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From pop star to Pop Warner: At home with Jon Bon Jovi

Published in the Asbury Park Press 8/01/03
By KELLY-JANE COTTER
Music Writer
Jon Bon Jovi rubbed his eyes as he opened the door to his mansion on (edited by Sambo-Chris).

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BON JOVI
With Jason Mraz
6 p.m. Thursday and Aug. 8
Giants Stadium, New Jersey Turnpike Exit 16-W, East Rutherford
$39.50 and $75
(201) 935-3900

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"I just got up and I'm still kind of out of it," he said.

It was after 1 p.m. and it seemed doubtful that Bon Jovi, one of the hardest-working and shrewdest people in the music business, was lollygagging his day away. But he and his bandmates had just returned from a concert in Virginia the night before, and they were in Philadelphia the night before last, all part of a world tour that would give anyone jet lag.

"Ahhhh," he said, plunking down in a leather arm chair in his office/music room. "It's crazy, you know, because you're on the road and then you come back and then there are the kids and everything."

Jon Bon Jovi is a star, of course, but he's also a suburban homebody who is as enthusiastic about his son's Pop Warner team as he is about his band's world tour.

The "Bounce" tour, which includes concerts Thursday and Aug. 8 at Giants Stadium, has taken a new turn. On some dates, the band will perform an acoustic set as well as the full electric set. Bon Jovi's fondness for acoustic performances goes way back -- he and the band were the first to go "unplugged" on MTV, sparking a popular format.

This fall Bon Jovi plans to release an album of acoustic arrangements of the band's greatest hits, with a boxed set of new material "from the vaults" due next year. Meanwhile, the live acoustic sets feature some surprises, such as Bon Jovi's version of John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith in Me."

"For us, it's fun, and the audience last night seemed a bit stunned," Bon Jovi said. "Then, when we plug in the guitars, it's like 'The Wizard Of Oz' when it goes from black-and-white to color. And it brings the show to three hours."

Bon Jovi popped a rough mix of the acoustic album into his CD player. Out came drastically altered arrangements of "It's My Life," with a melancholy tempo, expressive vocals, lots of piano and synthesized harp; and a percussion-heavy "Keep the Faith."

On both tracks, Bon Jovi's voice is strong and elastic. He agrees that his voice has matured.

"Oh, yeah, the voice lessons I took in the late '80s were invaluable," he said. "I guess everybody goes through that. (Areosmith's Steve) Tyler got better, Bono got better. I tell you, though, sometimes I listen to 'Slippery When Wet,' and I wince and I think, 'That's the sound of a 24-year-old kid.' But that's what I was."

The 1986 album "Slippery When Wet" made Bon Jovi a household name and spawned the enduring hits "Livin' on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name," among others. Almost 20 years later, Bon Jovi, always accommodating to his fans, never fails to include those songs in a set list.

Bon Jovi's many awards sit on a mantle in his office, where there is also a piano and a collection of director's chairs. On the coffee table, a stack of books and a chess set share space with a framed photo of Bon Jovi, his wife, Dorothea; Southside Johnny Lyon, Gary U.S. Bonds and Bruce Springsteen, taken in April at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank at a benefit show for Bobby Bandiera, a fellow member of the Jersey Shore music scene.

Bon Jovi grew up in a working-class family in Sayreville. When he made it big, he moved to Rumson. Five years ago, he moved to (edited by Sambo-Chris) in a house designed for him. It's pale gold and looks like a French chateau, except for the massive American flag that drapes the front wall. Children's swings hang from a stately old tree on the lawn.

The property also includes a free-standing recording studio, where the band created the 2000 album "Crush," and a pub for parties.

Visitors to the main house get buzzed in through a wrought-iron gate by Bon Jovi himself, who can see approaching cars from monitors at his desk.

"I don't have butlers," he said. "I don't like entourages and the trappings of what my job brings."

This is why Bon Jovi has remained a Jersey guy, rather than moving to, say, Hollywood ("You can burn it," he said. "That's a disingenuous, cold little island unto itself"). Monmouth County affords Bon Jovi and his family a degree of privacy.

"I want my kids to have as normal a life as possible," Bon Jovi said. "As it is, they can't ride their bikes on (edited by Sambo-Chris) road- it's too busy. But I at least want to live somewhere where I can go to a Pop Warner game and cheer on my son and not be bothered."