"Jon Bon Jovi"

Okay. I am really excited. About? I've got some great news.

And?

Um, well, it's about, uh.

Oh.

Oh, what's happening today?

Yeah, um, we are, um.

Smart. Less.

That was.

Hi.

We just had a little connection problem with Will. It sounded like you were Hal from 2001.. Yeah. I'm glad you got it all worked out.

I know me too. I, um...

Was there a ghost in the machine?

I guess so. Right? That's the...

Wasn't that a band?

That was an album. the police did.

It was by the police.

Very good album. By the way, the police...

Yeah.

You know, I just.

Well, because Sting went off on his own.

I know. Um, it's just a good memory.

When he went on his own, do you.

Wow.

I don't know. It's early. It's early.

It's really early.

It's early. What am I going to do? They're not all going to be home runs, J.B.

Jason, so did we miss you on Sunday? because we missed... Because you just weren't feeling it? Or were you out of town?

No, I was, uh.

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

Uh, apropos of nothing, Shawnee, I was sent a picture from, um.

No, it was a roller rink.

Okay, so I was close.

That was just yesterday.

Pretty close.

And that was just sort of just like a date you guys had? Like, maybe meet me at the roller skating rink? That's a great question. Tell me what you look like, so I can recognize you.

First of all, that's crazy. I wonder who sent you that. Was it Kevin Nealon?

Eric Idle and I share an attorney, the great Tom Hoverman.

Oh, okay, great. Um, yeah, no, it was, uh, Kevin Nealon's wife, uh, Susan Yankley, who's a very funny actress person. Uh, she decided to have her birthday party at a roller, derby. Like a rolling... What is that called?

It's a roller skating rink.

A roller skating rink, yeah. And so I was, uh, too nervous.

Have you been drinking this morning? You feel like you've been...

No, it's too early.

He's got a latte going.

Have you been eating?

No, not at all.

You haven't eaten anything yet?

And so, Scotty, I was really nervous. No, I haven't eaten anything. So, Scotty, I was really nervous. So I didn't...

Scotty's frying up some donut holes.

But they did have, like, pizza and cake. Thank God. And all that. And popcorn.

I described Sean the other day as junk food curious.

Hey, uh, were there any terrible accidents there at the roller skating rink? Yes, okay. Yeah, because you can really, really hurt your tailbone.

Do you have any good roller skate rink, uh, accident stories?

Can't wait to ask the guest.

Yes. So Scotty... So I didn't want to put him on because I'm on blood thinners. I'm almost done with my blood thinners because of my aphid, right?

Hey, hang on. What does a roller skating accident have to do with blood thinners?

Because if you hit your head or something, you could bleed, like, you could bleed out and die.

Oh, way to think about the worst case scenario.

So anyway, so I was nervous. So the first 30 seconds, my friend Kevin, who you've both met, Kevin and Kerry. Sure. Kevin, bam, mashed his head on the fucking wood floor, wiped out immediately. And so I ran over to him.

No, but when did they get here?

That's a bummer. if he looked at you and he says he's not seeing any stars.

I mean, that's got to.

That's insult to his injury, you know?

Will, you really are glad you rebooted.

Yeah, somebody slept really well.

Yeah, I did sleep well.

Anyway, roller derby, but good idea for a birthday party, right, for an adult?

Sounds like not a good idea.

It's up there with an ice skating rink.

You've just described why it's not a good idea.

No, Kevin's totally fine.

Oh, good.

Is he? But I walked, because I didn't want to put the skates on, so Scotty had skates on, and I walked with him around the thing while he skated, and that's so dumb.

A little bit. It's like kind of on brand. You know, now they've got it, these rinks, you know, like an old man, old woman, walker, that can help you ice skate or roller skate. They didn't have that in my day.

Yes, I see that. The kids had that.

What a genius.

Yeah, incredible. Really nice guy.

Did he ask for, like, a drink from you, or was he like, hey, can I get a Diet Coke?

Just bring my car up, boy.

He was really nice.

Whose guest is it today?

It's my guest.

And how do you feel about your choice today, Will?

I feel really, really good. Really? Yeah, you know why? You know what I like? I like international superstars.

Oh, my God. A lot.

Are we going to see stars? Are we going to see stars?

You're going to see a major international superstar, and I'm embarrassing him, but it's so true. But on top of it, or sort of not on top of it, beneath it, he's a really, really, really great guy that I've had the good fortune of spending a little bit of time with over the years. Super, super, good dude. And then you forget that he's sold a gajillion records. That's a lot.

Wow. Triple A list.

Look at, I mean.

Oh my God. It is triple. No one sings higher.

Yeah. Or better.

Or better. Or better. Oh my gosh, Jon Bon Jovi. Hi there, good morning.

This is so cool. I saw Jon like six months ago or something last summer, and I was like, would you ever consider doing our podcast? And he said yes, and it took a minute to organize. He's a very busy man, and I'm so happy you're here. Jon, good to see you, man.

I'm so happy to be here. I'm a huge fan. I listen all the time, and I watched the entire series that you guys did on the road. Oh my God.

Crazy documentary.

In the Dead of Winter. Yes, it was great.

It was great. Now, listener, we have Jon Bon Jovi from the White House. I mean, you look like you're in the kind of place I would love to live. You're doing well, clearly, right? This is a nice building.

I see a lot of house envy just in the pre-roll, when you were talking about Jon's house.

Well, look at me. I'm doing a hostage video here.

Oh, yeah. Look it. I see the background of my office. Yes, I'm a huge Patriots fan. That is Bill Belichick's hoodie.

Now, oh my God. They're wearing the short sleeve. Why did he wear a short sleeved hoodie?

Fashion statement, right? Yeah. Fashion.

Also, he might run hot. Like, he wants the thing, but he also runs a little bit hot. I run hot.

My question is,

who cuts them? Do you know, Jon, who cuts them?

I don't know who cuts them. No. Knowing, when you look closely, I think he probably, I think he cuts them with a butter knife.

Yeah.

With that and just has an odd, he's got sweaty forearms, and I've never met anyone with that. Maybe Thoreau came over and gave him the snip. Yeah, maybe.

He's giving Justin Thoreau a run for his money. Listen, I think if you're winning that many championships, you're doing something right, and he doesn't want to mess with whatever system he's got going.

Why do you have director's chairs there, just to hang out in?

Because I'm a groupie, and when I did my little movie career, I actually stole the entire chair, not the back. You guys that make real movies, I took the whole chair.

You took the whole chair.

Well, you've made a bunch of movies. I want to get into that in a minute. You've done a lot, actually quite a surprising amount of acting.

Yeah, it's a fascinating career.

Yeah, I think that, but you started as a singer, as a musician, and I kind of want to talk about,

what was that? I want to know how you know you could sing.

Well, yeah. What was that first thing? Growing up in New Jersey, what was that early music scene, and how did you plug into it? How do you get started?

Yeah.

What do you do? Any kid? that's all of our ages.

Yeah. That was your first hit in...

1983, I put that out independently, without the band, and then got a record deal. And it's been the same record deal for 40 years.

Wow, that's great. Wow, amazing. So you started singing so young. that was singing uncool at that age? Because when I was a little kid, I always just thought singing was not cool because I was so young.

All the centerfolds of Circus Magazine was pretty cool. Yeah. In the late 70s, it was like Zeppelin and Aerosmith and Queen, and Leonard Skinner and Springsteen and all the... And then remember that Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny were from 25 miles south of my house. Wow.

Mr. Jason Sir, is pretty fucking good. Yeah, I was going to say more about ballads, probably in my head, as opposed to a rock and roll stage.

No, the ballads work. The ballads work.

They work too, right? Are you kidding?

Of course the ballads work.

Are you crazy, JB? Think it through, dude. But here's what blows my mind about your voice. I always comment about how your pipes are just incredible. The fact that...

Whoa!

I mean, that's like way, way, way, way up there. And not a lot of people can do that. And where do you find at such a young age, because people are already trepidatious about opening their mouth and, am I going to be able to sing? And you're just wailing. Like, where does that confidence come from to really go for those notes at such a young age and write those songs that are massive?

Naivete. I was too stupid to know any better. I didn't even study. Really? You just got in front of a mic and yelped until it made sense.

Yeah.

You know, I regret.

It's like a soprano.

It's not good. You know, when you're... I'm going to be 62 Saturday. Wow. I'm 62 years old.

Can you do it?

I can hit a.

Right. So, does it start to leave, just like, you know, Tom Brady ain't throwing anymore?

Yeah, the big thing about this huge documentary that we just did, the parallel story, and, Sean, you relate to this, I underwent a massive surgery.

for the first time in my life.

For your vocal cords? Oh, wow.

I didn't know that. That's scary.

Yeah, that's what I'm going through right now, and hence this. But not your typical nodule. Yeah. Because I really have studied singing for a lot of years.

You have?

But I had what's called now a medialization, if you're at all familiar with that. One cord was atrophying while the strong one was pushing the weak one around, and I wasn't singing well. And it was... I couldn't understand it. And this is on the last two years since the surgery.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. John, what was that like when you first noticed that? When you had that... Do you remember having that first kind of like, shit, I'm not... Yeah.

And what you would do is compensate. You know, you were like, well, that didn't work today, so let me do it this way. Let me do it this way. And finally, you're standing on your head trying to hit a note. And you would compensate to a point where it just wasn't very good anymore.

And other things start getting out of whack.

Way, way out of whack. And then your mind...

How do you.

I'm 20 months post-surgery. I would say I'm 90% there. And you still got to get the ghosts out of the machine, as you guys were saying. The ones in your head. Yeah, for sure.

Right, right.

What about the absolute panic and horror of going under the knife? Yeah. And when I wake up, I hope that, A, I can speak, and in a perfect world, I can still sing. Like, I'm sure your research on doctors must have been intense.

Yeah, and this is what I do, right? This is... I'm a singer.

Yeah, the doctor. I knew the doctor that did Julie Andrews. So we all... You and I both know that story. And you went to him, too.

Yeah.

And then.

Are you bullish on being able to get out there and tour again?

I'm hoping to be. I'm being bluntly honest. You know, if I'm not great, I'm not going.

Yeah. But hang on. I mean, like, there are plenty of musicians and bands that I would easily pay top dollar to go see. Yeah, but so what? But even if they can't make the song sound like it did when they recorded it fucking 30 years ago, I just want to see you.

Like, I mean, but look at John's like, no,

but you're providing more than, you know, incredible singing.

You guys want to see you, John,

watch YouTube. I'm not. I'm not interested.

Well, what about your bandmates? What are they? Are they? Are they? Are they understanding of that position, or are they saying, fucking, come on?

No, you know, we are, we are actively rehearsing. We did a couple of days this week. Everybody was here in New Jersey, just running it hard for a couple of days and seeing, measuring the progress.

Oh, that's great.

Cause I have this great new record. I feel optimistic about the record. I love the film. A guy named Deep, Deepak, Gotham Chopra, Deepak's son, directed it. It was a two year, four part docu-series that'll air on Hulu, but I'm very happy with it.

Cause it's on the band.

Yeah. Oh,

that's so great. It's our 40th anniversary right now.

I can't wait to see that.

That's so mind blowing. 40 years. I, I feel like I became really, well, like a lot of people, really well aware of you guys with the massive, first of all, your massive hit, Living on a Prayer, which.

Oh, there's tons of them.

you can say that 10,.

10 different songs.

Of course, but that's, I'm sort of like, for me, that was the first one that really, I was like, holy shit. And that you guys kind of, do you remember the first time playing that when, when it was a hit, and playing it in front of an audience and everybody going like, fuck.

Yeah. Maybe not the first time, but what was interesting about that song is we really didn't know what we had because it was so different. It didn't sound like anything on the radio. And you know, it, it had a Motown kind of a baseline. It had the boy girl story.

We'll be right back.

And now back to the show.

Can I tell you something about, um, you give love a bad name. I guess my first dog, my first dog, was named Buzzy. And when I was, when I was, yeah, when I was potty training him, he would go outside and he would poop on the lawn. So I changed the words, uh, from whatever, you know, from what they are to, right. There's poop on the lawn, and you're to blame, Buzzy.

I love that. Thank you, Sean.

You're welcome.

There's poop on the lawn and you're to blame, Buzzy.

This is the family member that you just stop inviting, you know? No, we're not having Thanksgiving this year, Sean. Sorry. You know?

But wait, I have other stories.

Sean, tell me more about your music career, because I didn't get the chance, but Dorothea saw the play. Oh, so good. My wife saw the play and was talking so incredibly about not only you're playing, but you're singing as well. How did you keep it eight days a week?

Well, that's so nice. It was just a play. I didn't sing, but, um, but I played.

You didn't have to sing.

No, I'll never do that again. But his voice,

she was probably talking about, he did a whole different voice for this character that I remember. Will and I kind of, well, we look at each other. Like when he came out, I think we've told the story.

It's a big swing.

A big swing. We looked at each other like, Oh boy, here we fucking go.

Because it's one of those moments, John, where you're like, it's either going to be great or it's going to be terrible.

And what are we going to say to him? backstage? And like 30 seconds past that point, it's like, Oh no, we're in good hands. He's pulling this off. And it was a, it was a big, it was a different voice, a whole gate and everything.

I said to, I said to Jason, when I saw him right after the show, I said, can I guess your thought bubble? When I first came out, he said, yeah. And it was just, uh oh.

Wait, John, did you ever do Broadway? Did you ever do a show on Broadway? No. No.

God,

you were great.

The stage to me is the, you know, the stage. So I didn't need that. I didn't need that. Even in the learning experience. for me, when I went into to try to, to learn to act and I studied for a couple of years before I ever even went for an audition, it was the opportunity to grow in the arts.

What was your feeling about that as you were starting to learn about acting and quote unquote, study it? Because I'm always sort of a little pessimistic about if it's something we can learn to do. I think it's all something we all know how to do. It's just freeing yourself up. But like, did you think it was like, Oh, this is a real craft, a real art form that I'm enjoying.

I just have too much respect for y'all. And, and I immensely respect the craft that I, I wouldn't dare think that even Pacino or Gennaro, if I put a microphone in their face and said, sing me a song, that they'd be any good at it. I think in order to be good at it, you should learn how to do it. And so I studied for two years, privately, not in classes, but privately, until I was confident enough to even, you know, try to get an audition.

Yeah.

I had too much respect for it.

And what was the one thing that you, that made you feel like you wanted to take on? that challenge of, of expanding your creative juices from music to acting?

I had had five records by that point. And Slippery was our third. That was a monster. New Jersey was a monster. Then I wrote the soundtrack to the Young Guns record.

Right.

What am I going to do here? There's a stadium waiting in, in, you know,

wherever. Right, right, right, right.

What was that first film that I remember you did?

Moonlight and Valentino was a girly movie.

I did Valentino. Yes.

Yeah. Gwyneth and whoopie, and Kathleen Turner and Liz Perkins.

So do you remember the, so let's talk about that. So you, you, I mean, you talk about it, but like you're a massive international superstar, rock star. And then you go on the set of this movie, and it's a new thing that you've, you've just been sort of learning about that first day on set. that first take.

Oh yeah. So I say, I'll never forget it. The director was a guy named David on spot, who had done and Rudy. And so he was a guy's guy writing those kinds of movies. He's got four ladies as his stars.

I'll pay for the film. That's so sweet. Now, were you, were you,

were you encouraged? It must've been nerve wracking though.

Yeah.

I'll bet it was nerve wracking, but did you find some sort of encouragement and, and inspiration that, that there were, you weren't the first of like sting and David Bowie were, they did some great performances. Was that, was that inspirational for you?

No, because they'd all by, by definition, weren't successful. You may look back and think that those movies, you know, we're cool.

Right.

But you know, they were, we were, as musicians, told you do either or right. You know, Bowie and, and, and Madonna and whatever were, you know, no, there's musicians that want to act. They're not allowed to freely do both the way Sinatra could.

But what were your expectations? You weren't, you weren't possibly looking to match your level of success with acting that you had.

It wasn't based on success. It was based on opportunity. So that the opportunities just kept going down and down and down. And then suddenly you're making like an Indy to an Indy and I'm sitting on the curb outside of CAA, like with a tear in my eye.

did you find that I mentioned that you were in the songwriters hall of fame. You're such a great songwriter and lyricist, and music and everything. And did you, did you find, when you were acting throughout the years, that, did you find that sort of common thing as an artist, as you're doing it? Sort of the beats of it. Was there a commonality between being a performer, being a singer, songwriter and being an actor?

I think there are commonalities, but again, I think the biggest thing to me was that finding something else in the arts that gave me an opportunity to grow. It wasn't like I went from singing to building cars, you know, one has nothing at all to do with it. This is another way to emote. This is another way to tell a story. This is more information for me to write about, because you know, all I had to write about between 21 and 30 was life on the road, to be honest with you.

Yeah. Does it still hold interest for you? Where is it sitting out for you at the act?

I would, I would have to stop doing music and go back to really working hard on the craft. You know, when I have far too much respect for it to think, sure, send me a role. I'm ready to go.

Yeah.

Well, is it sitting there sort of in second position to second position? What, as you start to see, like, okay, let's see how the voice does. And if there, yeah. And if, and if the voice is not to your standards, maybe we can look forward to seeing more acting from you.

I wouldn't be, I wouldn't say no for sure. I would just make sure I did it. Right.

Yeah. What about producing music or producing other artists?

I did all that early on. I don't need it. I don't need any, any more egos. I got a big enough one myself.

Okay. Well, Sean, you can log off.

did you, forgive me. Did you see, did you see the, we are the world documentary? Yes. Yeah. Yes.

Wow. I'd never even thought about that. They were there through the night.

Yeah. And at six in the morning,

they're waiting for their solo line. And, like, you know, Bruce and Cindy Lauper are just cockeyed, still just being good sports about it.

I mean, I, I, I, you were missed in that. I was like, where's I was,

I was just a little too young. It was, I had two albums out. by that point. I wasn't big enough. Oh, all right.

but go, go back to the performing, like in big arenas and shows and stuff and fans and dealing with fans and stuff like that. Is there any kind of, was there any kind of, um, moment? Have you ever had, like, any kind of crazy happening on stage with the fan that was just completely through the show?

Sure. I mean, all the cliche, you know,

people screaming and that kind of stuff is rushing the stage.

Girls throw you their underwear. I mean, you're,

everybody got to be, that's not, that's not even original, because you know what I mean? It's sort of every kid got to be, Justin Bieber to Justin Timberlake, all the way back to Elvis. You know, it just,

it's sure.

I would, the Harry Styles, you know, all that. Yeah.

How do you, or any of those people you just mentioned, avoid the intoxication and complete transitioning into, I'm God, and it's never going to be anything different. And you end up buying the, the, the ego that you, in retrospect, should have been renting. Um, but, like, how do you avoid that big pitfall of, it's never going to be any less than this. Cause you're, you're in a, you're in a, four, six or, sorry, three, 60 of, of, uh, idolization that is gotta be impossible to not,

or to make right size jump into.

Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, for me it was,

you seem so balanced,

not being there where y'all are. For me, that was one thing when I bought the house in California, I bought the house on the beach in Malibu and my wife and I looked at each other and said, not for me, you know, I, I, but I, cause. I knew what the lifestyle was and we, we were caught up in it at a lot of those people, you know, we had a house right on the beach, right. We're all at the height of everybody's craziness. And that was one of the things that we said, let's go back to New Jersey, where there's no Jones's to keep up with.

You mentioned it, John, uh, your, your wife, Dorothea, who I've also had the, uh, great, uh, pleasure and honor of, of spending a little bit of time with getting to know a little bit. And she's such a awesome person. And I was thinking like, yeah, you, you didn't, you didn't fall to any of those pitfalls. You grew up. I mean, and I'm, when I say grew up, I mean like, sure, your twenties, those formative years, you were a massive star.

Absolutely. We've been together since high school. Yeah. So,

um,

for us, that was, yeah, we grew together. Yeah. Yeah. So she's seen the whole ride and, and then, you know, she didn't have to buy into something or I didn't have to doubt her commitment to it. And then I could fall in the gutter throughout the course of it.

How lucky, how lucky are you that you have, that? You had this partner with you.

Oh, I know. Right.

Yeah.

We're married 35 years already.

Bono went through the same thing. Yeah. Like, it's just incredible.

So, John, I always, you know, we always talk about two people who are in the music world about like chicken and the egg. Do you write the lyrics? Do you write the music first? Talk about your process. Like, what inspires you to write a certain way as opposed to other.

Well, thank you.

I write something that you like,

you know, want it dead or alive is, is, you know, that kind of a feeling of an open D chord. It just, it, just, it calls for that. And better roses would call for something else. You know, that was, it was sort of meant to be written on a piano, but the process depends on, on the situation. And we had a record out in the midst of COVID called 2020..

Why?

Wow.

Because of the voice.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I was honored just recently at this music cares event, two weeks and three weeks ago out in LA, the Grammys pick one person to celebrate their catalog. And in my case, the philanthropy,

Michael McDonald's involved with that. Yeah.

Yeah. And, and, and I was, this year's not honorary. And on the Saturday morning, after the night, I woke up and I was like, something's weird. And I went, I know what it is. It's the first time in 10 years, the only voice in my head was mine.

I had fun. Would you have, would you have not despite your, despite the surgery?

I would have beat myself to shit for the last decade.

I would beat myself. I do it daily anyway. Yeah. And I don't have anything wrong with it.

I don't like that, Sean. I'm fucking tired of it. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me how you stopped doing it.

What a beating yourself up.

Yeah.

But you know what I always say? Like we were talking about this a while ago. Like if, if, if beating yourself up, putting yourself down, if that cured you, then we'd all be fixed. Right. It doesn't work.

it's hard to, yeah, it's hard to, um, you know, stop that voice in your head, that probably you're probably a perfectionist. And so, anything less than you, you start beating yourself up. I always beat myself up when I leave any social event at all. I'll, I'll get in the car. I'll be like, how is that?

personality hangover,

we call it a personality hangover. Yeah, exactly.

Sean said to me once, he, I remember you, and you said, nobody's harder on me than myself. And I said, give me a shot.

Yeah.

That's true.

But John, what was it, John, what was bringing on the, the beating yourself up? just that you weren't having access to do your stuff, you know, like you were, just, yeah,

it was like, you know, I, I, I, I, I was saying that, you know, the only thing that's ever been up my nose is my finger. And now suddenly God's taking away my tools and I'm, I'm like, I'm at my wits end. And, and the crazy doctor says, I don't know what it is. And, but I just gave you all my trust.

Right.

You don't know what it is. Now I'm aimlessly out there. Right. Take more drugs for it. Take another shot for it.

I mean, I, when I did, I did not the recent Broadway show, but I did another music. I did a musical one.

What was it called?

Promises. Promises.

Oh,

and yeah, thanks. And, and I was on prednisone for a year. Yep. Yep. Just cause you had a, it's always inflamed, always inflamed.

And it gets you puffy,

which is Jason. I thought your mic was not working.

And we will be right back.

And now back to the show.

John, um, with the, the, um, the frustration of not being able to, you know, perform and, and go out there. and do, you know, throw your fastball was, is probably, was probably at the same time that you were probably more loaded with quality ideas and inspiration for stuff to write. And just cause I just find, the older we get, the smarter we get, the better we are at everything. And so are you now sort of approaching a possible, um, where they match, or, you know,

I'm hoping, I, I think I'm on the verge. I think I'm on the verge of that. Yeah. These last couple of that attitude that I couldn't fully celebrate, these last couple of records. I'm hoping and believing that, um, I'm going to have that opportunity again when we do get to go out.

Honestly, John, I, that attitude, you, you have, that, you kind of ooze positivity. I will say, I didn't realize that you were going through all this. And anytime I see you, you've always got such a great attitude. You, you come into a room, you shine light, you ask people how they're doing. I love that about you.

The foundation and the kitchens. Yeah.

And the kitchens. I mean, this is great. Talk to us a little bit about what you do. These guys don't know about this stuff. It's awesome.

Kitchens.

Um, a thousand years ago, 20 years ago, I used to own an arena football team. My aspirations were to someday own an NFL team. And it was me cutting my teeth.

Yeah.

But when, in order to win in the, in the community in Philadelphia, I said, we got to be more philanthropic than everyone. So that sort of was my first foray into this. We started to find something that anyone, everyone, could relate to, which was affordable housing and hunger. And so I started to do that. And everybody was like, yeah, Bravo.

That's so cool. My, my mom started a, she, she was one half who started a food bank for people in the Chicagoland area called Northern Illinois food bank. Very similar to what you're doing. And, and that's kind of her legacy and she's still remembered there. It's part of second harvest, which I'm sure.

Yeah. Right. And I, yep. And I bet you it gave her hard work, but great joy. Well,

no, well, I want to go first. So when she was just sort of half, um, uh, owner, she, she's, she's just kept an eye on, on, um, part of it.

I was going to say, she could have, she could have, she could have called it. I on hunger.

Oh,

Jesus.

It's just, it's one of them.

It wasn't wooden. It was glass.

Um,

we actually, he brought it out on stage. Yeah. And we held it.

The eye. Yeah.

We held it. Yeah.

Nice guys. Nice guys. You call them your friends.

Um, but, uh, wait, so John, what the hell, what the hell is Bon Jovi? Is that? what nationality is that?

What the hell is, Bon Jovi? What kind of question is that?

Sean, can I talk to you for a second?

What the hell is Bon Jovi?

No, I mean, I, I,

it's Italian.

Okay. Since I was a kid, I thought you made that name up. Listen,

B? O N G I, O V I.

Oh, really?

B O N, G I, O V I. B O N. Yeah. It's pronounced the same way. G I, which in Italian phonetics is the J sound.

Yeah. Okay.

So it's pronounced the same way, but it's B, O, N, G I instead of a J.

And it's always been two separate words?

No, no, no. It's, it's the silly American that couldn't figure it out. And in, in truth, when I got the record deal and I had gotten the band together to help me play Runaway, cause I had it on the radio, um, all over the country. Yeah. Um, I went to the record company, said, we got an idea.

Oh, very good.

This is good.

Oh, that's great.

In truth,

it was a little bit of the, it was a little bit of that in the eighties, because I didn't want to be a solo artist. I really knew that that's too much heat.

Yeah. I mean, cause. when I was a kid, I thought it was, you guys were all related.

The worst guy on the, and that the worst fair weather fan will come up to you on the street and go, Hey, bond. It's on bond. Motherfucker. You're not, not a very big fan.

Hey, on the, on the, on, on, on the music, uh, industry, business sort of, and cause. our industry is going through a, a bit of a transition. Now. your business was started much earlier with the transition. Um, it, how do you feel that, that the industry is, is doing and adapting?

I think we've at least hit a place now where, um, there's stability, you know, the, we, I, I've, I've said it before. We, my band and I at this time, and that those around our period, uh, we're there for what was called the gold rush. You know, when CDs were invented and everybody bought their record collection again, and you could sell 20 million copies of an album. Um, so I was fortunate enough to have been in the, in the heat of that. Yeah.

So it's obligating you guys to go out and do a bunch of touring in order to make a bunch of money. And that's kind of exhausting.

It's still as criminal as it ever was. It's, it's, it's harder on the young band, and how are they going to support themselves on the road if they don't have any record money or there's tour support and all the things that we had 40 years ago that they're not going to have now. I, I, I've heard and have been in on conversations, but it's obviously not something I can directly relate to. It's not as big a business for the young kid coming up. It's like, I get to do that, but I'm also going to have to do this and this in order to make a living.

It's the same with all, all entertainment. You know, it feels like you have to learn.

I think, yeah, I think about all the time of like starting as a young actor today, as opposed to when we started out and you could go out and you get a job, you audition for stuff, you were in the mix, you audition for pilots, you may get a movie, but we'll do all that. Cause now it's such a free for all.

Or you could do a commercial and you could expect $30,000 by the time it's done, it's run like now it's all non-union. And yeah, yeah.

You could do a golden grams commercial. You know what I mean? Has anybody ever done a golden? Yeah.

I'm going to submit a go-kart in that one.

My, my, my son is a young aspiring actor and he would have that magic when he walked into a room for an audition, but because he came up during COVID and now everything is on these zooms. And I think that all those casting agents are missing out on the personality of the actor or actors coming in and winning your heart, not just reading their lines.

I will tell you, I will tell you, though, I'm in the middle of casting something right now. And none of, none of these casting sessions are in person. They're all on zoom. Yeah. And I am so jealous that the, that the actors are not stuck in.

it's much less stressful. But I think there's always been a flaw in that, Jay, because you shouldn't just put all the actors up for the same role in one room. It's just, you know, is there another way to do it? Like schedule? the whole thing is torture.

I don't know, but there's something to also going through that experience, you know, after, as somebody who I grew up in New York in the nineties, in my twenties, and went on a million auditions and bombed a bunch. And I learned so much from that process. And then also, conversely, when I did have, start having success, I really appreciate it. It wasn't until my thirties that I had any success. And I really appreciate it, because I had gone through that for so many years and was starving.

And I also made some friends during the process. So they're missing out on that.

I made a lot of friends.

Yeah. Right. A lot of friends.

I just think that they missed the personality.

Yeah. I agree, Sean.

I will wing that casting agent some and let him see that.

And knowing whether they're going to be a problem on set. Do they have nice people? Yeah.

John, I think that that's, I think that you're totally onto something. I think there, I was also just thinking about what you were saying before about, about albums and when you would write an album. And I was just thinking, like, you remember that feeling you really hit on some, that feeling as a kid of getting an album and taking it home and taking the plastic off it and taking the sleeve out and reading the lyrics and listening to every fricking song.

Yeah. Yeah. How does it start? And then the third song, is it my imagination, or is the third song always one that kicks your ass?

That's the single.

Right. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Is that, wait, I didn't know that. Is that by design?

It just happens to be, it's sort of commonplace.

You kind of start slow and then you nail them. And then, yeah. And then there's a, there's a, there's a balance.

Was it really?

There you go.

Hey, give me the first note. Are you by piano or a guitar or anything? Give me the first note of the chorus.

Sean, are you going to sing?

I'm going to try it.

Oh, oh, please. Thank you.

Come on. Well,

we're out of time, everybody.

Yes.

I had to run across the room and bang on the piano, but,

wait, wait, wait,

Whoa,

Whoa. Is that the first note, but it's up an octave.

Yeah, it's a G.

Yeah.

Whoa.

Yeah. Halfway, there. Go on.

Whoa. Nope.

It's too high. Yeah. It's so high, it's crazy.

You know. what you do, then is you hold the microphone out.

Just sounds like you're furious.

Let the audience do it. You hold the mic over the audience, you go, Buzzy, you give dogs a bad name.

But, John, you know what? Whenever your songs come on the radio in the car, I will pretend I'm you and I will scream my head off.

Love that.

It's impossible, impossible not to just absolutely belt out one of your songs, John, when they come on. It's just the best. Dude, we've taken up too much of your time already.

So much fun. John, when you're coming to town, let's hang out.

I would love that. You're never coming back.

You're never coming back.

Don't give me your number.

No, let's do it in New York.

Let's do it in New York. That would be great. That would be awesome. And then we'll do JB's in New York for the next six months.

Yeah, please. Let's get together.

Cool, guys. This was really a joy.

Thanks for doing it, John.

Likewise, likewise.

John, you're such a great dude. You're such a cool dude. Yeah, and such a great artist. And thank you for taking the time and wish you all the best, man. Can't wait to see you again.

Thanks, guys. Thank you, John. All right, have a good one. Bye now.

All right, pal.

The great Jon Bon Jovi.

He's great. So fucking easy.

They don't make them like that anymore. You know? I mean, the great Jon Bon Jovi just sounds like a little like we need a better word.

JB, you were just, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just said the great Jon Bon Jovi, but you're right. It doesn't seem like it's enough.

Right. And who's doing it? What they did, who's doing that today? There isn't a size of a band today like that. It's all sort of like been diluted a bit.

I didn't even ask him about, like the prep for a show with the hairspray and the hair, and the outfits and the energy.

Those were all wigs. All wigs.

No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Yeah, no, super easy to hang out with. Yeah. Where did you meet him?

Well, I met him. We have a bunch of mutual friends and obviously Long Island and just, yeah, just over the years. And he is one of those guys. Every time you see him, he's just. he's very sort of warm and very generous with people.

Feels like this could be a St. Bart's story. Go ahead. We're down on vacation, you know.