PART 1.-

From hair to rock eternity. (interview with rock icon Jon Bon Jovi)
Author/s: Gwyneth Paltrow, July 1995

Album after album Bon Jovi has defied the critics and cynics, and delighted the masses. The bank epitomizes the power of pop to translate across borders of land and language. Here, leader Jon Bon Jovi talks to actress Gwyneth Paltrow from Taipei, Taiwan, the second stop on Bon Jovi's current world tour

Just as neighboring Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen is said to be the poet laureate of the working class, Bon Jovi has become the cool older brother to younger generations who have continually found refuge in the band's emotive power ballads and walloping rockers about teen angst, raging hormones, and the struggle of growing up and finding your place in the world. While the band releases its seventh record, These Days, this summer, singer Jon Bon Jovi will break into a new arena: the movies. We asked his co-star in Moonlight and Valentino, Gwyneth Paltrow - who's been a fan since she was rocking out to "Livin' on a Prayer" in the ninth grade - to talk with the rock star about his hits, hairdos, hometown, and happiness.

JON BON JOVI: Hey, Gwynie.

GWYNETH PALTROW: Hi, honey. How are you?

JBJ: Good.

GP: Are you?

JBJ: Yeah! I mean, I'm upside-down. Everything is completely the opposite here in Taipei.

GP: What time is it there?

JBJ: It's 12:30 in the afternoon tomorrow.

GP: Did you do a show last night?

JBJ: No. We started the tour in Bombay the day before. You know how in Central Park they have horses? There they have camels!

GP: Oh my God!

JBJ: It was so wild! It was Indiana Jones.

GP: And how long does this tour go?

JBJ: Life. I'm out all year at least. Last tour was thirty-seven countries. This one's about forty-five.

GP: Mother of God.

JBJ: Just about anywhere there's electricity. So what are you up to? Are you working like crazy?

GP: Like crazy. Since we did our movie, I've done two more, and I'm starting my third.

JBJ: My God. You know, they screened Moonlight and Valentino in New York. I saw it in L.A. a while ago.

GP: Did you like your work?

JBJ: Yeah. At first I was scared to death with you guys - I was like "Duh . . ."

GP: But you're so good. You're so natural -

JBJ: Aggh.

GP: - and so charming. Do you want to do more movies?

JBJ: I'd rather be doing that than this right now.

GP: No way. Really?

JBJ: I had such a good time that if all movies are as much fun as that one, then I'm dying to do one.

GP: How will you fit everything in? You're a daddy now, too, for the second time. So what do you do when you're going on tour? Will your wife, Dorothea, bring them over later?

JBJ: When we hit Europe in mid-May, the families will come over. I've had to commit to the band for the rest of this year, so I just turned down a film. I enjoyed doing Moonlight and Valentino so much that I want to do another.

GP: Why was the movie so fun for you? What did you like the best?

JBJ: You guys, first of all. Everybody was just a riot. But the whole experience . . . the reason it made so much sense to me is because i got to be artistic without having all the other stuff that for a while went with the band, which was having to write, direct, and, in essence, produce it. With acting, all I've got to do is show up and speak someone else's words.

GP: Right!

JBJ: I get to be in one place for a long period of time and still do something artistic. And with this, I'm in Taipei today, Manila tomorrow, Jakarta the next day. This is really great, too. But I don't think I'm going to do 250-show tours anymore.

GP: Is that how many it is?

JBJ: Yeah.

GP: Jesus Christ, are you kidding me? Do you do the same thing every night?

JBJ: No, no, no. The good thing about this being our seventh album is that there are a lot of songs. So I mix it up every night. Then we take great bands to play with. Like in Europe, Van Halen's supporting us. Then we're playing with the Stones just for the thrill of playing with the Stones.

GP: That is so cool. Do you do your wicked acoustic version of "Wanted Dead or Alive"?

JBJ: Yeah.

GP: You do? Oh man. I want to come see you guys play. Maybe I'll come to Europe. What kind of things do you do to change it every night?

JBJ: I make a set list and then I completely disregard it. I just look at it for a guideline and then decide as I'm going along what I feel like playing. And the band has been together so many years that they're able to follow me. It keeps the whole crew excited.

GP: Are you good friends with all of them?

JBJ: Yeah. It's sort of like a movie crew, in that there's that many people around. But it's the same people every year. You develop long-term relationships. Like, my guitar tech started working with me when I was about sixteen.

GP: What about the guys in your band?

JBJ: It's the same members since the inception.

GP: So you're like brothers, basically.

JBJ: Oh yeah. Really, you know more about each other than you do your own brothers, because you're with each other more.

GP: You grew up in New Jersey, right?

JBJ: Yeah.

GP: You still live in Jersey.

JBJ: Yeah.

GP: You're a Jersey man.

JBJ: A Jersey man!

GP: Do you love it?

JBJ: You know what? It's my home. I think the way of saying it is, no matter where you go, you're always pulled back home, because that's what you know.

GP: Is your house near where your parents are?

JBJ: Yeah. It's about fifteen minutes away.

GP: That's so nice. And all your guys live in Jersey?

JBJ: All the guys live about ten to fifteen minutes away, and we've always lived close to each other.

GP: Do you think that's important, for you to stay where your roots are?

JBJ: I think so. If this ever was to become a business, or like, "We'll get together September of next year," I'd quit. If it wasn't like "Us against the world . . ."

GP: Right.

JBJ: It was that kind of excitement that made us want to do it in the first place. And if I lost that, then I would stop.

GP: So tell me, you just played Bombay. That's fifty thousand people in one place, right?

JBJ: Mmm-hmm.

GP: And they all came there to hear you, and the music that you wrote and that you were singing.

JBJ: Mmm-hmm.

GP: So, what does that feel like?

JBJ: It's pretty amazing when you stop to think about where you are in the world. I never dreamed of it as a kid. I tell people now, I couldn't have made up lies like this! It's way beyond anything I ever dreamt of. The bands I wanted to be when I grew up were playing in little theaters.

GP: Who were they?

JBJ: A band named Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. They made records and played three-thousand-seaters around the East Coast. They never got to be really big or headline the Garden, let alone go to Bombay. So I never dreamed of places like that.

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