iHeartRadio LIVE with Jon Bon Jovi: Celebrating Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story on Hulu

welcome to iHeart radio live with John bonji celebrating thank you good night the bonji story presented by Hulu from the iHeart Radio Theater in Los Angeles here's your host Valentine thank you for joining us tonight across the country in iHeart radio or iHeart Radio YouTube channel and of course on our free iHeart Radio App this is a very special night thank you good night the bonji story is a four-part all access docu series chronicling The Epic past and future of one of the most recognizable bands the world and its frontman John bonjovi thank you good night the bonjovi story joins the b in February of 2022 and follows a realtime Journey charting out their future and let me remind you how rare it is to have a legend like John bonjovi letting the world see his most vulnerable moments while he's still living them thank you good night the bonji story is 40 Years of personal videos unreleased early demos original lyrics and other personal and professional moments never before seen the triumphs and setbacks Greatest Hits biggest disappointments and most public moments of friction here to talk about this amazing docy series all available on Hulu is the one and only John [Applause] bonjovi that's what I like to hear that's what I like I bet you like that too right it's a nice surprise thank you guys feels good and gals yes nice to be here so first off congrats thank you good night to bonjovi story what inspired you to put this docu series together coming up on what would be the the 40th anniversary of the band and I started to think about that along with archiving so much of what we had in the vaults musically and photos and clothes and you know all the history so I was thinking about the 40th now what we watch it though we realize how raw and real it is that had to be I think for you a conscious decision to go in that direction one thing I I knew that if I was going to support something like this it had to be the truth and the last thing that we wanted um was a puff piece yeah you know I I didn't need a vanity piece and um so I wanted everybody to have their truth to to tell their story the way that they saw it unfolding you know and and for the rest of us to see it when it was put together you know I had no um producer hat on during the film no no no no no no um and that's really why you don't see us interviewed together okay because it would it could have been he said she said and I'm afraid to say that because so it was go do be you know this is a film this is this is the the truth right so you chose deac chopra's son Gotham Chopra to direct thank you good night the Bon Joby story I did that yes when you uh I did that that's all you baby right yes it is of course so when that happens and you go after somebody like that what were you looking for when it comes to a director well I I I had um one thought in mind which is really how I've run the band all these years it's it's it's equal parts of team and family so I've always you know stated that somebody had to be the quarterback of a team and Gotham's background um in sport with religion of sports which is the name of his company and he had done a docy series on Tom Brady called The Man in the arena that I loved very much um and then of course I knew about his spiritual background with his dad and so I you know with deepo um I thought these are two things worth meeting with Gotham schoper about and explaining what I invisioned which really the initial conversation was nothing more than four decades and I think they should go like like this and uh you know you've never done music like this on this level would you be interested and then um he was interested but then he was the one that realized that there was another story to tell which was you know my health concerns and everything going forward so you knew that was there and you knew you'd talk about that but were you surprised that he wanted to go into that area were surprised anything he wanted to I wasn't afraid to to to be that open to be that open and be that honest in truth have never been afraid about being that open and that honest it's just somehow that's not necessarily how everything always gets delivered you know but I never was afraid of telling the truth one of the things we see in the first episode of the docu series is Bruce Springsteen and you that relationship Asbury Park those early days you've called him a brother a mentor a friend what is it like for a couple of Jersey Boys for you to have that relationship with Bruce Spring State it's just means real to me but it's the same with Southside Johnny those guys they made the impossible seem possible if only because they were 30 miles away from where we grew up the Same Led Zeppelin and queen and Leonard Skinner posters that hung on on my bedroom wall seemed impossible they were bigger than bigger than bigger than life but those guys that were down the street were also making records and telling stories about our backyard and then truthfully because they were 12 and 12ish years older than I am they had experienced a hell of a lot more yeah and we're obviously much much further down that road so um I was first in awe as a boy you know sounds I produced some of my very first demos when I was in the rest at 18 years old you know Bruce jumping up on stage at me when I was 17 years old um the Jukes teaching us the right way to play the horn Arrangements in those song You Know teaching us the proper way to to play those old R&B Classics we were like the Muppets ver of the big boys right right 45 years later I happen to have grown up to be me you know so it's different Viewpoint now but you know now I still have that feeling even though I happened to be me yeah you know those guys are my my my heroes right now you were honored as music care as 33rd person of the year earlier this year Bruce was there to help honor you in saying who says can't go home and of course the Promise Land with you that had to be an incredibly special moment as well for you you we've played together a hundred times you know over the over these you know 40x years um a 100 times more than a 100 but um when I was asked to be this year's Honore and Paul McCartney said I I want to be the one to announce it to the world and Bruce Springsteen said I want to come play with you dtha made the seating arrangement on the table and I said if you touch those cards this is could be the only grounds that we're ever going to have a fight over because I was like yep yep yep yep exactly right right keep them right there don't move them I was you know was it was that was beyond a teenage boy's craziest fantasy because these are you know like people you said you have posters on your wall you had you know dreams of being like them as a kid and there you are looking at this table and there's the place cards did you take a picture of the place cards I don't know that I did but I took a picture with the guys there you go well I suppose that's better than a place card right you know what just flashed across my mind is that old movie Misery you know where you capture the right just take Paul McCartney and he's like duct taped in my closet right I don't know I haven't seen the guy in a few minutes maybe he is who knows now thank you good night the Bon Joby story having these camera Crews around you at all times obviously you've done acting work you've done a lot of stuff and you've had cameras around you all your life basically but when they're filming your every move your every detail was that intimidating at first did you fall into it it was easy to Let It Go um and and very very rarely I can remember one instance where I said you should leave the room but um other than that you just let it go and and you know another thing that happened in the film and now I can realize why when I gave complete creative control to Gotham and his team to shoot it and then Alex and his team to edit um it was out of my control for a number of reasons one is I didn't want to Puff piece two I was more focused on writing this new record I was more focused on my health issues so I didn't have time to be dealing with with those things which led to this creative you know piece of art that they created yeah now there have been a wave of rock documentaries over the past decade was there one that inspired you in particular yourself um off the top quickest off the top of my head because there's so many right but I remember holding the the Tom Petty U docy that Peter bonovich did a thousand years ago and the one on the Eagles as two of the ones that I really thought the world of um because there's so many great ones over the years and some with the cooperation of the artist and some not but you know cuz the BG's one was so great you there's a lot of great ones out there but the ones that I held in the in the esteem would put my feet to the fire was petty and the Eagles have you watched the final product or no so you don't want to relive your history or anything no no no I have no issue but I'm also it's this is an ego driven for me it's it's yours now it's not mine the last time I saw cut was I don't know somewhere between four and 6 months ago I don't know really okay I thought you would have watched it know my friend John Sykes was pounding me he said why haven't you given it to me I said I don't have it I don't have it you don't have it no I swear to God I don't have they sent me a link last night good for you I will forward you the link bootleg boot legs Valentine's house boot legs episode big party at my house yeah yeah uh so the other band members of Bon Joby have they sat down have they watched it we we collectively watched it like I said probably probably six months ago we watched a cut that was a work in progress probably six months ago okay so a rough cut okay a rough cut yeah now the surgery to help fix your vocal cords is covered in the film was there a certain moment where you realized that hey this is something serious this is not just I need a singing coach or vocal coach this is something I've studied vocally for most of my career most of the 40 years I pride myself on being a vocalist not a stylist I know how to this I've sung with pavara I know how to sing the Great American song book I can do that um what happened here was sort of an act of God and it's nothing I'm very happy about but I work very hard trying to get back to what I know I know how to do but it's out of my control right you know it's really out of my control but I'm working hard at it but I have to be clear now because now that it's out in public and everyone thinks that I'm I'm dying of some grave disease I am not thank God we're all happy to hear that but I'm also I'm very capable of singing I just sung this whole new record I did the music cares event I jumped up with Armen vur and at Ultra I'm gonna play at this Jimmy Buffett benefit uh you know in two days from now so um I'm capable of singing for me the bar is two and a half hours a night four nights a week because that's what my friends are accustomed to yeah that's a different bar isn't it I need to be able to hit that bar yeah I'm Valentine he is obviously John bonjovi this is iHeart radio live with John bonjovi celebrating thank you good night the Bon Joby story presented by Hulu the amazing four-part docy series chronicling 40 Years of Bon Joby the good the bad it's available in Hulu starting today there's no bad no there's no bad at all don't worry hash of course iHeart Bon Joby there are a lot of fun moments in thank you good night the Bon jooby story as well uh but also some dark moments you say in the docy series that the success of the band almost killed its members yeah can you talk about that for a bit it's it's an age-old story um band form band find success band run into the complications of success the teams around them in in thinking of their best you efforts to help the band be successful could burn them out in in our case that was not a unique story but managers agents lawyers um they were all doing their best but really killing us because we were overextended I think that you know it's the you asked this question often now that you have 40 Years of hindsight what would you have told the younger you take a break you know take more time you're capable you can do it again don't worry that you can't do it again but we had this chip on on our shoulder and I drove this thing hard you know and so we did New Jersey after slippery a year after the slippery one wet tour we were back on the road with New Jersey which had five more top 10 singles on and another 240 show tour and that almost killed us but we delivered it you know we did it and and then you know in retrospect it was too much right you knew there was damage looking back I feel like artists nowadays maybe you can speak to this I think they've come to a point now where they realize Lessons Learned From yourself and other bands out there you can't drive that hard you now do need that mental break that time for yourself nobody knew what mental health issues were right 30 and 40 years ago nobody knew what what mental health it was a sign of weakness if you couldn't do six nights a week on the road and um and and and drink and smoke while you were doing it you know so um the world has changed dramatically yeah um and and there's guys like us to tell the tales yeah yeah when you look back and you say this in Doc Series 2 there's no plan B in your life I find that like interesting hard to believe but yet there wasn't was there there was nothing you weren't going to go work down the factory you weren't going to do any of those jobs I could have been comfortable doing that yeah but there wasn't an option there was just now a lot of that had to do with Blind Faith okay and a lot of that had to do that the drinking age in New Jersey was 18 years old it sounds like a joke but the truth is at 16 and 17 you didn't have the responsibilities that you may have had at 24 and 25 right you know career path worrying about you know income when you're 16 and 17 you could still rely on your parents and if you're lucky enough you can rely on your parents and you guys were you were going out you were doing gigs Stone Pony and stuff and then you were going to school at times I mean you guys were out Young staying out all night and then coming back and going to school that morning how do you do that not well don't pull the transcript is that were you're saying absolutely not okay no absolutely not I I'm lucky that they allowed me to graduate high school um in truth and you know as you grow and you have kids of your own you tell them just you know get good grades in school right right right right right no I was not a good student and I would go to high school and think to myself look around this is not where I'm going to spend the rest of my days even at 18 I don't know if that was stupid or brilliant but it was I am definitely gonna you know make my mark on the world yeah and you did now 40 years a four-part docu series is there anything because you know it's four parts is there anything more you wish you could have had included in there there could have been five six seven and eight for sure because so much has happened just in the last 6 months since you know like we said said we wrapped it um there's so much going on right now just you know in the pursuit of happiness and and this new record release and uh and my continuing health and stuff that I only wish that we had kept going yeah but everything that's in there was everything that there was nothing right nothing was off limits yeah nothing I found it fascinating watching you in there how endearing you guys were and obviously the young John bonjovi is is crazy he's wild the hair everything right but it was so neat to see how you guys are just like ordinary people trying to make your way in this world with this crazy job that you have it's not a unique story I you know it's it it's happened from any garage band that there ever was you know I mean it's just the same old tale told over and over again thank you good night the bonji story would you ever do more thank you good night bonji story tucking in I I'm not sure it's a working title is there a possibility of an epilog like I said there could have been you know five six seven and eight it really could have been of course um I think this story is told it's it it could have been you know the first 40 years but I think that's that's really the story that needed to be told up to this point jump on Joy thank you for being here tonight giving us a special preview of the brand new four-part doy series thank you good night the Bon jooby story which is available and who starting today 40 Years of Bon jobie maybe 40 more maybe maybe let's see I'm Valentine good night

Channel: iHeartRadio

Views: 12,504

Keywords: Jon Bon Jovi

Id: DsEmCWGULK4

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024