Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - Great boxset news from Richie and David

SECTION: SHOWBIZ NEWS

DISTRIBUTION: TO SHOWBIZ EDITORS

LENGTH: 718 words

HEADLINE: Bon Jovi's Sambora e David Bryan talk about the upcoming
BoxSet.

DATELINE: New York, N.Y., June 24

BODY:

URL: http://www.prnewswire.com

LOAD-DATE: June 25, 2004

With a hundred million albums under their belts, Bon Jovi are set to
release their first ever Box Set this fall. "There are still some
issues to be dealt with at Universal as regards the choice of a
label" Sambora said – "but we are confident that a solution will be
found sooner rather than later".

Vivendi's Universal Music division suffered from sluggish record
sales and is still recovering from scandals that occurred at a
Corporate level. Earlier this week, Vivendi's former CEO was
formally put under investigation following a series of scandals that
jeopardized the reputation and the survival of the Group.

"In recent times we clearly suffered from such management
instability and it is no secret that Bon Jovi were dissatisfied with
the treatment we received" Jon Bon Jovi said. And he added: "We were
so mad at them that I decided not to include on the This Left Feels
Right album a couple of new tracks. You know, we have been around
for some twenty years and we do not want to play that game with
record companies anymore. These days it is only about commerce. It
is time for Bon Jovi to put more political pressure on these guys
until they realize who the hell they are. And, I guess, we are fully
entitled to do so: if Universal Music has become a leading company,
well, I guess that's because some of their artists, such as
ourselves, have done extremely well over the last two decades".

The new Box Set will feature some of Bon Jovi's unreleased
tracks. "It is actually unbelievable" Sambora said. "We found stuff
we completely forgot we composed. And, quite honestly, some stuff
could have become a hit but has not been included in any records
because they would not just fit into them".

Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer, said that the Box Set will feature
material from the New Jersey outtakes." We wrote some 40 songs for
that record", the singer turned-into-a football team owner said, and
added that "back in 1988, it was our idea to release two albums
almost simultaneously. The record company aborted that project and
we have got at least ten songs people have never ever heard before".

The collection will feature some demos from the band's 1980s best
selling albums such as "Slippery When Wet" and "New Jersey". "We've
got a Bad Medicine version with the talkbox. We ultimately got rid
of it on the album version because it sounded a bit like Livin' On A
Prayer. Back then, we wanted to rewrite Bad Name and Prayer so much
that our first session for the New Jersey album was heavily
influenced by Slippery. That made us release that we needed to take
an evolutionary approach".

Surely, the band's latest album has taken more than an evolutionary
approach. "Yeah, I agree, This Left Feels Right is quite
revolutionary… We completely reworked on our hits and the end-
outcome was an amazing one." Jon said. "And it would be safe to
assume that our next album will be produced by Pat Leonard. Great
producer. He really stimulated our creativity and gave it a left
turn".

Other surprises on the Box Set? David, Jovi's talented keyboard
player, said that "you'll get a Bonus DVD featuring live stuff and
in-studio footages. I mean, it's pretty cool to see us composing and
performing songs like Lay Your Hands On Me in the studio back in
1988. Cool stuff".

Jon Bon Jovi was reluctant to disclose the name of their next
release. "I went to a Japanese radio program last January and the
word slipped off my tongue. So… I better not say much at this stage.
All I can say is that we are considering of putting out a new single
to support the release but at this stage it all depends on the
record company. Richie is going to put out a blues album so our
bargaining power may be slightly reduced. All I can promise our fans
is that we do not want to repeat the This Left Feels Right marketing
experience. All I can say about the new song is that it rocks. We
tried to write a story, it's a sort of Tommy&Gina or Born To Be My
Baby kind of song".

More information to follow.