May 10, 1997
Hamburg, "Hotel Atlantic", suite 308, 3rd floor. Jon Bon Jovi (35)
drops lazily on the sofa. On the table in front of him there's a dish
with some fruits and cookies. He eats some strawberries - and doesn't
touch the cookies. He laughs: "I don't want to ruin my figure, I worked
sooo hard to keep in shape!".
The Bon Jovi-frontman, who at the beginning of this year prooved his acting skills in the not very successfull thriller "Leading Man", looks gorgeous. He wears a black outfit: jeans, t-shirt, a cool leather-jacket and boots with 5 cm-heels. His short buzz is redish. "I dyed them for my next role in "Long Time, nothing new", he explains smiling. "We start shooting in NY in a week."
Jon is actually on a 5 days short-trip through Europe - without band e
without his kids Stephanie Rose (4) and Jesse James Louis (1) [yeah, right! Get informed man! :(] He took only his wife Dorothea (35) with him. "Our kids are better taken care of with my mum in New Jersey."
Jon hosted in Monte Carlo ath the Côte D'Azur with Princess Stéphanie
the "World Music Awards". After London and Paris, he's today in Hamburg,
to accept for the whole band the silver BRAVO-Otto'96 [it's the BRAVO-Oscar...a little indian :)] in the cathegory "Hard'n'Heavy". "What? Only silver?", he shouts with mocking disappointement, "1999 will be released the new Bon Jovi-album - and then we're getting gold again!"
BRAVO: During the last months you have been more in front of a camera than in the music studio. Do you have fun acting?
Jon: Yeah! I try to do both. When I'm not shooting a movie, I'm in the studio - like when I recorded my second solo-album "Destination Anywhere". I've written songs like "Janie (Don't take your Love to town)", my first single "Midnight in Chelsea" or "Every Word was a Piece of my Heart" during the last Bon Jovi tour in 1996, in cities like Vienna, Amsterdam and London. I'll never give up music. It was my first love..
BRAVO: Are you still in touch with the other band-members?
Jon: Yeah. I've just met my drummer Tico in Monte Carlo, but didn't reconize him at first. He has a short buzz now (grins). He has a lot of success as an artist and has own expositions in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and London. Richie Sambora will release his second solo-album in autumn. I can't wait to hear his songs, but there is no competition between us two. My keyboarder David Bryan is playing right now in Dr. John's band and Hugh McDonald plays the bass on my new album, which by the way will be released on June 16th.
BRAVO: Your solo-songs sound surprisingly grungy...
Jon: They are supposed to sound like that. After all it's a solo-album and that should be heard. Besides, there has been a certain influence from people who have co-produced and co-written my songs, like Dave Stewart (former Eurythmics).
BRAVO: What is the drammatic song "August 7th" about?
Jon: It's a true story and a really tragic one. On August 7th 1996, Katherine, the 6 year old daughter of my tour manager Paul Korzilius, has been found murdered in Texas. She was laying on the border of a field with fatal head-injuries. Obviously, she was kidnapped and tried to escape by jumping out of the car, but she hit her head real hard on the floor and bleeded to death. When I heard about that, I was so devastated like never before in my life. I had to think about my own children. I've put all my thoughts in this song, with the line "Sometimes God calls his Angels too soon!" and have dedicated it to Katherine.
BRAVO: Are your kids protected by bodyguards?
Jon: No, I'd like them to grow up as normal as possible. Stephanie will soon start to go to nursery-school. We live in a small town now, in Rumson/NJ, at just one car-hour from New York. In Rumson there aren't that many risks like in the city - but, things like that can happen also there.
BRAVO: For the album you have shot a short-movie in New York with Hollywood-stars like Demi Moore and Whoppi Goldberg. How this?
Jon: This was my idea, coz I wanted to integrate my acting skills into the videoclips (grins). In the movie I play the husband of Demi Moore. She's a nurse who has a miscarriage. Out of her grief, she starts taking drugs and goes crazy. I don't get along with her anymore and so I leave her. Later I regret and go back to her. In the meantime she has kidnapped a foundling [looked it up in the dic., it means a child that was found in a garbidge-can or so] and hidden him in our appartement. The cops find out about it and try to storm our apartment to find the baby. They shoot - but I won't tell ya who will be killed. I didn't want a happy ending. [Oh my God!! I bet it's Jon who will be killed!! Nooooo! I already now, I'll bawl my eyes out!]
BRAVO: Where can we see this minimovie?
Jon: Right now we are discussing with TV-channels, which want to show it, by the way also in Germany [GREAT!! Hope this is true] But this summer it will also be realeased on tape and can be purchased in stores.
BRAVO: Are you happy with your success as an actor?
Jon: I still have to work a lot on me! Till now i've already shot four movies, two of them are still to be shown in the cinemas. But I'm still beginner. Right now as an actor i feel about the same as after my second album! But I was pretty disappointed that my second movie "Leading Man" hasn't been shown in the US cinemas. Maybe the story was too European. The movie is played in London and for the Americans that's a totally different world. I've shown the video of the movie to my parents and they loved it!
BRAVO: Are you doing a solo-tour?
Jon: No, there won't be a real tour. I'll do some appearances with guest-musicians. Right now, I'm more concentrating on filming a new movie "Long time, nothing new" with Ed Burns and Lauren Holly, the wife of comedian Jim Carrey. In the movie, I play a pretty boring guy, who works at the municipality [again...looked it up in the dictionary] and "fights" with another guy, a small gangster, for a woman. In the end, we both don't get her...
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