There you go:
He gives rock a good name
Locked in a closet while his kids pee on the floor, Jon Bon Jovi chats about his philanthropic rock & roll lifestyle.
By Amy Carr
Go ahead, call Jon Bon Jovi a has-been ’80s rocker. With the year he’s having, you can call him David Lee Roth and he won’t give a damn.
His latest album, Have a Nice Day, hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and his recent duet with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles (“Who Says You Can’t Go Home”) made Bon Jovi the first rock band to ever score a No. 1 country hit. He’s filling stadiums across the country, and brings his tour to Soldier Field Friday 21. The 44-year-old singer/actor did a guest stint on The West Wing this past season and plans to start filming a movie with Queen Latifah in January. Bon Jovi’s also been busy earning a reputation as a generous philanthropist. Using the profits from his arena football team, the Philadelphia Soul, he and Habitat for Humanity continue to build homes and playgrounds for inner-city families in Philly. Next month, he’ll visit New Orleans to give 22 families the keys to the new homes built with a $1 million donation he made to the one person he saw getting things done post-Katrina: Oprah. When he called us from his New Jersey home earlier this month, Bon Jovi sounded less like a superstar and more like a harried dad trying to get four kids (ages 13, 11, 4 and 2) out of his hair long enough to talk to a reporter.
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Jon Bon Jovi. How are ya?
I’m a little hectic today. The kids throw the god-darn diaper off, and then they run around and they say they want to watch Barney, and they pee on the floor. I’m locking myself in a closet as we’re talking.
Yeah, I know the feeling. So, you come through Chicago a lot. Ever think of giving up that whole Jersey thing and moving to the Heartland?
Chicago is a great city. The restaurants are great. I like to sit outside because, much like New York City, people are dying to take those clothes off and strut around the streets and sit outside and people-watch. The bars are great, and you’re sports crazy.
You’re a little sports crazy yourself. You had to buy yourself a team?
I am a little sports crazy. But your Chicago Rush won the championship. How great is that? I love football so much that when the NFL season was done I would get sad. A friend of mine told me about the AFL and when I realized its affordability, accessibility and all the good things it does in the community, it moved me. If anything, it was a guide to my philanthropy. I could give back to the community under the guise of football, and it didn’t seem like a carpetbagger rock star flying into this town for one show a year and then splitting.
Why did you give Oprah a million bucks?
Because I knew Oprah is someone you don’t mess with. When the system was initially broken and the mayor was going loony about the federal government not being able to handle this [Katrina] situation, I knew who to go to. I said, Here’s a million dollars, let’s go make a difference. Houses are built and people are moving in next month.
How did the country song happen?
It’s a mainstream Bon Jovi song, so it’s no different than “Blood on Blood” or “Just Older.” But when we wrote it, we knew that the opportunity was there. I accidentally stumbled upon Keith Urban in a hotel one day and said, “Why don’t you come down and play a little, sing a little, ’cause I got a great idea.” It was a great experiment, never to be released. I went to the record company and said, “I have a great idea, not with this guy, but do you have someone else?” They said we have a new girl nobody knows of, Jennifer Nettles, in a band called Sugarland. The girl knocked it out of the park.
You’ve been heavily linked to the Democratic party. Which was more fun: campaigning for John Kerry or (The West Wing’s) Matt Santos?
[Laughs] Matt, because I found out I was on the winning side! It’s been tough. I am Al Gore’s No. 1 fan. I just adore the man.
Are you going to run for office?
That’s a very hard job. Jokingly, someone once asked Clinton and I whose job was better. I said mine—because I get to keep the house and the plane! Just being a concerned citizen and philanthropist sounds like a good idea to me.
Does anything come between you and your leather pants?
[Laughs] I can’t answer that on the grounds that I might incriminate myself, and as a future politician I shouldn’t be doing that.
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I am when you think that no one needs you,sees you or believes you,no one's there to understand.
I am,I'll be there to be that someone when you think that no one is there to hold your hand...
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07-20-2006, 07:53 PM
