On the documentary then?
Was there any unseen footage in there that you guys like?
Wow, I haven't seen that clip for years.
There was tons.
Oh, really?
I'm a hoarder.
I mean, he had, he had more stuff.
Hidden things that I didn't know?
Yeah.
Did I forgot?
And songs like Living on a Prayer, Whose idea was it to have that massive chorus?
When we wrote it, we didn't have a single note or word or anything.
We walked into a room together and just start banging round.
And you know, the writing of it was one thing, but when we went into the room and developed the bass line and Tico put a beat behind it, thence when it really came to life.
When I mentioned I was interviewing you today, all of my followers, they just want to know, will you be working with Richie again in the future, do you think?
Well, it's been 11 years.
I'm waiting for the phone to ring, so it is.
Where are you now with your because you had the surgery and I'm.
An Absolute Radio.
Now it's just getting back to tour shape.
And have you got a time frame for that?
Are you leaving open?
It's up to.
God.
Please welcome Saket साकेत, David and Tico.
Hey.
Good morning.
Hey, good morning, Leon.
How are you all?
Very well.
Thank you.
Now you've got a new docu series coming out called Thank You, Good Night, The Bon Jovi Story out on April the 26th.
What was it like making this series?
You know when they say that you, you pass and you see your life flash before your eyes?
This was my life flashing before my eyes.
But we're not dead.
So it was it it, It was quite nice to see it.
Yeah, it must.
Sorry.
I messed up your.
Record.
We'll we'll wipe that down off.
We'll come back to the records.
So obviously you're watching the the docu series.
Have you seen the final product?
The final four?
The almost final product, I think maybe four or five months ago, we all sat in a room together and watched a rough cut.
And how did you feel watching it?
We've done a hell of a lot of work in the last 40 years.
You know a lot, a lot's happened.
Was that every incarnation of the band watching that together?
Richie came over my house and watched the first three episodes with me.
Yeah.
And how was it watching it with Richie?
Good.
Same as it was with everyone else.
You know, like I said, a lot has lot has happened.
And of course, you've been working on a new album, and you cover everything in this documentary, from the current status of the band to the very, very beginnings when you were, you know, performing on your own.
And you had Runaway as a hit single before you formulated the band, which is really interesting to watch how that all came about in.
Caveman Times.
What was it like formulating the band after a hit single?
I mean, how did you get?
These guys together, I thought that we'd be, you know, maybe three or four weeks to take advantage of the airplane and, and that it, you know, because Tico, for instance, was in a recording act that was on the road.
I didn't anticipate his being able to leave a band that was, you know, the having hit records on the radio and going back to nothingness, you know?
So, Tikka, how did you feel about taking that jump?
You know, I walked into a jam with with David and and and Johnny and I just had a feeling about feeling this is this is worth taking a chance over and you were right subsequently.
Something tells me that that was a good decision.
And of course, you were already playing in a band with with Jon already, weren't you?
Yeah, first, you know, like in the documentary, since, you know, we were 17 years old.
So you had that history going right back, which is great, and then you had your first two albums, Bon Jovi in 7800°F and then of course the album that, well, I brought it in today, the album that literally changed my life.
I got into Bon Jovi and rock music as a result of Slippery When Wet, and it changed your life in a rather dramatic way.
How did he go from those first two albums to that next level, which was a massive jump?
How did you create these songs that were so huge?
You really don't know how you create anything.
I mean, it sort of happens, right?
I mean, we had done two other records prior.
We went to a different place with a different producer.
We had a couple albums and a couple of years experience on the road.
We took all of that to Vancouver, Canada, which was an unknown place really as far as record making was concerned.
And, and everything.
This confluence of different people that came together and one in one made ten, You know, Bruce Fairburn really became Bruce Fairburn after Slippery.
And Bob Rock was just a salaried engineer who went on to, of course, to Metallica's Black Album and some of the the great Rock'n'roll records.
But these guys were all like us, you know, just coming into their own.
And songs like Living on a Prayer, I mean, how did you get whose idea was it to have that massive chorus with the woes and.
There there was there was the three of us.
You know, I, I Co wrote that with Richie and a guy named Desmond.
But when we wrote it, we didn't have a a single note or word or anything.
We walked into a room together and just start banging around and talking about storylines and you know it it, it turned into the record that it is when we the band went in and and worked it up.
You know, the writing of it was one thing, but because it was very simplistic.
We had the melody, the lyric, the chord changes, yes.
But when we went into the room and developed the bass line and Tico put a beat behind it, thence when it really came to life.
It came pretty easy.
It did.
That was one of our easier records, as was our new one here.
But it's the the point being is when it that easy, it's good.
That is, that is true.
I've often discovered that when interviewing bands that it's the the songs that created the quickest that turn out to be the best.
Oddly enough.
Yeah, it's like the path of least resistance.
You know, you're not working in it and working it and working it and working it.
Usually those ones are not as good.
Well, they can be, but you have to.
But if you're overthinking it, you know, you become victim to that too much.
That was that was sort of the problem with technology is there was too many tracks.
You could add everything, assuming you had to teach you how to not add everything.
How do you find that today with today's technology?
That's the point is, you know, you could have 199 tracks on a record because it's, it's, it's not tape, it's digital, right?
When there was 24 track analogue, it was just boom, chop, boom, chop.
Good move on.
Do you prefer the analogue era?
Had a different sound but it was also time consuming and if you want to see a part move to another part you had to cut tape.
We had to go.
Out from now, they hit a button.
We got to go.
Oh, let's just see what it is.
It's something that takes, yeah, something that takes minutes, you know?
Took hours then.
Right.
And literally cutting up with a knife.
Yeah, yeah, real, real things.
Not zero in ones.
Sometimes you lose some good stuff because they didn't glossy job.
Yeah, right.
So on to the documentary then.
You do talk in detail about your voice.
Yes.
And where are you now with your voice?
Because you had the surgery and I'm an.
Absolute Radio you know what you see in the film was was shot a year and two years ago and and I did have a a major surgery, which was much to my surprise too.
But the, the progress and the process have been continual and, and I'm, I'm far along, you know, it was more than capable of singing on the record and singing on a daily basis.
And this early morning of the and, and today, this Wednesday, I mean, my voice sounds pretty good for this time, you know what I mean?
It's good, it's good.
Now it's just getting back to tour shape.
Yes.
And have you got a time frame for that?
Are you leaving it open?
It's up to God, Ask Him, you know, because that's really what it comes down to when you think about your vocal cords, which probably the listener would never know.
Consider the size of your thumbnail that's that's as big as your chords are.
Yeah, you mentioned the documentary.
You know sports players have an arm or a limb and your whole world revolves around this tiny space here.
And yours too.
The same thing, yeah.
So that's, that's what it was.
It was much to my surprise that all this happened, but that's the rehab process.
Now, but it was good enough shape to make this new album.
It's good, yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, which I've heard one of the singles.
Legendary.
What was the inspiration for that song?
Well, I think you get to a certain place in life when you're reflecting and as the lyrics, as I've got what I want because I've got what I need, a fistful of friends that will stand up for me, that reflected what was happening with the surgery and where we are in our careers.
And you know, that's why I think the songs resonating as people find that lyric to be their own, much like our other songs were there.
It's something like living on a prayer.
It's my life.
Those characters become your story, and these storylines become your story.
So what was it like making this new album, guys?
Was it good to come back together and.
Again, this was an easy one.
This flowed together.
The fact that we got together in Nashville, we've done, we've worked there before.
The fact that it came together and just flowed is a testament to the songs.
I mean, I don't usually listen to lyrics.
I had to call John and tell him how great the lyrics was because really, it was good, right?
And it.
Had and it had the energy of everybody being in one room looking at each other and banging it out in that collective energy.
You know, you feel that in the spirit of that song and legendary in the whole record because we're in there and just like to go saying it was easy, but we're looking at each other and just banging through it all.
It was really fun.
Yeah, a fun record to make.
I mean, you're a tight unit now.
And I mean, everything is covered in the documentary.
And when I mentioned I was interviewing you today, all of my followers, they just want to know, will you be working with Richie again in the future, do you think?
Well, it's been 11 years.
I'm waiting for the phone to ring, so it is.
Who knows what the future holds?
I mean, obviously you're in touch with him, you saw the documentary together, but it is not at that particular stage of discussing music.
You have to just understand that, you know, there was never a fight or a falling out.
He quit the band 11 years ago in the middle of the night and there's no animas because being in a rock band, as glorious as as it sounds, it's hard work.
And and, you know, he decided that being on the road with us wasn't for him and just didn't show up anymore.
That's really what happened.
So I.
Mean if anybody wants more details on that, they just need to see the program because it is covered in detail.
And he does apologize for the way he did it as well.
Yeah, there's no animas, just to be clear, with all our listeners, there's we never had a fight.
There's no animosity.
Came to see the dock.
You know, it's it's all good.
And I think that's a positive note to to talk about there.
So the docuseries is 4 parts and it's absolutely fascinating.
So it's kind of interspice between the timeline from the beginning, the 40 years.
Actually it goes before the 40 years when you were on your own but cut up with bits from 2022 as well, doesn't it?
Yes, it goes right till I guess late 23 at the very end, right when you think about where we were at the time.
We've been shooting for over 2 years with the director's name is Gotham Chopra.
You may know his dad Deepak Chopra and and he captured the the essence of what was going on in current day while also capturing the history of the band over these 40 years.
His access was unlimited and we trusted him to to to tell the story and and he really delivered on the on the promise that he would.
Was there any unseen footage in there that you guys like?
Wow, I haven't seen that clip for years or there.
Was tons.
Oh, really?
Who knew?
Yeah, I I always thought the beat, The Beatles always had incredible documentaries.
And then when I saw this one, I went, oh, he had a lot of material.
No.
And honestly, just to see that stuff, that was actually archived, John.
I'm a hoarder.
I mean, he had, he had more stuff.
Hidden that.
I don't think.
Even is.
Yeah, it was things that I didn't know.
Yeah, that I forgot, completely forgot.
There's clips of you going through hours and hours of cassette tapes, videotapes.
Yeah, but to have had all those cassette tapes, to have the cassette of me riding runaway, I mean, who knew?
Or the the the original piece of scrap paper that you're writing better roses on or do it, you know, all of these kind of things.
We had no clue.
Are you going to release any of that stuff?
Yeah, there's probably 30 songs that we found because we we've always known that we write 30 on so many of our albums.
We'll write 30 to get 10.
And so there's a treasure trove of material, but there's some really good songs that in retrospect, I go how did that not make the record?
Yeah, well, I mean, I just can't wait for everybody to watch this docu series 'cause I thought it was fascinating.
Oh, thank you.
We also can't wait to hear the new album.
And thank you for coming in, Bon Jovi.
Amen.
Thanks, babe.
Thanks.
Leona, thank you.