Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - Benefit Article #3, more detailed

Bon Jovi rocks Shore high school

Published in the Asbury Park Press 12/20/02
By JOE PIKE
STAFF WRITER
After all these years of fame and fortune, Jon Bon Jovi has finally made it big.

"One day, a cover band played in our high school, and I thought if I ever played in this place I'd be big," said the New Jersey rocker before playing to nearly 800 Rumson-Fair Haven High School students at yesterday's benefit concert. "So, I guess today, I finally made it."

Bon Jovi played for more than an hour in the school's auditorium to help raise money for the Parker Family Health Center, a nonprofit clinic in Red Bank that caters to low-income families who cannot afford medical services.

Bon Jovi said it was a letter he received from three members of the school's Spanish Honors Society that made up his mind to come to the school in Rumson.

"As the letter came to me, I felt the heart strings when I realized that if there was anything I wanted to do with my efforts to pass to another generation, it was to see them become more involved in the community," Bon Jovi said, "so we decided that I'd come to their school."

Before the show, the three students, seniors Chris Harris and Laura Amann, both of Fair Haven, and Lauren Pappa of Rumson, presented the Parker Family Health Center's Dr. Eugene Cheslock with a check for $36,500. The money was raised through ticket sales to students and their families, T-shirt sales and money from an ad journal.

"It's very hard to consider that there are people in the community that are sick and can't get help," Bon Jovi said, "and the community has been so great to me, so I really wanted to return the favor."

Bon Jovi opened the show with the song "Love for Sale" before playing "Prayer 94," the slower tempo version of his 1986 hit "Livin' on a Prayer." Jovi then went into "Everyday," the popular single off his latest album "Bounce."

He said, because he wasn't playing with his normal band, he came up with the set list only a couple of hours before the show while teaching close friend, guitarist Bobby Bandiera, a few songs.

"We were all pretty familiar with the songs, but we just had to learn a few things and then you just roll with it," Bandiera said.

The band, made up of close friends who happened to be touring in the area, included Bandiera and David Bryan on keyboard. Hugh McDonald was on bass, Everett Bradley did backup vocals and percussion and Lorenza Ponce played the violin.

"I guess what this does is offer these kids the opportunity to think big," Bon Jovi said.

He then segued into his song "Misunderstood" by telling the students about how he recently took his son, Jesse, to a New York Giants football game.

"He just wanted to see those cheerleaders, and I knew he was my son," said Bon Jovi, before dedicating the song to his "lovely wife" Dorothea.

Bon Jovi then went into "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" and "Bed of Roses," both off the album "Crossroad."

"It's all good fun," Bon Jovi said of playing a smaller venue. "Last Saturday I played the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, as a band, so five days later to play Rumson-Fair Haven auditorium, it's just good fun."

Bon Jovi then played one of his many No. 1 hits, "I'll Be There for You" followed by an Elvis cover "That's Alright Momma." He closed the show by playing "Blood on Blood" and his hit "Dead or Alive."

"We thought we should have Bon Jovi play a concert at the auditorium, but then reality set in and we were like, 'What are the chances of a rock icon really coming to our school?' " Pappa said in her on-stage introduction at the start of the show.

"I guess we're going out with a bang."