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Dry County Archives: Chats, Articles & Interviews

BPI Entertainment News Wire Feature

By STEVE MORSE

(c) 1997, The Boston Globe

Nothing's safe. Nothing's sacred. Don't be afraid to experiment. Sounds like the story of the latest techno band out of England, right? Actually, it's the new credo of veteran rocker Jon Bon Jovi, who is determined not to become just another ``greatest hits'' act on the road.

``I don't want to be Elvis in a white suit,'' he says.

``It's just something that hit me last summer when I was doing multiple nights in stadiums,'' adds Bon Jovi. ``It was an unbelievable time, but if it meant I was only there because people were coming to hear the hits, then I'd rather walk away and try it in a different way.''

Unlike many of his stuck-in-cement peers, Bon Jovi is sincerely reinventing himself. The Jersey rocker, often viewed as a poor man's Bruce Springsteen, is becoming a budding movie star (he has three films coming out later this year) and is about to release a solo album, ``Destination Anywhere.'' The title fits his new mood, while the music leaves behind his guitar-anthem rock in favor of a likable blend of traditional, sha-la-la vocal harmonies (in a Van Morrison mode), mixed with a modern, percussive sound of drum loops and samples.

Nothing's sacred, indeed.

``I just can't be the same old guy,'' says Bon Jovi. ``I just can't get up in the morning and think I'm going to be a one-trick pony and be afraid of going into the movies because it might hurt my music career.

``The way I'm thinking these days, anything that I want to do, I'm going to try it. And if it wins, it wins. If it loses, it loses. But at least I know I tried. I don't see any reason why I can't make solo records, band records, and movies. I want to merge them all.''

Bon Jovi's new solo album is definitely a step forward. Three tracks are produced by Dave Stewart (formerly of Eurythmics), and most others by Steve Lironi, who has worked with Black Grape and was mainly responsible for pushing Bon Jovi in the direction of loops, samples, and singing in lower keys.

``Lironi comes from an England club-mix background - and I loved what he did with Black Grape. I was really into that. It sounded fresh. It was heavy guitars with a modern edge to them.''

The new album is done quite tastefully and is accompanied by the most personal lyrics of Bon Jovi's career. The song ``Midnight in Chelsea'' is about Bon Jovi moving his wife and two children (a daughter, and a son, to London last year for the filming of ``The Leading Man'' (which only came out in England). The song notes: ``It's all right, it's midnight in Chelsea/No one's asking me for favors.'' Says Bon Jovi: ``The idea was that I wasn't running a 100-plus road crew and all that sort of stuff. It was just me in a movie trailer, where I wrote a lot of the album during down time between filming.''

But the most personal track is ``Aug. 7, 4:15,'' a rocker about the hit-and-run crash that killed his manager's 6-year-old daughter last year - ``Tell me it was just a dream/God closed his eyes and the world got mean.'' ``After the tears came the anger, because the story was never resolved,'' says Bon Jovi. ``They never found the [hit-and-run driver]. It's a sin. But after I sat down and fiddled around, I wrote the song. I sat on it for several months before I gave [my manager] a tape of it. He called back and said, `My wife and I think that, as an homage to our daughter, because she was such a big fan, it would be nice if you put it on the record.' ''

Bon Jovi is rightfully excited about the new music, because it should earn him a critical respect that he hasn't always had during a commercially successful career spanning multiplatinum albums ``Slippery When Wet'' and ``New Jersey.''

``I was excited about the prospect of making a record that didn't sound like what was currently on the radio. And I wasn't following a trend or jumping on the Nirvana bandwagon or whatever. So I thought this was worth the risk.

``My guts said, `This is it,' though I then heard the new Aerosmith record and thought, `Uh oh, what I'm doing is certainly different from that band-sounding record.' But I thought, `well, I'd rather experiment more like this.''

Bon Jovi is on hiatus from the band Bon Jovi. They'll get back together, but not until Bon Jovi tests the waters with his solo album. Meanwhile, his Bon Jovi songwriting partner Richie Sambora is about to release his own solo album (produced by Don Was).

As a solo act, Bon Jovi won't tour heavily but is playing a few radio shows. He'll feature the new album (and one or two older hits), while performing with a new group anchored by drummer Sean Pelton of the ``Saturday Night Live'' band. Most of the musicians are not well-known, though the guitarist is Bobby Bandiera of Southside Johnny fame.

``It will be six guys, including a percussionist and keyboard player,'' he says of the group. ``It's not unplugged. It's electric. It's gonna rock.''

As for his film career (which started with ``Moonlight and Valentino'' two years ago), Bon Jovi has three domestic releases slated for autumn.

`Long Time, Nothing New,'' with Eddie Burns and Lauren Holly, just wrapped. Bon Jovi plays a small-town handyman who is ``a healthy and pretty morally together kind of guy.''

He describes ``Little City'' as ``a kind of `Big Chill' with Penelope Ann Miller and JoBeth Williams, who was in the `Big Chill.' '' The third is ``Homegrown,'' starring Billie Bob Thornton (who won an Oscar for ``Sling Blade''), John Lithgow, and Jamie Lee Curtis. ``It's about dope and dope dealers. I'm the dealer they come to,'' he says with a forced chuckle.

While other rockers such as Tom Petty and John Mellencamp find filmmaking tedious, Bon Jovi doesn't. ``I'm a willing participant. It's fun and a great outlet for me. It's sort of like being the rhythm guitarist in a band. You show up, you do your thing, and then you let go of it. Whereas in my music, I'm involved in all aspects, from writing and singing, to producing the records and managing the band. I have all the control, but I also have all the responsibilities.

``Making movies for me, though, is a way of being artistic and creative, but not having all the responsibilities,'' he says. ``Also, I'm still learning it. It's something new, yet it's in the arts and I feel I can be productive with it. I'm very open to trying it.''

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