In the beginning of eighties, the US rock scene was looking for new heroes and in New Jersey, John Bongiovi was one of young talented musicians who saw the great opportunity. His cousin Tony Bongiovi owned the Powerstation studios in NY and John assembled a group of young musicians to record his first single, 'Runaway'. it managed to get local airplay in NY and this single soon became something like a cult hit. Later, John got together with four more musicians to establish his band Richie Sambora - the guitarist, Tico Torres - the drummer, Alec John Such- the bass player, and David Bryan - keyboard expert.

And their recorded their first album, simply called 'Bon Jovi'. The album was released in 1984, and recorded in Warehouse Studios, Philadelphia. 'Runaway' hit the charts and brought the album to the gold status (50000 copies sold).

In 1985, the band recorded their second album - '7800 Fahrenheit' (the title coming from the temperature inside a volcano during eruption), containing songs as 'In And Out Of Love' and 'Tokyo Road'. However, this album was not as successful as was expected to be.

Then, the recording of the third album began. Canadian Bruce Fairbairn was brought in as producer replacing Lance Quinn, and the songwriting team was expanded - Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and new member, Desmond Child, who was working with Aerosmith and Kiss. This record, 'Slippery When Wet', was something like absolute success for Bon Jovi. The album featured major chart toppers - 'You Give Love A Bad Name', 'Living On A Prayer', 'Social Disease', 'Wanted Dead Or Alive', and 'Never Say Goodbye'. Even in the UK, where entertainment is really a throat-cutting business, the album was a success. Bon Jovi became a real phenomenon. The band were really big stars.

In September 1988, the next album was released - 'New Jersey' - a mixture of rock and romance. The album contained enormous hits 'Bad Medicine', 'Lay Your Hands On Me', 'Living In Sin' and 'I'll Be There For You'. Sales were lower than with 'Slippery', "only" 8 million. The Moscow Music Peace Festival is one of BJ's greatest moments. Jon remembers 'being treated like a king, driving down the wrong side of the road with the military saluting you....'

BJ became the world's most successful rock'n'roll band, playing to 4 million people in 1989 alone and selling 25 million albums 1985-89. But, the band were exhausted and had to take a break. "We'd done nothing but album-tour-album-tour for eight straight years....", Jon said.

During these years off, Jon recorded his solo soundtrack album for the 'Young Guns II' film - 'Blaze of Glory'(Feb 1990). He also made a cameo appearance in this film..."I run around and get killed", comments Jon. By late 1993 'Blaze Of Glory' sold over 3 million copies and the title track was a big hit worldwide. Jon also established his own record label, Jambco.

In 1992, the band regrouped and spent 6 months recording 'Keep The Faith', the album released in November 1992. The album contained really big variety of songs and 5 hit singles: 'Keep The Faith', 'I Believe', 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead', 'In These Arms', and 'Bed Of Roses'. However, the centerpiece of album, 'Dry County', written by Jon, never got as much sympathies as it deserved. This album was not promoted by a world tour, but by a series of short stints. The 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' tour kicked off in Phoenix, AZ on Oct 8th 1992 and ended on 31st December 1993.

BJ's next memorable moment was 10th Anniversary, celebrated with 'Cross Road - The Best Of' album, released in 1994. The album contained 13 old classics and 2 new songs - 'Always', worldwide single hit and 'Someday I'll be Saturday Night', the single with MTV-banned video. Jon got his second kid in February 1995, Jesse James and recorded occasional Christmas 1994 single with Cindy Crawford, 'Please Come Home For Christmas'. The title 'Cross Road' was indeed symbolical - Bj had to decide which way to go.

'These Days' is the answer. The new album, released in June 1995 and promoted by a world tour, is something new from Bon Jovi. All songs are excellent, at least for me. The album features classic BJ rock ballads and also brand new styles. Let's just hope that 'These Days' will be well accepted by audiences and make BJ even more famous and recognized. Anyway, these days we've got to keep the faith......

Jon Bon Jovi Jon Bon Jovi's real name is John Frank Bongiovi. He was born on 2 March 1962 in Sayreville, New Jersey, born as the son of a hairdresser and a Playboy bunny. Nowadays Jon is, from is fashionable boots up to his nicely styled hair, about 1 meter and 78 centimeters tall. The color of his eyes always stayed the same: blue. Our main character was never afraid to take the initiative. As a young boy he held a job at the record studio of his cousin Tony Bongiovi, but in between washing and mopping he had the opportunity to make some recordings. One of those songs, the happy sing-along tune "Runaway" (with a borrowed intro. from Billy Joel . "Runaway" filled with local Rock and turned out to be the most requested songs on the local radio stations in no time. The above mentioned situation resulted in the contract offer of the Mercury record company to the curly head entrepreneur. With a band that he arranged himself, consisting of David Bryan (a highschool buddy that was born on 7 February 1962 as David Rashbaum), guitarist Richie Sambora (11 July 1959), bassist Alec John Such (14 November 1956) and drummer Tico Torres (7 October 1953), they made the debut album "Bon Jovi" in 1984. A record filled with some good quality rock, with the emphasis on easy sing-along choruses, with a nice guitar solo every now and then ("Roulette"). Extra contributions came from star-guitarist Aldo Nova and the -later to be- Rainbow drummer Chuck Burgi. And in no-time the band was opening for Kiss in Europe. Four years earlier the same thing happened to Iron Maiden and we all know how that band did after that. World-fame couldn't get away from Bon Jovi anymore! The first band that Jon was ever part of had the beautiful name Atlantic City Expressway. Supposedly the 17 year old singer/guitarist was practically playing in the doorway of the emergency exit during his debut performance at the local Stone Pmy Club. This because he was only 17 at the time while the minimum age was 18 for the club the A.C.E played at. In case of a police-check Jon would be out the back door in no-time! In his school days Jon Bongiovi hang out day and night with his big buddy, Dave Sabo, a guy with the exact same interests. The two made an agreement for life: if one of the two would ever reach the top as a musician, then he'd do everything to get the other one there too. And they kept their word. Jon reached the top first, but didn't feel to big to come down again and take his friend by the hand and guide him to success. Sabo's band was put under the management of the Bon Jovi's and played together with them on stage. Now, many years later, Dave Sabo's band turned out to be a world-act too. The name of the band? Skid Row! The logo on the inner record cover of the debut album was designed by Jon's four year younger brother Anthony Michael Bongiovi. We haven't seen that logo again after that.

Jon's favorite drink is called 'Muff Dive' which is a mix of Vodka, peach brandy and 'vossebessensap'. Vossebessensap is some sort of berry juice. When Jon started to make millions he made a remarkable decision: he bought four houses at once! One for himself and his newly wed wife Dorothea and one for his parents, while brothers Anthony and Mat both got an apartment. "We are Americans of Italian descent", Bon Jovi said, "so our family ties are very strong. That's why I wanted to share my success with the ones I care for". Jon, even more serious: "If there is something we have in common within the band it's our believe in God. I went to catholic school myself and that influenced me tremendously. Well, it doesn't hurt to believe in something." About a man with the status of Jon Bon Jovi of course the wildest rumors are going around. Jon is not only active as singer, guitar player, model and actor he also seems do be doing well being a producer. When Bon Jovi quit playing for a while (after the exhausting New Jersey tour) Jon lead the recording of 'Blood on the bricks', an album of friend and guitarist Aldo Nova. " Jon Bon Jovi is a good human being. Not all the songs that he writes he keeps for himself. 'Sometimes it's a bitch' went to Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks, while the duo Hall & Oates were made happy with the song 'So Close'. "Strange", he thought, "because I'm certainly not the world's best guitar player. But Tico told me: 'It doesn't matter that you only know three chords. As longs as you compose hit singles that sell millions, there is nothing wrong with you'." The secret of Bon Jovi's success? Jon: "I wish I knew, then I would have sold the formula and I wouldn't have to work as hard anymore. May be it's a matter of keep on going. You either love us or you don't, but we will keep on going until the people that originally didn't like us will change their opinion about us." "What's going to be the kids name?" was the most heard question that Jon had to listen to when his wife was pregnant. At one point he was so sick of it that he said: "No matter if it's going to be a boy or a girl, we will call it little Elvis!". Mid '93 the baby was born and was named Stephanie Rose Bongiovi. For a while now, Jon has been married to his highschool sweetheart Dorothea Hurley. The secret to their marriage? Jon reveals a small part of the secret: "Dorothea is not really bothered when I go of the sly sometimes, that's just part of the Rock&Roll life."

The guitar player that Jon admires most is... Richie Sambora. "He's a guitar miracle, Bon Jovi couldn't do without him. He gets amazing sounds out of his instrument, it almost seems like he uses twenty fingers. Jon has a secret passion that he gives in to almost every day. The singer/guitarist loves cartoons! We hear from reliable sources that his favorite paper hero is Uncle Scrooge. "Money is not important in my life. As a kid I never had money. The first years that I made music, I didn't make anything either. What kept me going was pride: I played my own songs. The firsts two records didn't bring in any money either. That started with the third record. And then all of a sudden I had so much, that again it wasn't important anymore. Jon doesn't collect stamps, Jon collects cars. "I have a Ferrari, a Camero, two Corvettes a couple Jeeps, a Mustang Shelby and a unique Lincoln Premier from 1957." "I was never a big heavy metal fan," Jon says now. "We got that label because, at one point in time, we opened for Kiss and the Scorpions. No, we make pop music. Just like Alice Cooper." For Jon Bon Jovi Aerosmith, a band that he knows from the times that he cleaned the studio of his cousin, still stands on a pedestal. "I would love it if I could be half as long half as cool." "The philosophy of this band," according to Jon, "has always been: staying down to earth." Which is strange since Jon made a habit out of it for years to float above the audience on a cable during concerts. Jon, down to earth: "I know I will never be recognized as an important figure in Rock music. I always stayed to normal for that." Jon passionately hates the former Go Go's singer Belinda Carlisle. "That bitch just copied our song 'Livin' on a prayer and turned it in to a overly sweet, nagging song: 'Heaven is a place on earth'. When I tried to point that out to her one day, the bitch just laughed at me". Jon, reflecting his thoughts: "The moment you sign a record contract you're in debt. You sign an IOU that takes you years to pay back."

Again: the secret of Bon Jovi's success? Richie: "Our power is that we write very visual songs. Who listens to the compositions, feels part of it. That's David's influence, that's why he's so good in composing film music. 'Wanted: dead or alive' is Tico Torres's favorite Bon Jovi song. "That song perfectly describes the true story to the band. I can't listen to the songs of the early days any more though, I guess that's something that every Musician has though."

7800 Fahrenheit

In 1985, when synthi-pop was really popular, Bon Jovi's second album was introduced. The title was '7800 Fahrenheit', but the response on it was not so good. The leading British metal magazine Kerrang!, that was positive about the debut record earlier, said 'a pale imitation of the Bon Jovi we have got to know and learned to love'. Also Jon himself later said it could and should have been a better disc. We do find a little highlight on the cover; on it John Bongiovi Senior is thanked for....the hair styling! By the way: 7800 degrees fahrenheit is the melting point of 'rock'. Anywayz, overall this album is still worth listening too, bacause it contains hits like "Tokyo Road" and "In And Out Of Love"

Slippery When Wet

"Slippery when wet" is a warning that you see at the side of swimming pools in America, but that is not where Jon and his buddies got their inspiration from when their new album needed a title. David: "During the recording of the record we frequently wound up in a striptease club where incredibly good looking girls were putting water and soap on each other. They became so slippery because of that, that you couldn't hold on to them even if you wanted to really bad. "Slippery when wet!" one of us yelled out and the rest of use immediately knew: that had to be the title of the new album! Originally we were going to put a picture of some huge breasts, the really big ones, on the cover; but when the PRMC found out we were in big trouble. So we made it into a very descent cover." When they recorded the first versions of 'Slippery when wet', they went over to the nearest Pizza Hut to 'recruit' some kids to listen to the music, see what they thought. Jon: "We wanted to hear what they thought of it, being representative for the record-buying public". "Slippery when wet" made it to the first slot on the American album charts. World wide they sold about 23 million copies. But we're not completely sure since we haven't counted the sales slips of the Free Record Shop of this past month. Slippery is a great album containin GREAT hits like "Livin on A Prayer", "Wanted Dead or Alive", "You give love a bad name" and "Never Say goodbye". Most people think it's the best ever Bon Jovi album. To promote 'Slippery when wet' our new superstars did a monster tour of 130 shows! They picked the correct name for the tour: 'Tour Without End'. The superstar status, that the band earned after "Slippery", was confirmed in the summer of 1987 when the band after Cinderella, W.A.S.P., Anthrax, Metallica and Dio climbed the stage as the main act at the 'Monsters of Rock' festival in Donington, England. After the 'Tour without end' was over the wallets were filled and the heads empty. Physically and mentally exhausted the rockers went to bed.

New Jersey

Jon, sincere: "The fact that the press keeps writing about our relationship with Bruce Springsteen is pretty much our own fault. We never should have called one of our albums 'New Jersey'." If someone doesn't agree they can write to the editorial office of Free Magazine, but according to us the song "Lay your hands on me" of the 'New Jersey album' has the longest intro. in rock history. Besides Lay your hands on me", "New Jersey" contains other hits like "Bad Medicine", "Born to be my baby" and "99 in the shade"

1990-1992

Between 1990 and 1992 all the band members did their own thing. Jon used that time to play a part in the movie 'Young guns II'. He is in it for 16 seconds!. Jon also made the soundtrack for the movie which he was helped with by Elton John, Aldo Nova, Little Richard and Jeff Beck among others. The album is called "Young Guns II/Blaze of Glory. It contains the smash hit "Blaz of Glory" and other good songs lie "Sant Fe", "Billy Get Your Guns" and "Blood Money" A parasite from South America caused David to have to go to the hospital. Tico was so stressed out he couldn't hear another note of music. And Alec fell of his motor bike "Just like that, right in front of my door." Because of that accident he damaged a crucial muscle, which forced him to develop a whole new way to hold his instrument. But he did have plenty of time for that.....

Keep The Faith

In 1992 Bon Jovi, the band that had been written off by many people, suprised everyone with the fantastic new album (the fifth one) "Keep the faith". The record, with the striking cover photography of 'our' Anton Corbijn, can certainly be called the artistic highlight of the band. From the epic, long and nice guitarwork 'Dry County', the happy up-tempo rockers 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' and 'In these arms' to the heart-rending ballad 'Bed of roses': here we hear a close group of talented musicians that should be takes seriously by everyone. In any case the critics from Kerrang! were really enthusiastic and called the record 'perhaps the ultimate mainstream American rock record'. 'Keep the faith' made it to the third place in the album division of the Dutch Top 40. The record was on the list for over a year. 'Slippery when wet' made it to the second spot but 'only' lasted 30 weeks. 'New Jersey' didn't make it higher than number 17 and was out of sight after 21 weeks.

CrossRoad

For the junior-fans of Bon Jovi recently the fine greatest hits album 'CrossRoad' came out, again with Anton Corbijn's cover photography. Who looks at the cover, will notice that Alec John Such sits separate from the rest of the band, like he's putting he's letter of resignation in an envelope. Shortly after the album came out the news came that the bassist had left the band. The first change in the members of the band. For now Such's is being replaced by Hugh McDonald, a man that also helped with the first record in 1984. If he can call himself a full band member now, we don't know yet. "Crossroad" contains hits from all the old albums plus 3 brand-new songs: "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night", "Always" and a re-recording of "Livin on a Prayer" called "Prayer'94".

Record company Polygram had a really good year in 1994. World wide they made approx. $476 million profit selling CD's. In comparison to the previous year that's an increase of 20 percent. The best sold CD in the genre of, lets call it 'lighter music', was, not a big surprise, Bon Jovi. More than 8 million people bought the compilation album 'Cross road'.

These Days

The fact that the new album 'These Days' is recorded in Los Angeles, has everything to do with Richie Sambora's private life. Making of 'These Days' took 11 months in total. The sound of the album is really different from the hard-rocking New Jersey, Keep the Faith or Slippery. It's mare like a ballad and blues album with flashes of rock. "Hey God" and "Something For The Pain" show flashes of the old Bon Jovi, but songs lie "Lie To Me" or "These Days" are a completly different style.

Destination Anywhere

The second solo album from Jon Bon Jovi, is a departure from what the public has come to expect from a Bon Jovi or Jon Bon Jovi project. The lyrics are closer to the chest, more introspective. The sound, less reliant on power guitar chords, delves into the world of programmed loops, samples & synthesizers. Destination Anywhere marks a new direction for Jon Bon Jovi and offers a challenge to the notion of who Jon Bon Jovi is as an artist. "Every word was a piece of my heart" and "Ugly" are smilar to the bamd style, but "Midnight in Chelsea" and "Queen of New Orleans" clearly have Jon's name and style written all over them.

Undiscovered Soul

Richie's second solo has some resemblance to his first, but it is waaaay better. It is more of a peaceful album than a rock and roll one. Richie's voice is just GREAT and it seems as though his guitar actually talks. Songs like "Fallen form Graceland" and "In it for love" are great ballads and show Richie's true talent. "If God was a woman" and "You are not alone" give you the idea that Richie can truly rock the world with or wothout the band. Overall this a heart-warming album and I encourage everybody to get it, because it is VERY very good.

Full Name : John Francis Bongiovi, Jr.

Date of Birth : March 2, 1962

Family : Father: John Bongiovi, Mother: Carol, Siblings: Brothers: Anthony and Matt

Wife : Dorothea Hurley - (high-school sweethearts, Jon and Dorothea were married in 1989 in Las Vegas, NV) Children : STEPHANIE ROSE (age 5) and JESSE JAMES LOUIS (age 2).
Home : Jon resides with his family in New Jersey and has a New York City apartment as well. Also, Jon owns a beachfront home in Malibu, CA but seldom spends time there.

Hobbies : Jon is an admitted workaholic. He does enjoy movies. He is an avid runner. He watches American football and is a die-hard New York GIANTS fan.