The story about "Dry county"

hi!

a friend of mine needs some informations about the lyrics of "dry county".
what inspired jon to write this song?
i once read that it had somthing to do with his motorbike trip in the early 90's. am I wrong?`
please tell me all you know about the lyrics!

thanks

Jon was taking a cross country trip on his motorcycle and in Texas at the time. He would stop in little bars or whatever and talk with people and hearing stories about how people had their dreams that went up in smoke was something he could relate to. He had the dream of being a rock star, but it was nearly killing him. At one point he stopped somewhere and ordered a beer and was told, "You can't get a beer here, it's a dry county." He'd never heard that phrase before. There are certain counties that do not sell alcohol at all; some that don't sell liquor. It's local goverment initiative voted on by the population of that county. So, the words "Dry County" stuck with him and he combined it with the stories of people going to Texas oil towns hoping to find a pot of gold and "coming up with less than a pot to piss in" and his own experience with the music business and the song was born.

thank you very much, becky!

Is there nothing you dont know Becky?

Thanks so much for telling that,never heard it before and I love that song so much so was very interesting to hear how it was "born".!

More, originally posted by Lord Of The Jovi Realm in January:

After New Jersey the band got together at the urging of a Japanese concert promoter. Jon and RIchie were each paid 1/2 million dollars US for that one show. The first X-mas show was a warm up for this high paying gig. They only played a handful of songs and parted ways for a good long stretch. Jons physical exhaustion and mental fatigue were very evident. He tried to recharge himself with Young Guns II and got the band together to play for the Academy Awards that year, but the band was unofficially separated at this point. The same promoter in Japan offered them the chance to play Japan again the following year as an exclusive engagement which was billed sometimes in Japan as the last Bon Jovi show. Jon and Richie got a cool 1 million each for this. But afterward Jon said to the band "we can't do this anymore" as he left. Richie released and toured behind his first solo record which he called "the greatest tour of my life". Meanwhile Jon tried a few things to "find himself, and deal with the end of the band". He toured with Southside Johnny as a backup musician and then took a long road trip across the country with a few close friends. In a little town in the middle of nowhere at a hotel where they stopped for the evening Jon headed down to the hotel restaurant for a little nightcap to help him sleep. The restaurant told him they didn't have a bar and when he asked for directions to the closest establishment, he was told that it was over an hour away due to local liquor laws. In the banquet room, still unable to sleep, Jon wrote at the grand piano the song that would save the band, a piano part, 2 verses and the chorus to Dry County. The next morning after breakfast Jon called Richie and left him a mesage on his machine. "Rich, it's me........I'm not ready to give up yet, I should be home in a few days, I got a song I think would be great, can you call the guys and see what they are doing, I think we should try" Richie said he kept the tape from the answering machine and he did hear Jon's song a few days later and it made him cry. "He never wrote a song like that before, it was real grown up music, no tits and ass, no fun and games but powerful", "when I laid down my track it was one take, Jon's voice just led me to the right solo". "Whatever happened that night in the desert changed our course, we were set on being apart" "shit that piano saved the greatest band in the world, (laughs)"

hahah sambora is such a ****in hero!

...blimey...I didn't realise it had such a story around it!... Love the Richie comment about the song!... thanks for posting!

from what i can gather form jon and the band

jon did th motorbike thing, as already mentioned and stayin in motels and shit when one night he was playin darts or something and the phrase 'dry county' was used. then he was stuck with this lyric and went back and wrote it

then richie made a mediocre song awesome

Wow. That was new info. Thanks guys!