Jon Bon Jovi, 97.5 WPST Rider University in Lawrenceville,
New Jersey 19/09/97
EDDIE: Eddie Davis, male morning jock, WPST, co-moderator
CHRIS: Chris, female morning jock, WPST, co-moderator
JON: Jon Bon Jovi (like anyone needed help with that one)
EDDIE: Welcome, everybody, to, and now I can finally say it! Rider University! Whew! I’m Eddie Davis from the PST morning show. We’re so glad you’re here today. PST’s exclusive concert with Jon bon Jovi, we’re live in the student center on the campus of Rider University, Jon will be playing, talking, taking your questions. We have to thank the SEC of Rider and the administration for having us out here today. Please, help me, in a warm PST welcome, for Jon Bon Jovi!
Crowd cheers; Jon, Bobby and Everett walk out on stage
JON: (Strumming guitar) Well, hello! Let’s get it on . . . . “Love for Sale” Crowd cheers ...Well, good morning to you, class! I’m your teacher. For the next hour or so, we’re going to play you some old songs, some new songs, some songs that I (unintelligible) and we’ll get your questions here and I know that we’re live on the radio, so I want to know why you all are skipping classes right now. So let’s get it on. This is from Destination Anywhere. “Every Word Was A Piece of My Heart”... Crowd cheers...Thank you. Why don’t I do one more and then we’ll get some questions in? ..... “Livin On A Prayer”
JON: Thank you. You got some questions?
CHRIS: Jon, we’ve got some PST listeners that are very excited to ask you some questions. Let’s start with Diane from Pennsylvania.
DIANE: Hi! ...giggles...
JON: Boxers or briefs, right? ...Crowd cheers, Jon laughs... All right, let’s keep it serious.
DIANE: I just want to say I love you and you’re the best. Are you doing a Christmas show this year?
JON: No. ...Crowd groans... It’s ah, yeah, well, we’ve done a Christmas show, the band Bon Jovi, for the last seven years running, but because the guys are all off doing different things, I think that there’s not going to be a Christmas show this year, no, sorry. ...Crowd grumbles... Okay, okay, geez.
CHRIS: Another question? This is Roseanne from Cherry Hill.
ROSE: Jon. I’d like to know, considering that you’re going into movies, do you think that it’s, for you, are you planning to do more mainstream films or do you think it’s more important to take smaller, more significant roles in independent, artistic films?
JON: I’d love to get $25 million a picture like ...crowd laughs... but, uh, you know, I think the honest-to-God truth is I keep doing these indie movies because those are the ones I like. I go every Friday, I love the movies, it’s the one thing I can do anywhere in the world, you know, wherever I am, if it’s Africa, Indian, Asia, whatever, you can see American movies. So every Friday I go see these big blockbusters and on the way in, I’m cursing my agents cause I’m not in the movie and on the way out, I’m thanking God that I wasn’t in those movies. ...laughs... Crowd cheers
EDDIE: Listening to Jon Bon Jovi live here on 97.5 PST, just so we get a plug in and you remember where you are. It’s Eddie and Chris. Jon, why don’t you introduce us to these Jersey boys you’re playing with here today?
JON: I’m sorry, who, what?
CHRIS: We want you to introduce the band.
JON: Oh, yeah, please. That’s what I thought, I just wasn’t sure. By the way, where’s that voice coming from? ...Eddie Davis was standing offstage and out of Jon’s view... Oh, there he is! Geez! I just saw Hey God the other day, remember that movie with George Burns? And John Denver sits down and he hears this voice coming from an intercom and he goes ...laughing... geez, got scared. To my right over here is the guitar player from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and a very good friend of mine, Bobby Bandiera on the guitar. To my immediate left, playing the percussion over here and singing his butt off as usual is Everett Bradley, and the man to the extreme left, anyone who’s seen the band on tour knows that he’s our bass player, that’s Hugh McDonald. ...Crowd cheers...
EDDIE: Tell us a little bit about the short film that accompanies Destination Anywhere. First of all, how are you getting Demi Moore, at $10 million a crack, to be in your short film? ...Crowd cheers...
JON: I called her up and asked her if she wanted to do it, it was as simple as that. It was one of those things where I said I’m going to reach for the ceiling and if she says no, she says no. But she said yes, and I think that like with anything else with this album, I wanted to do things differently, I didn’t want to just do the Meadowlands, the Spectrum, the usual Bon Jovi kind of venues and we wanted to do something other than make videos, which to me have grown tiresome. I’ve done 30-some odd videos in my career thus far and the idea of not really playing, not really singing is a drag so I thought of this concept to tie around the record and to incorporate my acting with music and we came up with the idea for the film. And we took the left road, you know, we didn’t revolve it around the singles and make it you know, Midnight In Chelsea, the romantic comedy thing, so we worked it around the song August 7, which deals with the murder of a little six-year-old girl and how these two parents have to deal with it. So Demi was very interested in doing something like that, where you know it wasn’t “Striptease” and ...crowd cheers, Jon laughs... I opted for the “Striptease”, but it didn’t work, so we did this film, you know, just to do something different.
EDDIE: I know you’ve got at least three projects like pending or soon to be released. Can you briefly run through those for us?
JON: Yeah, I got three movies coming out in the next I guess four or five months. One’s called “Little City” it’s a Miramax picture that’s somewhat like “The Big Chill” um, I play this alcoholic bartender in San Francisco ...crowd cheers... yeah well. Then I was in a film called “Homegrown with Billy Bob Thornton, who won an Academy Award last year for “Sling Blade”. And then Eddie Burns’ next movie, the guy that did “Brothers McMullen” and “She’s The One”, I star in his next picture with Lauren Holly, it’s called “Long Time Nothing New”. And, uh, so I got three things happening and lots of movies, lot of movies.
EDDIE: What you have found to be the hardest part of moving into acting? Is it finding something to do with your hands? ...Jon makes a hand gesture, crowd cheers... No problems there, apparently!
JON: ...Laughing... We’re on the radio, right? What’s similar in acting . . . . we just got done a very Howard Stern moment! ...crowd cheers... What’s similar with acting is that each take of each scene is truly a collaboration. What’s really different about it is that you don’t write it, so it’s not as much fun, it’s not as rewarding. But sitting around on the set, you know, it’s pretty boring, there’s a lot of nothing to do.
EDDIE: A lot of downtime. Yeah. Chris is patiently waiting over there with somebody else to ask you a question.
CHRIS: This is Samantha from Hopewell.
SAM: Hi.
CHRIS: Don’t be shy, this is Jon Bon Jovi! Geez!
SAM: If you could do it all over again, is there anything you would change?
JON: Oh God, there’s not too many regrets, I’ll tell you. No, things are going pretty well for me, it’s not a bad life, but for me, no, I got no regrets, to tell you the truth.
EDDIE: Jon, we talked with a bunch of people this morning who remember you from “back in the day”, as they were saying, and I wanted to see if you remembered playing a softball game here on the campus of Rider University in like 1984, Bon Jovi versus PST, nobody’s sure who won, but we both sucked, we’re both pretty sure.
JON: I still have a picture of when Tom Cunningham was at PST a hundred years ago, he was absolutely one of my first supporters ever. In fact, PST was really one of my very first supporting stations, that’s for sure, and I wanted to do this today because of that. All the way back to Runaway.... All right, why don’t we play a little more and we’ll get back to the questions in a little. This is the song that inspired the movie. I hate to say that I had to write it, cause I wish it weren’t true. But sometimes God does close his eyes and you can’t figure out why the decisions are made that he makes, or she makes. This is a story about a little six-year-old. ...August 7, 4:15... Thank you! Chelsea! This song was the first single from the record and I wrote this when I was in London, England. I moved my family and my kids and all my toys and stuff and in that downtime on the set I did a lot of writing and a lot of references are made in this song and I guess that unless you live there, they weren’t understood, so they sort of missed the point, I guess, but the story is about a freedom I found, it inspired a whole record. ...Midnight in Chelsea... This is the title track on the record called “Destination Anywhere”. Now, unlike most of the songs on this record which are very personal and real, this is purely fiction, and I thought of it writing like a screenplay and I took the liberty of casting myself in it as the star of it. I wrote it, I can lie to myself all I want! ...laughs... All right, I’m having fun, the weekend’s here. ...Destination Anywhere...
EDDIE: Jon Bon Jovi here on 97.5 WPST, Trenton and Philadelphia! It’s Eddie and Chris from the PST morning show. Is this cool or what? ...Crowd cheers... Tell me about the writing, Jon, of your solo material. Is there a different mindset as compared to writing for a band when you sit down?
JON: Yeah. When Richie and I collaborate, ...crowd cheers... Richie Sambora, especially in the latter years, we’ve been trying to find subject matter than both of us knew enough about to write about, so we were writing more socially conscious things like “Keep the Faith” or “These Days”. When you’re writing a record by yourself for yourself, you write more introspectively, um, “Midnight In Chelsea,” for instance, “no one’s asking me for favors, no one’s looking for a savior, they’re too busy saving me,” that’s a kind of lyric that even Richie wouldn’t understand, it’s just a little... crowd laughs... I don’t mean that in a “dumb-and-dumber” kind of way, now he’s going to call me, he’s going to go “oh, you made shit of me on the radio!” I didn’t! You know what happened was, I was just feeling like I had to run this huge operation, you know, all these kinds of things, I just had to walk away from it for a while. And that’s what happens when you’re writing a solo record. I didn’t imagine this album, me playing in big venues with it, if that makes any sense. It’s more of a theater album than it is an arena album. ...Crowd cheers... It’s one that you drink wine to, not beer!
EDDIE: If you’re just out on a lunch break, we’re at Rider University. Hi, guys, at Rider! We’ve got Jon Bon Jovi and his ensemble playing some songs and taking some questions. Chris, if you could bring a couple people down, we’ll get some more of the audience questions on.
CHRIS: Here we go again! This is Doug from Milford.
DOUG: How you doing, Jon?
JON: Hi, Doug.
DOUG: If you could play anywhere in the world, where would you most like to play?
JON: My hometown. Um, Rider College! I should go back to school, it’d be like Rodney Dangerfield, I’d come back and... I don’t know, I’ve played a lot of places, I think a better question might be where haven’t I played that I’d like to play. Which, I was thinking I’ve never been to Greece, I’ve never been to Israel, but I truly, I’ve been to 60, 70 countries around the world over the years, and it’s always good to get back to America, to be honest with you. You really, you miss home.
DOUG: Thanks, Jon.
EDDIE: We’ll go with somebody else. We’re here on PST with Jon Bon Jovi.
CHRIS: This is Jamie from East Windsor and she’s very excited to talk to you.
JON: Hi, Jamie.
JAMIE: Hi, just going to blow you a little kiss! ...blows the kiss... Did you catch it? Thanks! You know how everyone loves you a lot now? But, um, no, what was the first moment that you really realized you’d become successful?
JON: I wish I had a good, funny, witty answer for that. I don’t think you ever do, to be honest with you. When I was playing clubs before I had a record deal and I was just getting out of high school, so this was 17 years ago now, I thought that that was it, I thought that playing in Asbury, playing with the guys you grew up idolizing, you know, Bruce or Johnny or those guys, you know, I thought that was it, I thought I had made the big time. And then when I made my first record and I could hold a record in my hand, I thought that was the big time. “Slippery When Wet,” I obvioulsy thought was the big time. Then you have a record like “Crossroads” that outsells that, you go, wow. So it’s a very funny thing, success, you don’t really know if you’re ever successful, you know, I have no clue.
EDDIE: You’re talking about those early days in the Jersey clubs, Jon. I heard a story in the last couple of days that you skipped your SAT exam cause you’d been out playing late the night before. Any truth to that?
JON: True. ...Crowd cheers... You know those little things you got to fill in, like occupation? It didn’t say “rock and roll star”, so I just said ... ...crowd cheers... You gotta realize how silly that is, to go to high school in the morning with sunglasses on for four years and go, “You know , I was in the bar last night and I just don’t feel like being here.” Like, you know, some of my teachers were hitting on the girls in the classes and I thought, “Jesus, God almighty, I’m at least playing colleges, I’m looking for older women!” I wanted to come to college just for the frat parties, you know? ...Crowd cheers... Somebody should make me a member of one of these frats. I’d be a good guy to be in a frat. ...Guy in frat shirt stands up and starts yelling to Jon. Jon points at him... Give me that shirt! I’ll wear that shirt!
CHRIS: Bring him your jersey! Bring it up to him! ...Guy in crowd brings Jon his ZBT, Zeta Beta Tau, shirt, up to the stage...
EDDIE: They’re passing up a ZBT fraternity shirt. ...Jon takes off his jacket, then takes his shirt off over his head... And Jon’s slipping it on. Oh boy, bare-chested and everything!
CHRIS: He’s taking off his shirt! ...Crowd goes nuts. Jon puts on the ZBT shirt, which is a white football jersey with royal-blue letters that read ZBT on the front and LUMP on the back...
JON: There you go! What do you think?
CHRIS: Now you’re a member of ZBT!
JON: I love this! Thank you!
EDDIE: Got the girls’ attention with that one, he did! Jon Bon Jovi on PST! Jon, let’s do one more question, if we could.
CHRIS: Okay, this is Bob from Lawrenceville with a very important question.
BOB: Jon, with all these devoted fans here, we were wondering if you would be willing to do this again next year for WPST? ...Jon laughs; crowd cheers...
CHRIS: How about it, Jon?
JON: Who knows where I’ll be next year, but I’d like to think that I could do it again for you guys, cause I’m having a good time, too, thanks. Let’s do one to make up with Richie so I don’t get in any trouble! ...Blood on Blood... Thank you! ...An audience member yells from the audience asking if he can sing with Jon... What are you going to sing? I can hear you, brother. “I’ll Be There For You.” Okay, come up here. ...Guy jumps on stage... What’s your name?
JARED: Jared.
JON: This is Jerry. What’s your last name?
JARED: Shepard. Jared, not Jerry.
JON: Jerry Shepard. Jared. JARED Shepard. Have you ever sung before?
JARED: Not that much. But I don’t care.
JON: You’re willing to go on the radio? ...laughs...
JARED: Yeah! Let’s go!
JON: This kids’ got big . . . muscles! Okay, Jared! ...I’ll Be There For You, Jared sharing vocals. He sings the first verse while Jon plays guitar. Jon starts telling him the lyrics. Jon starts singing the second verse. Jared joins in. Jon lets him take over. He’s horsing around up on stage, drinking out of Jon’s water bottle. Song ends after second verse... Mr. Shepard! Okay, bud! ...Jared leaves the stage... Now that’s a man! There you go! He’s going to get a lot of dates this weekend! He’s a man amongst men! Ooh, look at him already making out with girls in the front row. Check this out! I’ll tell you, this is a good job if you can get it... I got one... Here’s a, this is written by Tom Waites. This is just for Jared and his girl over there. ...Jersey Girl... Thank you. Oh, I think a couple more questions here.
EDDIE: We continue from Rider University with Jon Bon Jovi. ...crowd cheers... Eddie and Chris from the PST Morning Show here on 97.5 PST, I’ll do a legal ID because I have no idea what time it is, Trenton and Philadelphia. And here we are. Chris is in the crowd with a couple of listeners.
CHRIS: Well, I’ve got some sorority girls here, Jon. What sorority are you from?
GIRL #1: Alpha Zee Delta. ...crowd cheers...
CHRIS: There’s some more girls from that sorority. They have something for you.
GIRL #1: This weekend is Sweetheart Weekend at Rider University, and Alpha Zee Delta wanted to nominate you for our Sweetheart. We were wondering if we could give this to you.
JON: I would love to accept.
CHRIS: Go ahead up, girls. ...Girls walk up to the stage...
CHRIS: You’re such a sweetheart, Jon!
EDDIE: Have a couple of sorority girls coming up on stage to hug and kiss Jon, who at this point is wearing a fraternity shirt that says “Lump” on the back! ...Girls hug and kiss him and put a sorority pin on his shirt...
JON: Thanks!
CHRIS: He’s been pinned! ...crowd cheers...
JON: It’s got her phone number in it. ...laughs...
EDDIE: We come into contact with a lot of local bands who are still trying and you know like 95% of them, it ain’t happening. That was you, really, all those years ago. What is a suggestion for avoiding some of the pitfalls, even for bands who are getting the gigs, what are a couple of things they wants to stay away from?
JON: I think it’s just about writing what you want to write and not worrying about what’s popular at the moment, because I think a lot of bands chase trends because they think that’s going to get them a record deal, and they need a lucky break, cause there’s a station in Trenton that could be playing their records if they wanted to . . .
EDDIE: Have a word with my program director later! Jon Bon Jovi, what’s the future of Bon Jovi the band?
JON: The band is doing very well, the band is all just off doing separate things. This was a very conscious attempt to take two years to experiment, really. Richie’s waiting on a baby any day now, and he’s finishing a solo record. Tico’s artwork has become quite popular in the last year or so, he’s just opened his own art gallery in Florida, and Dave Bryan is writing a lot of stuff with Richie for his record as well as he’s doing a record with Dr. John right now, and everybody’s doing really well and keeping busy. And then we’ll go back to work, I figure, in the springtime, so we’ll have a new record out soon.
EDDIE: Sounds like a deal! Jon Bon Jovi, he’s here live, got a couple more for us?
JON: Sure!
EDDIE: Live on 97.5, WPST!
...Janie, Don’t Take Your Love to Town...
JON: Thank you! We got time for one more. I want to thank you all very much for making this a fun afternoon for me! Thanks to everybody at PST, we’ve had a good time here, thanks to everyone here at Rider College. Can I have that? Come here. She’s got a bumper sticker that says, “Dallas Sucks,” and I despise the Dallas Cowboys with a passion! Anybody that’s from New Jersey or Philadelphia has got to agree with me that, I just, who decided that they were America’s team, anyhow? I hate the Cowboys! God!
EDDIE:Jon’s putting the bumper sticker on his guitar. ...Jon puts bumper sticker on the bottom of his black acoustic guitar...
JON: This is for that guy with the Dallas Cowboys shirt over there -- he’s killing me! And for all the other cowboys out there! ...Wanted Dead or Alive... Thank you all very much! See ya...