Bon Jovi rolls into The Q Saturday on the first leg of long 'Because We Can Tour'
View full sizeJon Bon Jovi, pictured during the Hurricane Sandy Relief concert last fall, brings the band that bears his name into The Q Saturday night. But that's just not the style of frontman Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres and guitarist Richie Sambora. That message was clear in a conference call featuring all but the band's namesake.
"How do we keep it up?" said Bryan. "Because that's what we do; we're musicians and we love to play and make music. And with every album we get better and with every tour we get better."
Bryan said the band isn't looking to shut it down anytime soon, and pointed to the Rolling Stones -- whose youngest member, Ronnie Wood, will be 67 in June, while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are facing 70 and Charlie Watts is looking 72 square in the face -- as the next milestone.
"I guess we've got till 70-something, and we've got another couple of years before we're there," said Bryan with a laugh.
In this era of bands that form and break up as quickly as waves in a hurricane, Bon Jovi remains an exception, especially given the effort and physical training necessary for an 18-month tour like the one on which Bon Jovi is embarking.
"Fortunately, it's an anomaly that we still all get along together and have a great time playing together, and are making good music that people want to hear," said Sambora.
That's likely to include the new album, "What About Now," which is due out on Tuesday. Sambora said a lot of the album's tone was born of observations during the band's last tour, which saw them visit 52 countries.
"In our particular fashion, just having a very optimistic outlook in the songs is always very important," said Sambora. "Even a song like the first single, 'Because We Can,' is a song of inclusion. If you can help somebody, you should try to do it because you can."
That includes loyalty, which to the band is a two-way: repaying the loyalty OF their fans with loyalty TO their fans.
"We just write songs that people can relate to, and it becomes part of the soundtrack of their lives," Sambora said. "That's a privilege in itself."
It's a privilege Bon Jovi has built on during the band's studio time.
"It starts with an idea, a concept, a story," said Torres, on making a recording like "What About Now." "Then there's melody and rhythm and everything gets compounded."
A song can start with one, two or three writers, but in the studio, it becomes a joint project.
"When it comes to being in the studio as a band, you throw in all the instruments for your changes and the dichotomy of the song, and how it can go in any direction, so it's real experimental," Torres said. "We've always been in the habit of working on stuff and trying never to say no to an idea, so at the end of the day you've given the song its due."
At the same time, there are not going to be a lot of surprises when you buy a Bon Jovi album.
"A band like us that's been around for 30 years now, we're not chasing anything down but ourselves," said Sambora.
"If you put the four of us in a room, it's going to sound like us because it IS us," said Bryan.
Hey, if it's worked for three decades, why change now?
http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2013/03/bon_jovi_rolls_into_the_q_satu.html
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