Target tie-in gives Bon Jovi more 'Bounce' to the ounce
Jon Bream
Star Tribune
Published Feb. 21, 2003 MUS21
Jon Bon Jovi vividly remembers his last performance in the Twin Cities.
"The dressing room caught on fire. A real honest-to-God flame fire," he said. "One of those Sterno things underneath the bad food that they're trying to keep warm caught fire, hit a napkin and poof! I was right next door, and I looked over my shoulder and saw the room full of smoke."
No one got hurt, and the July 2001 show at Target Center went on. "Fire extinguisher, couple bottles of Evian, and it was OK," Bon Jovi said with a chuckle.
"That's the venue with burgundy seats, right?" he asked. Actually, they're cardinal or, officially, Target red.
Bon Jovi has been seeing lots of Target red these days. That's the color of the box containing the band's new specialty CD, "Bon Jovi," being sold only at Target stores. It has eight songs -- mostly demos, a couple of acoustic numbers and a live selection.
Bon Jovi onstage in New Jersey
Rich Schultz
Ap
The tunes were in the can; Bon Jovi threw together the CD and shot a TV commercial. Target has set up a rack in each store featuring the band's albums.
"I have no qualms about doing it," the singer said. "You give B sides [non-album tracks] away all the time; some people put them on the Net, some put them on their singles, some give them to radio stations for charity records, some people give them to Target. I'm aware of what this [campaign] does for sales of records."
Similar tie-ins for the likes of U2 and Sting resulted in quick sales of 100,000 to 400,000 copies, he said.
"I was sitting in a restaurant and Dan Aykroyd came up to me. I don't know Dan. He said, 'I saw that Target commercial and I went out and bought that record.' Cool. It's just a different outlet if you're not watching MTV."
Sales of the latest official album by Bon Jovi -- which has sold more than 90 million albums worldwide -- hasn't exactly measured up to its predecessor, "Crush," which topped 2 million in the United States and 8 million worldwide. "Bounce," released last fall, has sold 500,000 in the States, which has the singer "flustered."
"Radio is fragmented so much," he said, searching for explanations. "I don't know if anyone is watching video channels like they did. The economy is going in the tubes quick. Any kind of pleasure money that kids might have has been spent on other things -- computer games, movies, sneakers."
Nonetheless, he still thinks that "Bounce" might rebound. For one, the group has just started a U.S. tour (which includes a sold-out concert Tuesday at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center). Secondly, the band just released the second single from "Bounce." Plus, the new CD has sold more than 2.5 million copies outside the United States.
Actually, Bon Jovi is bigger abroad than in the States. The New Jersey boys just returned from a tour of Japan -- the world's second biggest record market -- on which they rocked in seven stadiums.
NFL favorites
Bon Jovi is not a band to turn down opportunities for exposure.
"These days, you do anything you can," said the frontman, interviewed by phone from his New Jersey home.
Most recently, he sang "My Funny Valentine" on NBC's "Today" show on Valentine's Day.
The National Football League also came calling. Bon Jovi performed live in New York's Times Square to hype the season opener last fall, sang at halftime during a Thanksgiving game and rocked on the field after the Super Bowl.
Are they the official rock band of the NFL?
"I think we're the only rock that the commissioner knows, to be honest," Bon Jovi said. "Who am I to say 'No'? That's my sport. It was quite a thrill."
Such a big thrill that Bon Jovi said the band not only didn't get paid but had to pay its own way to get to and from the games.
"We were pretty blown away by the NFL's proposal to make 'It's My Life' the new theme song of the trophy ceremony," the singer said. "Those are big shoes to fill when you think of 'We Are the Champions' being there for -- what, 25 years?"
While football is Bon Jovi's favorite sport, acting is his favorite sideline. He has appeared in nine films, including "Moonlight and Valentino" and "Vampires: Los Muertos," and he played Calista Flockhart's boyfriend last year on TV's "Ally McBeal."
He does not want to pursue a television career. He viewed "Ally McBeal" like a movie -- four or five months of shooting on the West Coast, where he was able to write a Bon Jovi album with guitarist Richie Sambora, who lives there.
He also did some modeling for Versace, which made him cringe, he said, when it was mentioned.
"Truthfully, I was in a situation meeting some different people," he said. "The opportunity was there to take my picture, which I've had done a thousand times in my life. So I said, 'Try it.' End of experience. Chalk that up on the negative side."
A careerist, Bon Jovi, 40, is willing to experiment. "If I had to look at somebody to be a role model it would be Sinatra -- he made 60 movies and toured till he was 80. That would be pretty fulfilling. And he's from Jersey."
Besides the current U.S. tour, Bon Jovi's next project will probably be a live DVD of an acoustic concert in Japan with an orchestra.
"I don't speak Japanese. We met the guy at sound check, got the charts faxed over from L.A. We did 'em live without ever rehearsing them once; most bands would have to rehearse for a month," he said. "We really went outside the lines. The show was 3 hours and 40 minutes -- nonstop -- and seven songs with the orchestra in a 32-or 33-song set.
"We did it for fun, and we financed it. I surely want it to come out this year. Ask my rotten record company."
There also might be a boxed set of favorites and rarities. Bon Jovi mentioned that the band's engineer had found 21 songs that "I've forgotten about."
While he might not remember everything he's recorded, he recalls playing at the since-demolished Met Center in Bloomington in 1989.
"I remember the place where -- what was it, the North Stars? -- the North Stars used to play. It had really bad seats -- green seats, white seats, yellow seats. Wow! These are the goofy things that I remember."
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IF YOU GO
Bon Jovi
Opening: Goo Goo Dolls.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul.
Tickets: Sold out.
Website:
http://www.bonjovi.com
02-21-2003, 08:28 PM
