF SUCCESS?

BON JOVI has reigned as one of rock 'n' roll's supreme bands for the past 14 years. With almost 80 millions albums sold worldwide, the band continues to sell out arenas and stadiums on concert tours throughout the world.

"We've been through everything and back again and we've always had that kind of us-against-the-world feeling about what it meant to be in a band."
"At a time when music has become such a business, we just want it to be fun again. We're that band next door that practiced in a garage, but that twelve years later plays really big garages, you know?"

"I don't have a lot of angst in my stuff. There's too much misery in the world already. I feel people will go to a movie or listen to a record or go to a Bon Jovi show to make them feel good. Because, man, the rest of the world blows."

"We've had huge records, and we've had records that weren't huge. As long as I was happy with 'em, I didn't care. I'm really pleased that the greatest hits album was so big; that does feel good. But what matters is whether we like the songs, and whether the people who listen to them like them."

On The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame: "I like the idea in theory, but I don't know if we'd ever get nominated. We've never been into any good ol' boys' clubs. I guess I'll probably care when we've done our 25 years on the road to qualify and they don't pick us. You bastards! But at least by then we'll be able to say we're the only and that sold 150 million records and didn't get in"

"Who'd have thunk!? … to have sold seventy-some-odd million albums is way beyond… it's goofy. None of us ever dreamed it in our wildest dreams."

" 'Don't believe the hype' is a phrase that can be used to mean many different things, but in essence it is an important life philosophy. Especially in the rock 'n' roll business. That's all success really is. Hype. If you're not still basically getting the same pleasure from the things that you started out doing, then your success is just one bullshitty vacuum."

"You never believe it. You never take it for granted. You just go on. Just enjoy the moment."

"This is all my dream. You guys are just in it."