Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - The Oregonian 4-11-03

Universality keeps Bon Jovi a-bounce

04/11/03

ERIC R. DANTON KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

Most of their '80s hair-band contemporaries have been relegated to used-CD bins everywhere, but somehow Bon Jovi is still selling out arenas and achieving multiplatinum record sales.

Although popular music has changed since Bon Jovi got together 20 years ago, the band's approach hasn't. Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres and Hugh McDonald are still playing anthemic ballads and boisterous rockers -- catchy and melodic, if not enduringly memorable. So what's their secret?

"If you could bottle it, I think everybody would be doing it," Sambora says from a stop in Minneapolis, on a tour that is scheduled to come to the Rose Garden arena Monday night. "I think No. 1, Jon and I really have a knack for writing songs that people can really relate to."

People definitely relate. As the pop-metal flip side to Bruce Springsteen's rock 'n' roll tributes to working-class heroes, Bon Jovi conveys similar sentiments. The protagonists in Bon Jovi songs are instantly sympathetic and have a universality that attracts fans who can see themselves in, for example, Tommy and Gina's in-love-but-broke predicament in "Livin' On a Prayer."

The songs may hook 'em, but it's the live shows that keep fans coming back.

"Our touring business has always been a big, big part of what we do," Sambora says. "So we have a very, very loyal fan base that has been coming to see us for a long, long time, and we're very loyal to it. We're actually selling out stadiums. The arenas are the small gigs."

Recorded after Jon Bon Jovi did an acting stint on the hit TV show "Ally McBeal," "Bounce" has sold more than 500,000 copies since October, but that's paltry by Bon Jovi standards. The group's 1986 album, "Slippery When Wet," hit No. 1 on the Billboard magazine chart and has sold more than 12 million copies. Even so, the band is pleased with "Bounce" and the air of optimism it projects, something that was important to the group after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Only three of the 12 tracks are about 9/11, but Sambora says the attacks colored the album.

"Jon and I were in the middle of it; I had left the city the day before to go to Jon's house to continue our writing process. I could see the Trade Center from Jon's back yard, for God's sake," Sambora says.

The tour runs through the summer before ending at Giants Stadium in August. Sambora says the show features the biggest stage setup yet. He wouldn't say much about the performance itself, except that he and the band are working hard and having fun.

"This is really what we're thinking about right now, being great every night," Sambora says. "We're playing a lot of stuff off the new record and it's going over like gangbusters, and all the hits you want to hear, man."