Jon Bon Jovi REVEALS His Only REGRET & Life Lessons as a 24-year-old ROCKSTAR

Today, Lewis sits down with the legendary Jon Bon Jovi to peel back the curtains on what truly separates success from greatness. Jon opens up about the precise moment he felt he touched greatness with his music and how he kept his eyes on the horizon in his twenties, always believing his best work was yet to come. He shares the personal tactics that helped keep his band united through the storms of fame, including the pivotal role of therapy in enhancing communication. Jon also gets personal about the challenges of running his own management company, sustaining a loving marriage amid the rockstar lifestyle, and the importance of relational and emotional intelligence in his success. Beyond his professional life, Jon reflects on the evolution of his voice, the lessons learned from fatherhood, and offers a lyric that deeply resonates with his current chapter in life. Watch Jon’s new documentary series, Thank You, Goodnight – The Bon Jovi Story on Hulu. In this episode you will learnThe fundamental differences between success and true greatness. Strategies for maintaining long-term professional relationships and group dynamics in high-stress environments. Insights into managing a successful career while nurturing a healthy personal life. Jon's approach to adapting, growing and improving over time as one of the greatest frontmen in rock and roll history. The profound life lessons Jon has gained through his journey as a husband, father and a veteran musician. For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1608For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Rick Rubin – https://link.chtbl.com/1536-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The industry said, "You're out of your mind. You're a dead man walking. You're the biggest band in the world right now. You can't fire your big shop manager. Give me a good reason why." The word on the street was, "This is career suicide." But the band trusted me, and we did it. I did it.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  Has sold over 130 million albums. Please welcome John Bon Jovi.

• 0:28Lewis Howes?

  You brought in this mediator, a therapist, a couch, someone to kind of like say, "Hey, tell everyone how you feel."

• 0:34Speaker 00

  Oh, it wasn't easy. Nobody was receptive to it. I was receptive to it. The guys fought it. And then after a couple of sessions of it, we committed to it.

• 0:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 0:43Speaker 00

  I can absolutely positively guarantee you will never see me giving 50%. That's out of the question. Don't think for a moment that Richie and David and Tico didn't give everything they had. They gave everything they had too. Everyone's always looking over the shoulder and they've got that, "Who's the bigger guy in the room?" I gave that [bleep] up so long ago. I give [bleep] about it. And I have very few regrets in my career. One of my few regrets...

• 1:13Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the legendary John Bon Jovi in the house. Good to see you, sir.

• 1:20Speaker 00

  Thank you, brother.

• 1:21Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much for being here, my fellow Pisces.

• 1:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:24Lewis Howes?

  Arena football lover and so many other things. You have this incredible docu-series that's out right now as people are watching this. And there's so much about it that I didn't realize about you as a human being and your heart and your vision. I think everyone sees the accolades, the success, the platinum, you know, records that you've sold and the four-decade career of hit after hit. But what they really get to watch when they watch this series is your incredible vision for making all this happen and manifesting this into your life and building and creating

• 2:07Lewis Howes?

  it for decade after decade, and your beautiful heart. So I want to acknowledge you for your heart because I feel like that love and that passion is what allowed this to come to fruition, this life you've created, and the impact that you've had with your music around the world. My fiancee, she's Mexican.

• 2:25Lewis Howes?

  And I told her I was having you on today. And she was almost in tears because she said when she was a teenager, she bought a CD of yours. And it was one of the first music that she heard where she started to learn English.

• 2:38Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 2:38Lewis Howes?

  Was because of your music.

• 2:39Speaker 00

  Right.

• 2:40Lewis Howes?

  So you make, you make impact on so many people's lives in so many different ways that you're not even aware of. So I want to acknowledge you for that. Uh, John, and there was a moment in, I can't remember if it was episode one or two, because I got to watch the, the whole thing. Where you talk about success and greatness. I don't know if you remember this, but you, you mentioned about success and you mentioned greatness in almost the same sentence. And you give a, a definition kind of of what they both are for you. Since this is the school of greatness, I would love for you to talk about what the difference is between success and greatness for you.

• 3:14Speaker 00

  Well, I honestly can't remember the instance in the film, especially because it's been filmed over the last couple of years. But I guess my reaction to it would be this.

• 3:28Speaker 00

  Anyone can have success.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  You could write

• 3:35Speaker 00

  a jingle that becomes a hit song.

• 3:38Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:39Speaker 00

  And for five minutes, that's called success and it's fleeting. Or you could strive for greatness, which means you gotta do it again. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again. And, and you have to work hard. Um, because it just doesn't happen. You know, greatness is something to strive for. And it is, it is given to nobody.

• 4:08Speaker 00

  Even the most gifted of musician or athlete or business leader has to work at it in order to, you know, strive to achieve greatness. That's my opinion.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Do you feel like, when did you feel like you were able to reach greatness in your musical career?

• 4:29Speaker 00

  I don't know that I ever felt that way.

• 4:30Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 4:31Speaker 00

  I think that that's sort of that chip on your shoulder that keeps you going. I do think that I've gotten quite good at it. I think that given the opportunity physically,

• 4:43Speaker 00

  I can do it with the best of them at this point. But, um, I think that with every song, with every song, let alone every album.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  It's, can I do it again? Can I do it again? Can I do it again? How can I do it better?

• 5:01Speaker 00

  I don't think you ever think you've achieved greatness. It's just striving.

• 5:05Lewis Howes?

  Did you ever feel like when, I think it was the third album you guys had that went like, I don't know, 14 times platinum or whatever it did. It was like all over the world.

• 5:12Speaker 00

  It's one of the biggest selling records ever, yeah. Slippery and wet, yeah.

• 5:16Lewis Howes?

  Was that the biggest album ever of all time?

• 5:18Speaker 00

  No, no, no. I mean, for us, it was, but it was, it was thriller. It was like a virgin. It was born in the USA. It was, it was one of those. It was huge. It was massive and it was everywhere.

• 5:29Lewis Howes?

  When you have that big of a hit at that young of an age, I think you were like 24, 25 or somewhere around there. How do you, and it surpasses so many other records or accomplishments of almost every other artist. How do you come with the mind of this isn't my best work and I can keep, you know, reaching this type of success? Or do you think maybe my best work is behind me?

• 5:52Speaker 00

  No.

• 5:52Lewis Howes?

  At 25?

• 5:53Speaker 00

  No, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not.

• 5:58Speaker 00

  If anything, I didn't, my only regret, and I have very few regrets in my career. One of my few regrets is that I didn't take a little more time just to enjoy it. Because you could have, should have taken the time to really enjoy it. I think that part of the journey of life is that in your twenties, when you've got A, that chip on your shoulder and there's, there's all kinds of new surprises around every bend.

• 6:29Speaker 00

  You don't really sure how to navigate this journey. You look to mentors and, you know, in some form or another to, to sort of guide you. And they do the best they can, but it doesn't mean that they had the answers either. Anyhow, you're on this journey.

• 6:48Speaker 00

  And all we could think of, at least all I could think of was. I gotta do this again. I gotta make sure that nobody thinks that was a fluke, that we can, we can do this again. We can do it again after that. So it was nose to the grind. And a year after the Slippery Tour concluded, um, and there was 240 shows and massive success for the band. We were back on the road with the album New Jersey, which had five more top 10 singles and another 240, 250 shows. One year later, just back to back, just went right back in the ring.

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  You know, there's one part of the docu-series where the band, I think you guys were together for, I don't know, five years in a row, it seems like, with very little time off. And there's this beautiful journey that you guys created, this incredible family and this incredible relationships and brotherhood and team mentality. But then, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing is kind of what you guys talk about in this series. How did you not allow too much tension to actually break this band apart after so many years of success? When there was just more frustration and resentment and egos? How did you keep it together emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically? When everyone's got more money than they can think of now?

• 8:13Lewis Howes?

  When everyone's got more fame and success and their egos are at an all time high? How did you keep it together?

• 8:18Speaker 00

  Well, everyone has their own unique perspective. And everyone's the hero of their own show, right? So I'm sure anyone in the band or the organization will have told you their point of view and it may differ from mine. But having been the leader, namesake, whatever you want to call me,

• 8:37Speaker 00

  I'd always had a certain vision and asked others to follow.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  Their opinions and their input was very welcomed. But obviously, somebody had to be the quarterback. And so I treated this like a team. And I was the quarterback, but I knew I couldn't play without a receiver and a line, okay? So I wasn't

• 9:02Speaker 00

  ego-driven, but I had to...

• 9:08Speaker 00

  Have a plan, stick to the plan and

• 9:13Speaker 00

  sink or swim, make the decision. So when I did see that the burnout was happening after those two back-to-back records.

• 9:23Speaker 00

  And this was our first foray into that kind of territory. Because it has happened to me other times in my career. In this instance, there was a moment in time where I would in retrospect blame agents, managers, lawyers, because they were supposed to be the mentors that said, we believe in you, take your time, get it right. And they allowed us to keep going to the point of burnout. What I wouldn't allow was it to fall apart because I knew better than to think, wait a minute. Nobody physically harmed each other, nobody stole money, nobody sold a girlfriend, nobody was dead, nobody was, you know, car crashed. Like this was burnout.

• 10:07Speaker 00

  So you go back to team, you go back to, you know, what is it that got us here collectively? Let everybody go out and gather their thoughts, get new information, bring it back to the fold, which in turn could make us stronger. And, and I really, by that point, went out on a limb. Because at that point, I'd fired the managers, agents and lawyers. And said to the guys, I've got this vision. I believe it still works. And not only

• 10:40Speaker 00

  do I need you guys to come along, but I'm doing it without the rest of the apparatus now. And they put their faith in that.

• 10:47Lewis Howes?

  There's three things that I've gotten to learn about you through this series that's really inspired me that I feel like you innovated and you led the way with in terms of

• 10:57Lewis Howes?

  anyone that I'm aware of in the kind of the music industry at this high of a level. And I want to share these three things. One is during that time where I guess the the band was kind of in a lot of friction. At least from the story of the documentary you brought in. Yes, a mediator, a therapist, a coach, someone to kind of like say, hey. Tell us, tell everyone how you feel. Like, let's open up all of the emotions, the frustrations, the pains, the joys, and share it all. And this was what, thirty, twenty, thirty years ago?

• 11:28Speaker 00

  Thirty years.

• 11:28Lewis Howes?

  Thirty years ago, when this wasn't a popular thing to do.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  Thirty-five years.

• 11:32Lewis Howes?

  That was like looked down upon thirty years ago. But you said, I'm going to have the courage to say, we need to bring a coach, an expert, a mediator, a therapist to come in, and let everyone express themselves. Would you say that really helped?

• 11:44Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:44Lewis Howes?

  Bringing people back together?

• 11:46Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. And boy, was it resistance.

• 11:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 11:49Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. You know, I'd heard about these therapies, especially in alcoholism and mental illness, you know, and where you go to rehab.

• 11:58Lewis Howes?

  Rehab, yeah.

• 11:58Speaker 00

  You know, and you're dealing with issues. But like I'd said, we didn't have those issues. We had naivete and youth and this rocket ship to success that was confusing. Because we went being, from being the children of our parents to the parents of our parents. And the parents of, we were now these CEOs, you know, we were now these decision makers. We were now these money makers. We were, we were, we were the gravy train, you know. Life changed for everybody in the organization.

• 12:33Lewis Howes?

  In your twenties.

• 12:34Speaker 00

  In my twenties. And

• 12:39Speaker 00

  that's, that's me being, I don't know, I don't want to say a visionary, but a different thinker. I, I thought differently. I just always thought differently. The way I got a record deal. Nobody gets a record deal the way I got a record deal. I wouldn't knock on a DJ's booth. Who, right now, we think that there's millions of people are going to watch this interview, which is nothing but ego. But in truth, it just could be you and I, Louis. And nobody might ever, may ever see this or hear this, right? And we don't know. The loneliest man in the music business was a DJ, talking to no one, preaching the gospel of music. And I said, that man loves music more than anyone I know. I'm going to go knock on his window and play him a song.

• 13:24Speaker 00

  It was the same kind of visions I've had throughout the process here, where I said, self-management. The industry said, you're out of your mind, you're a dead man walking. You're the biggest band in the world right now, you can't fire your big shot manager. I said, why? And I wasn't being egon, man, I, I said, why? Tell them, give me a good reason why. There wasn't a good reason why. And from 1991 to 2016.

• 13:51Speaker 00

  It's a lot of commission checks. I didn't pay anybody.

• 13:53Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 13:53Speaker 00

  You know, um, but the band trusted me and we did it. I did it. I built Bon Jovi.

• 13:59Lewis Howes?

  That's the second thing that I was gonna talk about.

• 14:01Speaker 00

  But the therapist, Lou Cox, he come in and he had nothing to win or lose. He wasn't on anyone's salaries. He wasn't on the paid role. He wasn't

• 14:17Speaker 00

  even in the music business.

• 14:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What was the one thing that that he taught you through that experience about mediation, therapy, communication?

• 14:29Speaker 00

  That every, well, little silly, you know, elevator bumper stickers, like, you know, everyone's the star of their own show. It's five different opinions in this story. It's it's five different points of view. But it was about listening in order to learn. It was about, you know, giving the floor to others when necessary. It was about being a shoulder to lean on when somebody, you know, needed that shoulder to lean on. There was a lot of that, that, um, there was no.

• 15:01Speaker 00

  It was just, it was all based in truths. You know, it was looking into someone's eye and saying I love you and meaning it.

• 15:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:10Speaker 00

  You know, understanding what the words meant. Not just, oh, we're performing on this stage together. Hey, dude. I was never a dude. We weren't dude. I wasn't interested in that. I was interested in cutting to a deeper place, you know. Our music got lumped into a genre of music because of we, of when we came up and the kind of stuff, you know, that. I was 21 and 25. I looked like every kid in the mall. That's the way the kids looked in the mall.

• 15:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:42Speaker 00

  So we were thrust into that, but that's not who I was. It was just, we were. Put into that.

• 15:48Lewis Howes?

  But you were, I mean, again, this is the thing that surprises me. You're in, this is what, the late eighties, early nineties, right?

• 15:54Speaker 00

  Mid eighties.

• 15:55Lewis Howes?

  Mid eighties.

• 15:55Speaker 00

  Eighty-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight.

• 15:57Lewis Howes?

  But when the therapy session, that's, that's.

• 15:58Speaker 00

  Oh, that's ninety, yeah, ninety, ninety-one, yeah.

• 16:00Lewis Howes?

  Ninety, ninety-one.

• 16:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:02Lewis Howes?

  It's what, five to seven of you guys in a room together?

• 16:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:06Lewis Howes?

  And you're talking about love? And you're talking about your emotions, and you're talking, I love you, and you're looking in each other's eyes, and you're being vulnerable. When I grew up in the eighties and nineties, you weren't allowed to do that stuff. So I'm saying, you innovated this ability to, like, how, how were all of you able to be so receptive to connect openly, lovingly, vulnerably?

• 16:26Speaker 00

  Oh, it wasn't easy. Nobody was receptive to it. I was receptive to it. The guys fought it. And then after a couple of sessions of it, they, you know, had their private time with Lou, and then they would come back into grouping, and, you know, and, and, we committed to it.

• 16:44Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 16:45Speaker 00

  We committed to it.

• 16:46Lewis Howes?

  How many sessions did you guys all do together?

• 16:49Speaker 00

  In it, if you, let's just put it this way, over the course of time that started in ninety, and I was talking to Lou, you know, a year ago.

• 17:01Lewis Howes?

  This is amazing.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  So we still, you know, I, I would still touch base with them over time. Yeah, we needed them anytime.

• 17:08Lewis Howes?

  How important was it for you to tap into your relationship skills and your emotional skills? You know, over your singing and songwriting skills in order to be successful as a group and as a band?

• 17:24Speaker 00

  I just looked at it like a, a, a family is always gonna have its issues. A team is always gonna have their issues.

• 17:36Speaker 00

  But having been a sports fan, I could see the inner workings of a team and think.

• 17:42Speaker 00

  I could see that the ego is prohibiting them from winning championships.

• 17:46Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 17:47Speaker 00

  And that a family can't get away from each other, you know, because of blood. But they could have nothing more than a common last name. So there had to be a way to take the strength of a name and the strength of a team and take the best of those things and maximize them. So, you know, if it's based in truth, you can get over ego.

• 18:11Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:12Speaker 00

  It worked for me.

• 18:14Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible. And it sounds like if you didn't allow, if everyone didn't join in that process, you guys want to be where you are.

• 18:22Speaker 00

  Well, somebody could have quit easily. Yeah, it sure would have been easier way for somebody to quit.

• 18:30Speaker 00

  But nobody ever quit the band until Richie, you know, in 2013, but that's much later.

• 18:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 18:39Speaker 00

  But no, no, everybody was committed.

• 18:41Lewis Howes?

  Incredible, man. So that's cool. So I love, you know, one of three things that I really think you innovated. The second thing, you mentioned it, 1990, you're 29, you're 30 years old and you say, okay, everyone in the music industry has a manager or has agents and all these different things. I'm going to do it differently.

• 18:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:59Lewis Howes?

  You hear about that now of like independent artists and starting their own thing and launching their music through the internet. But in 1990, like that never happened. So you really innovated and led this way for artists 30 years before they started doing it. What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in starting your own management company? Navigating the landscape of ticketing and venues and commission.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  What happened was is we let go of the old agent, got a new one. Okay. So it wasn't that I didn't have, and we got a different one.

• 19:31Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 19:32Speaker 00

  The manager, God bless him, you know, we're still friendly. But he said it was about him. And we went, no, it's definitely not about you. And then you have to think like, what does he bring that is so unique?

• 19:49Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 19:50Speaker 00

  And granted, in that first chapter of my career, I learned a lot.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  And it was great. But when it was time to move on, I was glad that it was time to move on.

• 20:03Lewis Howes?

  And it was season.

• 20:04Speaker 00

  And the, the, um, the word on the street was, this is career suicide. But I had an incredible representative, and I, and I use that word endearingly. It was way more than a lawyer. He was the godfather to my daughter. He was my father and my best friend and my brother all rolled into one. He never, ever, you know, took advantage of me. He represented, he, he taught me everything I know about business.

• 20:34Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:35Speaker 00

  And he's passed. He had frontal lobe dementia. He's passed about seven, eight, nine years ago now. Um, there's a huge black hole in my life because he's not in it any longer. Um, but he's what made me learn everything that I've known now. And in turn, also made me realize we didn't need all that glitz and glamour. You know, we had an amazing right hand in a guy named Paul Corzilius, who was doing the day to day in the office. Jerry was doing all the paperwork and I was making all the decisions.

• 21:13Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 21:14Speaker 00

  We could do this.

• 21:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 21:15Speaker 00

  And we did it in a big way. We had the biggest tour in the world three times in, in that period. I had six number one albums. I had, you know, six number ones. It's like, it's like,

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  Crushing it. Yeah, it's incredible. But how did you have the courage to do that when no one else had done?

• 21:33Speaker 00

  I had, I had met with a half a dozen managers. I remember at the time, what did, you know, like, meeting with managers again and going through that process and, and just not clicking with any of them. There was none of them that moved me. And I, I needed somebody that was gonna dedicate their life to this, the way that we dedicated our lives to it. And I wasn't getting that.

• 21:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  So I just, why? Why?

• 21:58Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 21:59Speaker 00

  Do it ourselves.

• 21:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Beautiful. Uh, the third thing that I feel like you've really innovated in this industry of, you know, music and rock star and, and fame and all these different things. Is you got married, you know, at the the peak. I think you're in your late twenties, right? Twenty eight, twenty nine, when you got married to a high school sweetheart.

• 22:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:20Lewis Howes?

  And for me, I don't know how you're on the road constantly with that much fame, that much success, that much money, that much options, let's say. And you're able to enter a marriage and have a what looks like on the outside, a healthy relationship for decades.

• 22:36Speaker 00

  Thirty five years.

• 22:38Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible. I saw I feel like you've innovated this in a in a space where.

• 22:42Speaker 00

  No, I can't take that credit.

• 22:43Lewis Howes?

  Well, I feel like, you know, not many people.

• 22:45Speaker 00

  It's fewer and far between. Bono's married as long, Bruce is married almost as long.

• 22:49Lewis Howes?

  Very, very few.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  You know.

• 22:51Lewis Howes?

  How were you able to have a healthy, successful, thriving marriage and relationship while all the other, you know, ego stuff and fame and just travel and.

• 23:01Speaker 00

  That one was easy. That didn't take a genius. We grew together.

• 23:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:05Speaker 00

  We went to high school together.

• 23:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  So we came through this whole roller coaster ride together. So no matter my highs or my lows, she's seen them.

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  And that that was integral. She didn't meet me at the pinnacle of my successes or the, you know, the low points in my career and pick me up out of a gutter somewhere. So we we grew up in the same hometown with the same kind of values, same kind of family background, middle class upbringing.

• 23:33Lewis Howes?

  She saw you doing cover band stuff back.

• 23:34Speaker 00

  Sure, in high school, you know what I mean? So that one, I just was thank God fortunate enough to get right the first time. And and and we held on, you know, it wasn't, we never really had any kind of difficulty.

• 23:47Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 23:48Speaker 00

  It knocked what it's been thirty five years.

• 23:50Lewis Howes?

  What do you think is the key? And I'm not sure if anyone asked you about relationship or marriage. You know, advice ever, but what would you say are the three keys to having a long term, successful relationship? While thriving at the top of your career as well?

• 24:06Speaker 00

  I don't know. I mean, the relationship thing, like I said, is mutual respect and kind. Admiration and mutual respect is at the is at the top of this for me. To be a good listener and know it's not all about me, it's about we. You know, it's it's about both of us. It's about all of us. It's about the the family dynamic. So of course I'm always going to be the. You know, the narcissist, the lead singer in the house. But there, there's no platinum records hanging in my house, you know? I mean, like, we left that a long, long, long time ago in our, in our, in our home. So admiration, mutual admiration society, being a good listener, growing together.

• 24:51Speaker 00

  You know, just finding her in a way that like, I get excited in the morning when I see her every single day.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  Thirty-five years later.

• 25:00Speaker 00

  I get excited every single day.

• 25:02Lewis Howes?

  What's something you love about her the most?

• 25:06Speaker 00

  That she absolutely knows that she loves me, like with all of her heart.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  You know, I mean, there's just, there's no question, there's no doubt, there's not even a glimmer of doubt. There's not even a hint of a glimmer of doubt that this is it. There is no, that's it.

• 25:24Lewis Howes?

  And wow.

• 25:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, I got this one right.

• 25:27Lewis Howes?

  When you're coming off stage in front of eighty thousand people and you're the man and you're selling out the biggest tour in history, back to back, and people are screaming every word and chanting your name. And then you go home and someone's upset at you or they want you to listen to them. How do you get over your ego of being Jon Bon Jovi and saying, I want to be a great partner?

• 25:48Speaker 00

  It might take a minute to walk it off, you know, when you're on the, on the road for a long time. Especially in those younger years when we would be on the road so long that you, you could carry the lifestyle home.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  But I haven't even seen that guy in a long time.

• 26:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:06Speaker 00

  So it's, it's of, it's of no interest to me to even see that guy. It, it, it really isn't.

• 26:17Speaker 00

  Boy, I'm, I'm, I'm really trying to be honest with you because even if it was ten or fifteen years ago when we were just still, you know, a little more.

• 26:30Speaker 00

  Wild and and and I don't mean this in a like we're subdued now, but it's just in a little more ego driven way. Yes.

• 26:39Speaker 00

  Even that wasn't a big deal. Really? Yeah, I just. Where did you learn that though? Did you, did your parents teach you this? It's who we are, where we come from, what we did. I, I, I was never a big drug guy. I was never the big drinking guy. I was never the big, you know, one thing we learned on this journey. We're doing this interview right now in, in Los Angeles, California. I had a house out here for years on the beach in Malibu with all the beautiful people. And the first thing after owning that house for four or five years was we gotta sell this house. Why? We gotta get the hell out of here. This, this is not conducive to

• 27:20Speaker 00

  a great relationship and a great life and a great career and a great

• 27:26Speaker 00

  grounded who we are, what we are, where we come from. Wow. And I, it was the same thing when we went home and

• 27:35Speaker 00

  wrote Slippery and Wet. It was like we are being lumped in with these kinds of bands that it's not our thing. And I was just like, I said, I don't want to be a part of this scene. This is not who we are. It's not who I am. I don't give a Right. Go back home, take that picture in the inner sleeve in our driveway, you know, in our cars, you know, with the blue jeans and T shirts on and sell that Malibu house. And you come out here and everyone's always looking over the shoulder and they've got that, who's the bigger guy in the room? Who can I go and work? Who can I get something from? I gave that shit up so long ago. I give a about it. I am not impressed, you know? I don't give off.

• 28:19Speaker 00

  It's just that, that, that shallow shit will ruin you. And I know grown men who still are playing that game. Wow. You know, and it's just sad. Yeah. And shallow. What do you wish everyone knew about money, fame and success? Money doesn't make you smart. It just makes you rich. Doesn't make you happy? Does not make you happy. Now, can it pay for the bills so you can get, you know, the doctor and the insurance and that those things? It can, it, it, it, it solves some problems, but absolutely does not make you happy. And it doesn't make you smart. It just makes you wealthy. What do you wish people knew about fame and accomplishments?

• 29:03Speaker 00

  Accomplishments are all fabulous, especially if you worked hard for them and you know, you have a, you deserve the opportunity to, to accept the accolade in and of the moment and enjoy it. And then, you know, then you, you move on from it and don't measure who and what you are based on any kind of championship ring. Right. That's not your identity. It is not who you are. It's just what you do.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  And I, and I, I too, I live by that credo. It's not who I am. It's just what I do. But I've met many a billionaire who they're not smart because you know, they're just,

• 29:50Speaker 00

  they're missing out on the, on the good things in life, you know, and on, on, on, on being a part of their community, on, on touching the lives of their, their wives and their children, on, on, on sleeping on their pillow at night and knowing that they did something good instead of

• 30:08Speaker 00

  for a buck. Yeah. And what do you wish people knew about fame?

• 30:13Speaker 00

  It's really an interesting question to ask at this juncture, right? It's 2024 and I remember having a conversation with my kids, maybe 10, 12, 15 years ago.

• 30:24Speaker 00

  And them telling me about that the internet and ways to make money. And I would say, but you gotta write a song to make money. You, you have to learn how to act. If you, you know, we're talking about. I'm like a skill set. You know, referencing the art. We have to be an athlete and put in the 10,000 hours.

• 30:44Speaker 00

  I've been proven wrong, obviously now, right? There's, there's all, there's a whole world of people making a buck and that is very confusing for me and my generation. It's very confusing for me and my generation. We, we were told that we could go to the moon because President Kennedy told us we could, but we had to go to school to learn how to do the science to get to the moon.

• 31:11Speaker 00

  We didn't just, you know, snap our fingers and get lucky on the internet one day. So it's a very confusing time.

• 31:20Speaker 00

  But I don't, I don't think anything is a substitute for hard work and dedication and commitment and.

• 31:28Speaker 00

  You know, not every day you're gonna win, but every day is an opportunity to

• 31:34Speaker 00

  participate in the process and measure your progress.

• 31:36Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Well, you won a lot, though, consistently, which is pretty impressive.

• 31:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's all good.

• 31:41Lewis Howes?

  You won, you've been winning for, you've been winning, yeah.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  More than I've lost.

• 31:45Lewis Howes?

  Championship after championship. And again, we're talking about Thank You, Good Night, the Von Jovi story, which is on Hulu at the time of watching this. And I'm curious about, you know, you put in a lot of reps, speaking of 10,000 hours. When you were a kid, you were doing cover band stuff in Jersey. And there's an amazing scene of like Bruce Springsteen coming up on stage while you were singing his song and him singing it with you. And I can only imagine the like electricity and the excitement in your body as a 16, 17 year old, seeing someone who is, you know, bigger than you on, on stage, who is singing with you. And, um, and you talk about, like, you could almost touch it. You're explaining like how you could almost reach out and touch this

• 32:30Lewis Howes?

  opportunity. And you just wanted to get closer and closer to that by being in the production studios and being on stages and being around these great artists and talent. I'm curious, where did your creativity come from? How did you, and when you ever felt like blocked creatively or burnt out, how did you get into a creative state?

• 32:51Speaker 00

  I was never the great singer, the great guitar player, the great poet. I was the hardest working singer, guitar player and poet.

• 33:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:02Speaker 00

  And so that was a big part of how I became me. If I was gonna

• 33:12Speaker 00

  drown, it was gonna be of my own doing, right? So that was, that was integral to the story. Also, what was integral to my personal story was that the drinking age was 18. And it sounds comedic, but it's true. Because at 16, you could slip into a bar.

• 33:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:28Speaker 00

  Every 16 year old thinks he's gonna be a pro athlete, a rock and roll star, an astronaut. You know, so you could go in there and say, I'm gonna do this. Golly gee, you know, and

• 33:40Speaker 00

  Any little spark was enough to think that you could go to the next level and the next level, next level. I was then fortunate enough that by 2021, I did write the song and knock on the DJ's booth and the creative guy in me said, how to get a record deal, how to then hire a band. That was unique to, to the guy that was the harder worker.

• 34:05Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 34:06Speaker 00

  You know, cause you could go down in the Jersey Shore when cover bands were making $3,000 a night in 1979, 80, 81.

• 34:15Lewis Howes?

  It's real money.

• 34:16Speaker 00

  We were making $100 in an original band to split between everybody, if you were lucky.

• 34:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 34:21Speaker 00

  If you were lucky, if you were lucky, because oftentimes you'd play for free because it was original music. So I never made any money, but I didn't need it because I was 16, 17, 18. I was able to live at home.

• 34:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:33Speaker 00

  And for me, that, that, that is a big part of the success was right time, right place, born at a certain time, you know, it, it, not privileged, but food on the table, shoes on my feet and two parents and they were supportive, all good things.

• 34:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:59Speaker 00

  So all of those things helped.

• 35:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. You sound, the way you're explaining yourself, you know, not the best at all these different things, but the hardest worker, you kind of sound like the Tom Brady of rock and roll. You know, it's like, you're like the Tom Brady of rock, you're like not the best at all these things, but you, you wield yourself to become the best and championship after championship after championship. I don't know if that resonates with you at all, bud.

• 35:23Speaker 00

  It does resonate with me because Tom, Kobe, LeBron, you know, guys of, of this era, that, that's kind of the work ethic that I.

• 35:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:36Speaker 00

  Think that I have or always had.

• 35:38Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 35:41Speaker 00

  You know, yeah, yeah.

• 35:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I mean, we had Kobe, I got to interview Kobe on the show before he passed and just learned so much from him in that short interview.

• 35:53Lewis Howes?

  You know, I know you have a relationship, a lot of the great athletes, you owned a sports team at one point, an arena football team, but I think you said you have a relationship with Tom as well, or you've

• 36:01Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 36:02Lewis Howes?

  interacted with him over the years.

• 36:03Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 36:03Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is the greatest, you know, thing you learned from Tom Brady about how he pursued his craft and how it applied to your craft?

• 36:12Speaker 00

  I, I, I've observed Tom closely, and I would like to think that I could call him my friend. I mean, he's been to, you know, my house many times and, you know, I go to practices and we talk on the phone and stuff, so.

• 36:28Speaker 00

  Here's a guy that's, you know, much younger than me that I'm learning from.

• 36:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:32Speaker 00

  Which I really appreciate too, because, you know, 199 in the sixth round and all that kind of stuff, and the audacity to tell Mr. Crafty I'm the best thing you've ever done, and, and to, to have a coach like Belichick, you know, on him and, and never giving him all the accolades he could have easily, you know, let go to his own head, kept him working. But I think that we carried that, being from New Jersey, as a band for the longest time. It was like, even with the accolades, we'll show you, and like Dorothy would say that I would just will things.

• 37:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:13Speaker 00

  And, and by sheer will,

• 37:18Speaker 00

  people would follow you if you led by example. And I didn't ask, you know, that,

• 37:25Speaker 00

  that this had to be this way, or, you know, my way or the highway, but nobody ever said, I'm out of here because of hard work.

• 37:31Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 37:32Speaker 00

  You know, they, they just.

• 37:35Speaker 00

  Did everything to and gave everything they had to. Don't think for a moment that Richie and David and Tico didn't give everything they had. Cause they did.

• 37:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, they did.

• 37:47Lewis Howes?

  You have this amazing quote in the docu-series that I want to just read back to you that you said. At 25, all I was thinking about was fun and success.

• 37:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:57Lewis Howes?

  At 30, I got married and looked at success differently. By 40, start to measure if you accomplished what you set out to. By 50, you start to think about a legacy. By 60, as the Chinese proverb says, you are the man you're meant to be. So at 60, when I look back, did I become the man I wanted to be? I'm curious, do you feel like you've become that?

• 38:21Speaker 00

  I think it's a work in progress.

• 38:25Speaker 00

  But I'm not disappointed by anything that I've done. And I've had very few regrets, which I'm really proud to be able to say.

• 38:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  You know, I've had loss, I've had physical ailments. I've had victories and I've had defeats. But I'm very proud of the legacy thus far.

• 38:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:46Speaker 00

  I haven't done anything to it up. You know, as I said, I'm only here to sell the truth.

• 38:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:52Speaker 00

  And it's blemished, but it's, it's, it's real.

• 38:59Lewis Howes?

  If you could go back, you know, to your, your younger self in your twenties or early thirties. And you could only give yourself three pieces of advice. And you know, everything that you know now. You're just going back in time and you're speaking to your younger self, late twenties, early thirties. With everything that you've experienced, what three things would you say to that younger John?

• 39:24Speaker 00

  I think there's, I don't even know that there's three. I would say take time to enjoy it more.

• 39:31Speaker 00

  Don't lose faith in yourself even when you feel like you're maybe down for the last time, you know, and the eight count is going to nine. And to believe in the power of we.

• 39:50Speaker 00

  I think that those three things is probably what I would say.

• 39:54Lewis Howes?

  If you could jump in time thirty years from now and imagine you would get to accomplish everything and live the life that you want to live for the next thirty years. And just imagine you're in that state of wisdom. What three pieces of advice would you give your younger self as you are today? From that future self, if that makes sense?

• 40:18Speaker 00

  Well, ninety, looking back on sixty, um, you know, I guess I would probably say, did you

• 40:25Speaker 00

  live up to the

• 40:28Speaker 00

  the code that you set, you know, for yourself and for others and now for the next generation? So with my kids.

• 40:38Speaker 00

  You know, that if I could

• 40:41Speaker 00

  see them becoming

• 40:46Speaker 00

  members of society that were contributing something positively, then that will have been a victory. Because it's not about fame or fortune or anything else that goes with it. I think it goes back to, did you leave something behind worthy of having been here?

• 41:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 41:04Speaker 00

  So that to me right now, as I sit here and I think about where my kids are because they're all grown. I'm not thinking about me anymore. I sort of feel like I've

• 41:15Speaker 00

  I've achieved the highest highs. What I hope with this record and this film is that it's going to say, hey, good mile marker, the fortieth, and by the way, this new album's pretty darn good. But it's not going to be Slippery When Wet again, you know, I'm sixty-two years old. It's time for the next generation to have their Slippery When Wet. But I would like to think that my next Slippery When Wet could be, you know, did my kids make any kind of contributions to?

• 41:47Speaker 00

  To the world.

• 41:48Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 41:48Speaker 00

  That would be neat.

• 41:49Lewis Howes?

  That's beautiful. What is, uh, being a father tell you about life?

• 41:55Speaker 00

  You don't know shit.

• 41:58Speaker 00

  Man, from the minute that we wa- I remember, you know, our first child was our daughter and I didn't have sisters, let alone a baby. When the door closed on that first night, we were like, there's no owner's manual that comes with this.

• 42:17Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:17Speaker 00

  So you figure it all out. Okay. Step at a time and you get it and you work hard at it. And with every child and then with every chapter of every child, the playbook changed.

• 42:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:30Speaker 00

  And with their girls to boys and then toddlers to teens and then teens to adults and adults getting married, nobody told me about these chapters in the book. And I'm like, you would think that by now, somebody would have warned me about these chapters. But no one had told me about these chapters. And they're, they're all different. So, you know, we're just trying to navigate it. And, and now all my friends that are my age go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't we tell you? I'm like, fuck you, man.

• 43:10Speaker 00

  No, you didn't tell me.

• 43:12Lewis Howes?

  What is a, um, a lyric from one of your songs that you've written? That really speaks to you of your season of life right now?

• 43:21Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 43:25Speaker 00

  You're catching me off guard. I'm not usually good at this, but there's no-

• 43:28Lewis Howes?

  There's a song on the new album. It's called Hollow Man. And it says, what do you sing when the song's been sung?

• 43:37Speaker 00

  Eh.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  Who do you fight when the war is won? Oh.

• 43:45Speaker 00

  What do you write when your book is done? Wow. What do you sing when the song's been sung? Here I am, the Hollow Man, telling stories about the promise of a promised land. I feel like a cheap bouquet of flowers in a one night stand.

• 43:59Speaker 00

  With my heart in my hand, I am Hollow Man. And it just- Wow. It's saying, I'm an empty vessel. I'm here, looking up at the sky and saying, okay, Lord, what's next? Wow. You know, and so that's just a song on the new-

• 44:15Lewis Howes?

  That's on the new album, that's, uh, that comes out-

• 44:18Speaker 00

  June 7th.

• 44:19Lewis Howes?

  June 7th.

• 44:20Speaker 00

  Wow. Yeah, Hollow Man's a story of me today.

• 44:25Lewis Howes?

  Did you find an answer to that?

• 44:28Speaker 00

  No, I'm living it.

• 44:33Speaker 00

  Every day is an opportunity to write a song, but I don't often, you know, take every day as an, and turn it on. And as a matter of fact, I, at times have to turn it off and just acknowledge that it'll be there next time I want to turn the faucet on. But because it becomes so overwhelming, if you run the course of a cycle, like with the joy that I've found with this record,

• 45:02Speaker 00

  it was time to say, okay, it's being repetitive, it's time to shut off the faucet. Okay, now here's a new album, it's called Forever. These lessons won't be manifest, they're manifested, but they won't be fully learned for the next two years. Wow. And then I'll look back on them, and then I'll know where I was.

• 45:20Lewis Howes?

  That's some art for you. You know, forty, four decades plus of doing music, you've had to kind of like reinvent your identity almost every decade or every couple of albums or every few years,

• 45:35Lewis Howes?

  while keeping, you know, your roots, but innovating, you know, music and things like that.

• 45:43Lewis Howes?

  But recently you went through surgery on your vocal cords. And it's throughout the documentary series when people can watch it. And, you know, I can relate to this in my own way of being an athlete.

• 45:56Speaker 00

  Right, you can.

• 45:57Lewis Howes?

  And getting injured.

• 45:58Speaker 00

  Right.

• 45:58Lewis Howes?

  And my whole identity, my entire life being tied into.

• 46:03Speaker 00

  Good, let's talk about this.

• 46:04Lewis Howes?

  Being talented and being valuable and being able to use my skillsets to go make something happen of my dreams and my vision, right? But then when I got injured.

• 46:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 46:15Lewis Howes?

  Playing in a sport that you were an owner of, of another team, playing arena football. That vision of my identity and my future became shattered, literally and emotionally and spiritually. And it was a year and a half of recovery and trying to figure out, okay, what do I do next? Who am I of this next season of life? What is my next chapter? What is my next song? What is my next play if I'm not able to play that game anymore?

• 46:41Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:42Lewis Howes?

  In your journey of, you know, your vocal cords not being the exact same in your twenties at sixty, how have you mentally and emotionally dealt with the identity shifts and changes as an artist and as a man?

• 46:59Speaker 00

  You and I were talking off camera about that period between when you stopped playing the game that you loved and determining that you were going to be here, which probably was not in the cards.

• 47:11Lewis Howes?

  Was not.

• 47:11Speaker 00

  In two thousand eight.

• 47:13Lewis Howes?

  Was not.

• 47:13Speaker 00

  You never dreamt of this. But I'm going to guesstimate that you're pretty satisfied with where you are right now.

• 47:19Lewis Howes?

  Very satisfied.

• 47:19Speaker 00

  So look at that.

• 47:20Lewis Howes?

  And it needed to happen in order for me to get on this trajectory.

• 47:23Speaker 00

  The obstacle is the way, right?

• 47:25Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  And, um, and I get that.

• 47:31Speaker 00

  I trust there was a period of mourning for you.

• 47:34Lewis Howes?

  Big time.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  Right?

• 47:36Lewis Howes?

  Big time.

• 47:36Speaker 00

  Because from the time you were eight until you were twenty.

• 47:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, twenty-three, twenty-four, yeah.

• 47:40Speaker 00

  Three, four. You were identified by the game.

• 47:43Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 47:44Speaker 00

  And then there comes that mourning and confusion.

• 47:49Speaker 00

  I haven't had to quit doing what I'm doing, nor would I ever have to stop writing a song or making a record. But if I chose not to go out and tour again because I couldn't be at that level I am accustomed to performing at, I do wonder how I'll behave. Interesting. But I haven't come to that crossroad. I hope you don't have to. I hope I don't have to either. If, God forbid, that is my future, the one thing I will know is I've exhausted every possible way. Right. Back onto the playing field at the level that I'm accustomed to playing at. So when Kobe had the injury, when Tommy had the injury,

• 48:33Speaker 00

  when Michael Strain ripped his back off of his chest, you know, when every athlete goes through this, the question is, okay, I can get back on the playing field. Can I play in the Super Bowl? You know, can I win again? At the level of what I'm capable of, yeah. And I don't know the answer. So I'm a work in progress. How is that uncertainty? How are you dealing with that right now? It's better than it was because I'm a really analytical guy when it comes down to it. And I look at pictures of the chords and the progress and I'm optimistic about it. Of your actual? Yeah, I see them all the time. So you see there's improvement? Yeah. But if if it's not up to speed,

• 49:16Speaker 00

  let's say this, you know, and I hate to even put it out in the world. Yeah, yeah. That I don't tour. I could promise you, Louis, that I will be able to say I did do it at the highest level. Wow. For the longest time. And I'm good with that. Because one thing that I know that I've told myself there since I was 25 was I will never be on the Where Are They Now Tour, you know, playing in the train station at the, you know, diner in the buffet on Friday evening. It's just not going to happen. So I will be more than okay with that aspect. You'd be at peace if you don't get to tour again. If I don't have, if I don't have the opportunity,

• 50:01Speaker 00

  which I really would enjoy the opportunity.

• 50:06Speaker 00

  I'll live with it. Because I'm still capable of writing a record. I'm still capable of recording a record.

• 50:13Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 50:13Speaker 00

  I just need to be able to do two and a half hours a night, four nights a week. And if, God forbid, that doesn't happen, I can, I can absolutely positively guarantee you, you will never see me giving 50%. That's, that's out of the question.

• 50:30Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Well, I hope the world gets to see you perform on stage again. And if you're coming to LA, I gotta go. So I'm gonna find a way to get there for sure. And check it out. I've only got about five more minutes with you to be respectful of your time.

• 50:46Lewis Howes?

  And I want people to watch this docu-series. It's called Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story. It's on Hulu. So make sure you guys go watch this. It's fascinating. If you love art, if you love music, if you love John, if you love just creativity, you know, ups and downs of success stories, you're gonna love this series. So make sure you, you watch this. And if you really wanna study your mind and the vision that you had and the drive that you had to will your vision into existence. It is a beautiful story. So make sure you watch this. Even if you don't like music, you'll be inspired by this story and your vision of bringing

• 51:30Lewis Howes?

  your heart and putting it on for the world to see. So I really am inspired by that. You got the new album as well, June 7th, that people can get. What's the best place for them to get that?

• 51:41Speaker 00

  It's streamed everywhere these days. Press a button.

• 51:43Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 51:43Speaker 00

  You know, so any Spotify and Amazon and everybody's gonna have it.

• 51:48Lewis Howes?

  Awesome. Before I ask the final couple of questions, what else can we do to be of service to you today?

• 51:54Speaker 00

  I don't know, unless you have a magical mystery cure for the high Cs of the vocal cords.

• 52:02Lewis Howes?

  One of the things that you do, which I think is really cool as well, is you're, you're all about service. You've got a charitable foundation as well. You wanna give back. So many things you'll see in the docu-series about you wanting to be of service with your music, with your platform, with your fame. And, and I think that's really cool. So people can learn more about that as well.

• 52:22Lewis Howes?

  This, this question, uh, final two questions. This one is called the three truths. So I've already asked you a couple hypothetical questions, but this is another one for you. Um, imagine you do get to live as long as you want to live. You get to keep performing as long as you want to perform. You get to do it all. You see your kids grow up even more, all the different things that happen in life. Um, but for whatever reason, it's your last day on earth, many years away. Live as long as you want. And in this hypothetical scenario, you have to take all of your music with you. You have to take all of your writing with you. This conversation is no longer here. Any piece of content you've put out into this world, it goes with you. It's a hypothetical scenario.

• 53:01Speaker 00

  It goes with you.

• 53:02Lewis Howes?

  It goes with you, or it's just not.

• 53:03Speaker 00

  You take it with you?

• 53:04Lewis Howes?

  You take it with you, or it's not in this world. It goes somewhere else. We don't have access to it.

• 53:08Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 53:08Lewis Howes?

  Hypothetical. Um, so we don't get to hear your music anymore.

• 53:13Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 53:14Lewis Howes?

  But on this last day, you get to leave behind three truths. And that's what we do get to keep from you are these three lessons.

• 53:24Lewis Howes?

  They could be lyrics from a song. It could be something on your heart right now. It could be something simple, something, whatever it might be. But if it's the last day and you only get to share three lessons with the world. Three truths, what would those three truths be for you?

• 53:39Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 53:45Speaker 00

  Live your truths.

• 53:49Speaker 00

  Without compromise.

• 53:56Speaker 00

  Be of service.

• 54:04Speaker 00

  And take the time.

• 54:09Speaker 00

  To.

• 54:15Speaker 00

  See the world around you to, to, to

• 54:20Speaker 00

  be one with the world around you. You know, see the clouds in the sky, see that the sun is shining. See that the waves are crashing, see that the traffic is rolling by. You know, just take the time to smell the roses.

• 54:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's really important. Too many of us run through life missing every sign of what was there for your pleasure. And so many of us were all self

• 54:54Speaker 00

  absorbed and consumed and didn't serve anything other than self. And so many of us lived a false life of

• 55:05Speaker 00

  what others wanted us to do and be. And I think that all of those things are just a waste of this moment in time that we were all given here.

• 55:16Lewis Howes?

  Well, before I ask the final question, John, I would acknowledge you again for being of service to humanity through your talent, your art and your heart. And, um, you know, I love what you just said about not making it all about self, but also making it about service. And I think that's a beautiful life. So I want to acknowledge you for speaking that and sharing that with people because I think a lot of people today just want to be successful and be famous and make it about them. Uh, so I think it's really cool that you're making it about service and that's one of your truths.

• 55:52Lewis Howes?

  My final question for you, John, you, you answered this a little bit earlier, but I'd love to hear if it's evolved. Uh, what is your definition of greatness?

• 56:01Speaker 00

  Boy, with my brain spinning in my head. Um, what is my definition of greatness? Greatness?

• 56:13Speaker 00

  Is being comfortable in your own skin.

• 56:21Speaker 00

  Greatness is

• 56:26Speaker 00

  leaving something that

• 56:30Speaker 00

  is worthy behind.

• 56:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:33Speaker 00

  I think I'll just leave it there. John, thanks so much for

• 56:37Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, Louis.

• 56:37Speaker 00

  Appreciate it, man.

• 56:38Lewis Howes?

  This was a joy. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.

• 57:21Lewis Howes?

  And now it's time to go out there and do something great.