Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community

Question:Ok, Bazz, one pretty dangerous question - What do you think of when you hear the name Bon Jovi?

Seb: People say: "Oh you guys wouldn't have made it without Bon Jovi."
I go "Who knows?", I don't know.I don't think anybody, though if they weren't
offered the ****in' biggest tour in the world with the biggest management
in the world, with a big record contract, I can't see 'em going.
"No I don't think so, I think I'm gonna wait around a couple more years and
do it all my way", you know?**** that shit, man!Most guys on my age would
give their left nut to do what we've been doing this year!But if you want to know
the whole story this is the way it is..."Snake" grew up with Jon.
Their backyards faced each other in New Jersey when they were kids. You know,
they got laid for the first time together at the same party. And they got drunk together
for the first time.They were like ****in' best friends,right? Then,when they both
started getting involved in bands,they kind make this pact. You know like,
"If you make it first,man, I'll ****in' come back and help you", and vice versa, you know?
Which was pretty ****in' cool for the rest of us in the band!**** yeah, you did the
right thing that day, "Snake" old buddy!

Question: What about the song publishing?

Seb: Jeez it's on the album,isn't it? If you look at the fine print, I mean,
yeah that's what happened, man! Things like that happen to everybody in this business.
I had to pay a former manager, when I joined Skid row, like $20,000. Just to be
****in' in this band! And I mean,I didn't have that kind of money. I'd never
sold any records! But Jon gave me that money to pay this guy off, or I couldn't
have been in this band!

Question: When you said Jon, tell us more about the incident between you guys?

Seb:Ohhhh,here is the story, what really happened was, it was the end of the tour
and the road crew decided it was a gag night, right?Maybe we took our little gag
too far,I don't know. I mean,we did the same thing at the beginning of the tour
and there was no comeback from his endor anything. I was grabbed just I was
about to goon stage. Somebody poured a gallon of freezing cold ice-milk over me!
But the intro tape was rolling and I just had to go on there covered in all this shit!
So I go out there - big gag-and when I get the mic I go this rant against Jon.
Like "Come on up here, pussy,and get a piece of me, motherf@cker!" And all this shit.
But see, he's my friend and it's like, that's our sense of humour, you know? But I guess
in front of 20,000 people that maybe don't get the joke, it looked kinda heavy. I mean,
I watched the tape back and it came over really ****in' harsh an' all. It was like a
riot gonna start. But you know, this was my first tour. I didn't know all the rules to
these games yet. Then it turned out that Jon didn't know anything about what his road
crew had done to me. And he got pissed off and when we came offstage we had I a fight,
I never wanna say this,though. I'll never back down from a fight.Anybody comes near to me,
they're gonna get a ****in' kick in the head. And that's the way I'm gonna leave it, that's
all there is to say! But, hey man, I still love Jon and thank him for the best year of my life!

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The same question,but with different answer:)

Seb: Jon had his brother and several bodyguards with him! He got them to pin
me against a wall,and then threated me.He stood there wagging his finger
and lecturing. Well, I was quite prepare to take him on, but not with the others with
him. So, I told him that if he wanted to step into my room by himself, then I would
have punched him out. No problem! Who do you think would have won?
A lightweight Bruce Spingsteen fan or a heavyweight Metallica maniac like me!

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Seb:He has $70 million in his bank acount, but he seems to be desperate to get an extra $2
million from us! Why, I don't know! But he was under a publishing contract whereby we make
nothing at all. And I promise you that unless things change we will not carry on.
I'd rather split this band up that carry on making money for Jon Bon Jovi!

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Question: What do you think of Jon’s acting abilities? And would he work you him in an acting role if the part demanded it?
Seb: I’ve never seen him really act. There was one movie where he was a pot dealer, and I saw a little bit of that, but he’s a very good actor because he doesn’t smoke pot! I did have acrimony towards Jon for years, but on my Forever Wild TV show I interviewed Tico Torres [Bon Jovi drummer], we played ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’, had a brew at the bar and talked about the old days. All I was ever mad at Jon for was to let me have my own life. That was it. Please, I don’t need someone to hold my ****ing hand.

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Question: Let’s imagine you can go back in time and change three events in your life. If you don’t mind, I’d like to guess that they would be: a) signing away such a large percentage of your royalties to Jon Bon Jovi, b) the bottle-throwing incident and c), not having hit Jon harder. Am I right?
Seb: Awww, I have more good memories of Bon Jovi than bad ones now. I’ve bashed Jon relentlessly in the past, but I don’t feel that way any more. When I think of those times when I was touring with Bon Jovi and living at his house for two weeks… okay, maybe the deal we signed wasn’t the most equitable of all time, but it’s possible that if we hadn’t, you might never have heard of me. And I respect his tenacity in an industry that devours its young and old alike.
So to answer your question… I did wear a really ridiculous T-shirt, and I can’t believe I’m bringing it up again, but it was really rotten, really stupid. And the bottle throwing thing, yeah, I’d change that. Then again, if somebody cracks you in the head with a bottle, what do you do? You ain’t thinking rationally. If somebody hit me with a bottle in the head again I’d probably knock the **** right out of them.

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Richie: What happend was that I was part of a company with Jon, but disagreed with
was going on. So, I gave back some money and got out!

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Jon(on Seb):Things got to such a point that, in the end I knocked him onto his
little butt. But then I picked him up and hugged him, with two words he was too
arrogant for his own good.Something had to be done abouit it"

Jon: With Skids, that was something I'd been working on for two years, for about
a year and a half of thatwe were writing songs with them, re-writing songs, paying for
studio time, paying their rent and every single thing that came with them!

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Jon:The Skids are wonderful guys though. I just spent a week's
vacantion with Snake n' Rachel! I still love them very much - and
Sebastian's probably a good kid too. I don't spend enough time with
him to find out! I know,it's though for him to grow out of my shadow.
I mean,every ****ing interview they were saying "Jon did this for you.
Jon did that"!I'm sure he got sick of it, like "****,Jon!" I understand!

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Question: Rumor has it Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora had owned the publishing off the first Skid Row record. After its huge success there was obviously a good amount of money made. Jon & Richie had already stacked their bank accounts pretty well due to their own sales. After this was made somewhat public knowledge rumor was that Slash from GNR said something to Richie that prompted him to give back his share of the money to
the band (you guys, Skid Row). However Jon didn't do the same after Baz pulled his shit.
Is this true, please elaborate?

Dave "Snake" Sabo:I know Rich felt uncomfortable about the money he made off of our 1st album but the money was never given back to us, that I am sure of. But, as far as that whole thing goes, we basically signed a shitty deal, but we all signed it, and contrary to what anyone might say, we all knew what we were doing. It's just that when success hit, we realized how much we had given up and it was quite a bit. But, we still made a pretty penny ourselves.

Question:Another rumor, there was a very ugly backstage incident involving Jon, Sebastian & security guards. What is the real truth about this. Who said what, who slapped or punched who?

Dave "Snake" Sabo:What happened was, it was the 2nd to the last night of the tour, and the BonJovi crew were doing the usual end of the tour antics, dumping milk on us, throwing eggs at us while we were onstage, all of it harmless. So, as this is happening, Sebastian announces to the crowd "Jon BonJovi should come up here and get a Piece of ME",
and then we went into the song. He didn't say this maliciously at all. He said it in good fun, because we all thought Jon was behind it all. Well, after our set, I'm walking up the ramp of the arena, and I see Jon walking towards me. I start laughing and say to him "man, you really got us, that was awesome!" And walks right past me with this scowl on his face headed right towards Baz. So, I stop and turn around, because I have this bad feeling in me, and I see Baz smiling and going to give Jon a high-five and says, "You guys totally got us," then I see Jon throw a punch at Baz and I'm like "what the **** is going on?". So Baz throws a punch back at him then a ton of security jumps in and separates the two of them, but as they're heading back to our dressing rooms they're still yelling and screaming at each other and I still don't know why. As it turns out, Jon had nothing to do with any of the
end-of-tour- stuff and he thought that Baz called him a pussy on stage when, in fact, Baz was just introing Piece of Me! To this day I defend Baz on this because he did nothing wrong and it was a completely ridiculous incident.

;)