Jon Bon Jovi: Resilience, Family, and Rock ’n’ Roll

This week, Bunnie Xo sits down with the legendary Jon Bon Jovi for a conversation that spans his remarkable career and personal journey. He reflects on his new documentary Thank You, Goodnight, tracing his path from humble beginnings in Asbury Park to international stardom. Bon Jovi opens up about the challenges of vocal surgery, the resilience shaped by his parents’ influence, and his bond with Bruce Springsteen. He also teases his upcoming album Bon Jovi Forever, packed with exciting collaborations, and shares his hopes for a future tour. Beyond the music, Jon speaks with deep pride about his wife Dorothea, their children, and the joy that family and support have brought him throughout his life. Jon Bon Jovi: Website https://www.bonjovi.com Watch Full Episodes & More: www.dumbblondeunrated.com

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

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• 2:44Bunnie XO?

  Is this thing on? What's up, babies? Welcome back to another episode of Dumb Blonde. Today, we have a man, his voice built stadiums, whose songs raised generations, and his hair alone deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's not just a rock star, he's John frickin Bon Jovi.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  Thank you, babe. What an intro.

• 3:05Bunnie XO?

  I'm tell, listen, you have done so many interviews. I was so nervous because I was just like, what do you ask a man who has had thousands upon thousands of interviews and has been asked every question that you could possibly ask them, you know?

• 3:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, Will finds a lot to talk about.

• 3:22Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I did. I dug. I watched, I watched your documentary. It's called Thank You, Good Night.

• 3:30Bunnie XO?

  Extremely moving documentary. The highs, the lows, I mean, I was cheering, I was crying, I was pissed off at the manager. Like, there was a lot of stuff going on. And I was just like, this is such a beautiful testament to your life. Like, when you look back at that documentary, you have to feel nothing but just absolute pride.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Thank you. I saw Gotham Shoper last night, who I haven't seen in quite a while. And I'm proud of the piece. And I think the goal is to be proud of the piece in 10 more years from now. You know, but at this moment in time, I think it encapsulized that 40 years and, and, and that he got the truth, the unvarnished, not glossy.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  Hurt.

• 4:19Bunnie XO?

  First.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  You know, and, and, and the, and the joy.

• 4:22Bunnie XO?

  He.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  The hurt.

• 4:23Bunnie XO?

  He did an amazing job of, of just showing your story and, you know, as I was watching it, there were so many things about you that just captivated me. And I know that, you know, people have told you that throughout the years, but I just saw a man that was so tenacious, that was willing to do anything that he could to make it to where you are today. And then I thought to myself, because I could see like your low points too. And I was just like, where does this man draw joy from? You know, after accompl- accomplishing so much in this world, like, it's gotta be hard, after all of these goals that you have accomplished, to just have joy for them and to find joy. Where do you find it?

• 5:05Speaker 01

  That's a very good question and one that I probably couldn't have answered in 2030, 40s. That, um, it's after 60 that I started to think about that.

• 5:17Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Because I think when I was coming up and growing up and fighting for our place, it was always nose to the grindstone, looking straight down, never taking the time to look at the beautiful clouds in the sky, if you know what I mean, metaphorically speaking. And I was really guilty of that. But it was like, the part of me that wouldn't accept the success.

• 5:50Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  The part of me that was afraid of losing the success. Um, the part of me that, you know, as a businessman, realized how hard it is to get it. So you have to keep it.

• 6:01Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 6:02Speaker 01

  And that even if, you know, it's the contributions of others really mattered. The truth was, unless I was driving the car, we were never going to get there. So it, you know, I had to work two shifts. Um, and then on more than one occasion throughout the four decades, I would burn out. And I'm still trying desperately now.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  In this vocal comeback, to only do it if I have joy.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  If it's work, I really don't want to do it.

• 6:41Bunnie XO?

  How will you know?

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, don't.

• 6:44Bunnie XO?

  So you won't know until you walk back on that stage?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it's then then it becomes the the yin and the yang of it. You know, I love the idea of performing. If I'm healthy, nothing better. And like I say, in the doc, if you realize during the that short tour in 22, where I basically tried to will it back into existence, not knowing that the surgery was just not an option, it was a necessity.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Literally, every word of every song, I was singing, but my brain was saying, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, good, not good, yes, no, yes, no. Every note of every song.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  It was killing me.

• 7:31Bunnie XO?

  It was a battle.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  It was a terrible battle.

• 7:33Bunnie XO?

  Ken, I was gonna wait till later on in the interview, but let's talk about this journey that you've been going on with your vocal cords. For people who are just tuning in and not maybe even knowing about the journey, or not even have having watched the documentary, you just went through a serious surgery to have your vocal cords repaired because they were, one of them was in atrophy. Which, for somebody who doesn't drink, somebody who doesn't smoke, somebody who literally lived their life, preserving their vocal cords, the one thing that you cherished and babied is being taken from you. Can you take me on that journey?

• 8:13Speaker 01

  It's a long talk. But in truth, and in the short Reader's Digest version, it started.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  2014.

• 8:24Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  I wasn't aware of it. It was trauma. By 2015, it just wasn't working right and I wasn't quite sure.

• 8:31Bunnie XO?

  When you say trauma, is it from not warming up properly?

• 8:35Speaker 01

  No, it was, it was ancillary things like business and, and relationship, you know, Richie leaving the band, you know,

• 8:43Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, which we'll get to that.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  I wanted to do the record, you know, contract. There was a lot of business on my head as well as personal toil. Hence the gray.

• 8:53Bunnie XO?

  Nah, but you're a silver fox, you know, and you know it too.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  By that point, I just said, fuck it. I'm gonna have gray hair and it's cool with me.

• 9:01Bunnie XO?

  I like it.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Something I'm not, so.

• 9:03Bunnie XO?

  Jay has a little gray hair in his beard and I'm like, grow it out by Salt and Pepper King. Do it, baby.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Well, he may live to regret it when you get on the other side.

• 9:13Bunnie XO?

  No, my dad was a musician and he dyed his hair black until the day that he passed away. And it just starts looking weird at what, at a certain point.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  And that's what any logical, you know, conversation is.

• 9:23Bunnie XO?

  So you're doing the right thing.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Well, this, this started to happen in 15 and I couldn't really understand why. And in 16 and

• 9:32Speaker 01

  we, we did a short, much shorter tour on an album called This House Is Not For Sale, which was very successful. It was the number one record and all that kind of good stuff.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  But something was still going on so that by the time I got to 22 and you know, now it's COVID and the world shuts down. I'm just saying, okay, I can will this thing back. And it just got to a point where I came off that stage in Nashville that night. And I said to Dorothy, it, it was good. And she goes, it wasn't good. And she's the only one on the planet that, that I know is not gonna bullshit me. You're either surrounded by yes men or people that are getting paid or a fan or somebody that wants you to be good.

• 10:14Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  You know, you do your best. But um, who's, you know, the, the confessional box, it's her. She's gonna tell you this, all right, it didn't work. So I, I ran to the doctor. I drove myself to the hospital.

• 10:28Speaker 01

  And that's how eager I was to, to start this journey. I didn't know it was gonna be three plus years of recovery.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  I can tell you that honestly, you know, I'm singing really well, but something can trip the wire and take me down the rabbit hole. So.

• 10:46Bunnie XO?

  How is that mentally on your soul? Like, is that just like so like your voice has always been your prized possession? So to have to one, get a surgery that has taken you three years to recover from that brutally. Also, because you've talked about all the holistic ways that you've tried to heal it. You have done everything you can to end it. At this point, it's pretty much in God's hands.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:10Bunnie XO?

  Does that scare you or are you so content at now with everything that you've accomplished? That you're able to be able to sit down and maybe sit this one out if you had to?

• 11:22Speaker 01

  I can absolutely with conviction tell you that if I if I didn't perform again, my legacy's set. I'm cool with it.

• 11:29Bunnie XO?

  Oh, for sure.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  I'm fine.

• 11:31Bunnie XO?

  You're Jon Bon Jovi.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  I'm good. You know, we were an awesome live band. We've sold a lot of records. I'm good.

• 11:37Bunnie XO?

  But spiritually?

• 11:39Speaker 01

  I don't need the applause. I don't yearn for the applause. I never was that guy. I know a lot of performers who who don't like to sit at home with their loved ones and, you know, live for a suitcase. Not me. So I'm I'd be totally fine with that. The only bitch that I had in this process was, okay, God, you took it away. Why? You know, let's fight to get it back because there could be some great joy and light that I could shine and in, you know, is reciprocated from that that audience that hears that. But only if it's that. And if it's not, it's not because of the applause.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  It's not because of the money. It's not because of the fame. I will miss that, but I don't need that. I don't care. I really don't care.

• 12:29Bunnie XO?

  So you'd be okay with like just diving into like, would you ever just relax? Because one thing I've do you know how to relax? Because one thing I've noticed in the documentary and just knowing your hustle, just from being in the music industry with my husband is you are a go getter. Like you don't sit down. Like, do you know how to even relax?

• 12:48Speaker 01

  I was a go getter when I first met Jali.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  I loved what I heard on the record.

• 12:57Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  Then I saw the man perform. Then I got to meet him. But then, one of the first things we did was I interviewed him for Interview Magazine.

• 13:06Bunnie XO?

  Ah.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  And in the magazine, I said to him, "Don't do too much.

• 13:12Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Don't go chasing every rainbow because you're gonna burn out and you won't even know you're burned out." And in my youth, I was absolutely doing that. And that is my fear for him still today.

• 13:24Bunnie XO?

  We need you to-

• 13:25Speaker 01

  Jelly, don't do too much.

• 13:27Bunnie XO?

  We need you to talk to him again because he, I tell him that all the time. I'm like, babe, please, like, just sit down.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  He's, he's, he's established. He's a big star. He's done it. He's proved it. He's an inspiration to millions of people. You don't have to chase every feature. You don't have to do every show. Go and chill for two years. I have absolutely learned how to do that.

• 13:50Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  Out of necessity, but also because it's that place in life.

• 13:54Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  Your twenties, your thirties, your forties, your fifties, your sixties are different chapters.

• 13:58Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  You know, this chapter is a different chapter.

• 14:00Bunnie XO?

  Hmm. In the opening of the documentary, you're going through hundreds of videos, like VHSs, not even just videos, VHSs, cassette tapes, like, this generation of kids never could even understand or fathom the joy of being able to like, record your own radio songs and like, I don't know, it's just a different, uh, life.

• 14:24Speaker 01

  Different era.

• 14:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, different era. Would you ever consider releasing some of those songs?

• 14:28Speaker 01

  You are? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're in the midst of it. We have a serious radio channel that we slipped them into and, you know, record companies just don't mean what they used to and so, I, cause I have, I don't know, forty or fifty songs that I forgot.

• 14:42Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  That, you know, we could put out on, on records. That we're just leaking them out this way because, um, The record company is what they are. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those we did, we archived everything, the clothes, the the, the, the, the trophies, to the, to the notebooks, to the cassettes, to the, because at forty years you had to, or let's say we wanted to.

• 15:06Bunnie XO?

  To be so ahead of your time, to know to save all of that stuff and to just like, your mind is magical. Like, it really is so cool, like, how just smart you are and just how business savvy. Like, it's really insane. You're almost like, kind of like an Einstein when it comes to the music industry.

• 15:22Speaker 01

  Not true.

• 15:23Bunnie XO?

  Definitely a trendsetter, though, because you were doing a lot of things before people were doing it.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  Yes. It is the norm now to be your, you know, own your masters and be self-managed and all that kind of stuff, which I found interesting because we stumbled on that some thirty years ago and it was beneficial.

• 15:41Speaker 02

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• 16:15Speaker 03

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• 16:45Bunnie XO?

  But even starting your own management company, like, back then, also, like, no, no artist was doing that. Like, you literally have always just been kind of like the pioneer of, like, what people should be doing.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Well, thank you. That's a very kind way to put it. I think it was born out of...

• 17:02Speaker 01

  Not necessity. It was born out of my witnessing that people could do the job well and get paid for the job, but who was going to be more passionate than than you?

• 17:15Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  Who's going to care more?

• 17:17Bunnie XO?

  Exactly.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  And we couldn't find that guy that was going to care more. So starting B J M was was advantageous.

• 17:26Bunnie XO?

  It's amazing. So let's take it back for like the younger generation that listens to my podcast and let's go all the way back to to New Jersey, where you were born and let's talk about your household that you grew up in because your mom was a florist, but I just learned a really cool detail that your mom was actually also one of the

• 17:50Speaker 01

  Originals.

• 17:50Bunnie XO?

  Original Playboy bunnies. Like, how cool is that?

• 17:55Speaker 01

  Let me compound it. My mother and father met in the Marines.

• 17:59Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 18:00Speaker 01

  Like the poster girl in the Marine Corps.

• 18:03Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  And so they met as Marines and she ran away. Well, didn't run away, but she couldn't wait to enlist and said that the Marine Corps was nothing compared to her childhood. So she went and joined the Marines.

• 18:19Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  Meets my pop.

• 18:21Bunnie XO?

  That's a hell of a woman.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  And then she becomes a bunny.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  After. So she's married. I don't think I'm born yet, or I was just born.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  And with Lauren Hutton. And Diane Lane, the actress's mother. And a woman whose husband was Scott Muni, who's a legendary DJ in New York from back in the day. They were all like the original Playboy bunnies in the club on 57th Eighth Street in Manhattan.

• 18:53Bunnie XO?

  That's such a piece of lore that people would not know about you. That's amazing.

• 18:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's cool. I've seen pictures of her like, you know, with Sinatra and the whole thing with my, my dad there and my uncle's there. And, you know, all hanging out in the Playboy Club.

• 19:07Bunnie XO?

  That's so cool. I was just about to say like for your dad to let your mom shine like that too. Especially back in that era, though, like housewives were not being Playboy bunnies.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  It's 1961, two, three, yeah.

• 19:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. So it was like, you know, for your, for your dad to be like, go ahead, you know, show, let's go. Like, that's awesome. But also your dad was a hairdresser too, right? Did he? Do your hair.

• 19:29Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 19:30Bunnie XO?

  Okay. I had to ask because I saw a couple of interviews where you said you did it and I was like, there's no way he was cutting his hair like that.

• 19:36Speaker 01

  Well, there was a, you know, what year are we talking about?

• 19:40Bunnie XO?

  I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotcha. In the beginning.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 19:43Bunnie XO?

  Okay. So he's the one who originated the long hair.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  Well, as much as I'd love to give him credit for that, it was a decade. It was the eighties. Where he was good at what he did. Um, but that was the decade. That was the look. Um, but yes, my dad was a hairdresser and he did do my haircuts early on. Absolutely.

• 20:05Bunnie XO?

  And then who started doing them after you? You didn't really.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Oh, he hired a hot girl.

• 20:08Bunnie XO?

  There you go. He was like, I had to have a hot hairdresser. Um, so let's talk about how you got into music because you didn't grow up in a musical household.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  No.

• 20:18Bunnie XO?

  It was a very unlikely person that inspired you, which I thought was really cool. Can we talk about that?

• 20:24Speaker 01

  Sure. Um, like any kid, you want to be a baseball player and astronaut or a rock and roll star, right? And it's a simple dreams for a simpler time. And, um, like any other kid, I was strumming a broomstick and, and a guy moved in across the street. And he was the hip, young parent and, um, he offered to give me a guitar lesson. Um, to teach me what a, you know, a song's structure was in playing a cover song or two. And I did not pay attention. I wasn't a very good student until he yelled at me. And when he yelled at me, he said, don't waste my fucking time. It was sort of what I needed because that's what made me go home and learn the song to come back the next week.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  And the guy didn't give guitar lessons. He was just a hardworking, um, he was an architect and, uh, or a designer, something kind of engineer and, um, and he played in the lounge band on the weekends. But to me that was a band, right? And, um, and so he taught me and he taught another young boy in the neighborhood who started a band called Skid Row that came after us. But so two guys went on to make records and sell a lot of records.

• 21:33Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 21:33Speaker 01

  Between us and he only had three students ever.

• 21:35Bunnie XO?

  That's amazing.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  So he was a sweetheart of a guy. He died far too young.

• 21:40Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 21:41Speaker 01

  He died, um, oof, 30 years ago. Um, so he died young and, um.

• 21:47Bunnie XO?

  Did he pass before he got to see your journey?

• 21:50Speaker 01

  No, no, no. In 95. So we were like 11 years into making records.

• 21:54Bunnie XO?

  Okay, cool.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  No, um, he was, he was there to witness a lot of it.

• 21:59Bunnie XO?

  Hmm, that's so special.

• 22:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, sweet guy.

• 22:03Bunnie XO?

  One of the traits that I've noticed about you too is that you bring people with you. I love that about you, like people from your past or like people that you grew up with, like you always tried to bring them with you or like involve them in some way in your life or like, you know, just be in your business even. And I think that's such an admirable trait.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  Well, they, they, there are a number that are still around. Yeah, I mean, my, my, my brother's behind you, um, young Louis over there, my assistant and right hand man, uh, my best friend, Obie O'Brien, since before I made records when I was like 18 years old, he's still our recording engineer. So there are still a number of them around, um, which is, which is good. And you know, also the loyalty of, of Tico and of Dave and of Hugh McDonald and those guys that were here forever and through this three years and, you know, sitting in rehearsals when it was painful for me to, to try to work these last three years, but they were there. And it's greatly appreciated.

• 23:05Bunnie XO?

  You remind me so much of my husband. Like there's so many similarities between you and him.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  I thought so.

• 23:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, you guys are definitely kindred souls.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 23:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, definitely.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  Except he throws his phones away and doesn't get back to me, but I won't take that personally.

• 23:18Bunnie XO?

  All you have to do is text me.

• 23:20Speaker 01

  I'm gonna get your number now because this way I'll get a hold of the son of a bitch.

• 23:23Bunnie XO?

  Anybody who wants to get a hold.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  I knew not to be offended.

• 23:26Bunnie XO?

  Never. Anybody who wants to get a hold of my husband always talks to me and I get it straight to him and he always responds right away. But he really does stay off his phone so much.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 23:35Bunnie XO?

  Um, I had said this earlier, but you know, watching the, um, documentary, I had found so many traits of you that I just absolutely adored. And one of them was your tenacity. Where do you think that hunger and that for just life came from? Because that's not something that can be taught. That's something that's instilled in you.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Dirtiest is in the dark, you know, I would will things to happen.

• 24:02Bunnie XO?

  Manifesting.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  And I think that that largely came from my parents. If only because, and this isn't to be wisecracker about it. The drinking age in New Jersey was 18. So you could be 16 and 17 and sneak into a club. At that time, you didn't have a lot of responsibility. And so, you know, you could play in a bar. While I was cutting my teeth playing in those bars underage, I started to get good enough to at least where my parents said, okay, if you're gonna be in a bar until 2:00 in the morning on a school night, at least we know where you are.

• 24:37Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  And we know that you're doing this with a goal in mind. So it's good to have had their support. And then, you know, truthfully, as I sit here at 63 years old, I can tell you now that I realize like my mother would be the one to say, this is the smart decision, learn about this. I would tell her an influence and she'd say, well, that's nice, but listen to your influences influence. And to say that to a young kid, you go, oh, right.

• 25:07Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  You know, and that's where you learned like history of music.

• 25:11Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  Some stuff like that that was really important.

• 25:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, no, but it look where it got you. So talking about these underage clubs that you were playing in and drinking in, let's go to Asbury Park. My father is actually from Cugard's, Queens, and we grew up with a mad respect for Asbury Park because he played out there also. Tell me about your relationship with Bruce Springsteen and meeting him for the first time and just getting involved in that whole era.

• 25:41Speaker 01

  Well, if you're from here, that's the Mount Rushmore of the rock and roll scene in New Jersey. Obviously, there's Frank Sinatra who would be, you know,

• 25:50Speaker 01

  God, but Bruce would certainly be George Washington and, you know, on Mount Rushmore and.

• 25:57Bunnie XO?

  I love that you put Frank Sinatra as God over like yourself and Bruce Springsteen.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  Oh, God, no, no, no, no, I'm nothing more than, you know, the next generation or the prince, as I say, you know. He's there, Bruce is the king.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no. First and foremost, so Bruce was what put New Jersey rock and roll as we know it. Not Frankie Valli and not going back to Frank Sinatra at the Bobby Sox, but contemporary rock and roll. Early seventies.

• 26:25Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  Put it on the map. And so if his first record was nineteen seventy-three, I was only eleven years old. But by the time that seventy-nine, seventy-eight, seventy-nine, I was sneaking in those clubs. So also, there were seven members of the E Street Band.

• 26:46Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:46Speaker 01

  There were ten members of the Asbury Jukes. So chances are, one of seventeen was gonna be in the bar.

• 26:53Bunnie XO?

  Ah, right.

• 26:54Speaker 01

  To see you play.

• 26:55Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 26:55Speaker 01

  And you would meet them and you would befriend them, or they would mentor you, or you could just stand there and all of them.

• 27:02Bunnie XO?

  Mm.

• 27:03Speaker 01

  So, you know, it was pretty neat to see your heroes in person.

• 27:09Bunnie XO?

  Mm.

• 27:10Speaker 01

  Because when the posters on my wall were Led Zeppelin, or, you know, AC/DC, or The Kinks, or something that was, was impossible. It was a poster.

• 27:21Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Twenty-five miles south of my house was In The Day We Headed Out On The Streets Of Our Own Royal American. That was down the street.

• 27:31Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  You know, when he talks about sort of the Highway Nine, that was out my window.

• 27:35Bunnie XO?

  Ah.

• 27:36Speaker 01

  So that made the impossible possible. And, and that was very inspirational. Because you thought you could make the impossible possible.

• 27:44Bunnie XO?

  Mm.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  And so the years go on, of course, we meet, of course, we get to know each other a little bit. As our relationship goes on, and he's one of, what, two celebrities in the, in the whole four-part doc? Um, he and Southside Johnny, um, because they were so influential to me as, as, as a kid.

• 28:05Speaker 01

  And Johnny produced some of the first demos I ever did. Where Bruce jumps up on stage with me when the next morning I go to high school.

• 28:13Bunnie XO?

  That's insane. Like, what a story to tell.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  You're telling your teacher, I got bigger plans.

• 28:19Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Like, I don't even need to be here.

• 28:21Speaker 01

  Well, it was a dumb way to be, you know, to behave, even though, you know, in retrospect, you could or should have been, but.

• 28:29Bunnie XO?

  Youth.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  It was a great story.

• 28:30Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  You know, and pictures to prove it. Um, so, you know, as we've grown and grown up and, he's been a big brother now, even at this point in my life.

• 28:42Bunnie XO?

  He's so supportive.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  We're very close.

• 28:44Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 28:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:45Bunnie XO?

  Oh, that's awesome. It was beautiful to see. I was actually surprised to see him in the documentary, which I don't know why, because you guys are New Jersey boys, but it was just really cool to see. And it, it just reminded me of a really cool time in music that I wish we could go back to.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Very special time here, because the scene down there also supported original music, which was not like anywhere else. Nashville, I came to know 10 years later, obviously, you know, fostered songwriting.

• 29:16Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  Um, and I always say about Nashville now, those are my people.

• 29:19Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 29:21Speaker 01

  So, but here in Asbury, they, they encouraged you to, to write your own stuff and play original music. And they supported it, which was what it's all about.

• 29:31Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about writing your own music, because before you did, I mean, you've always written your own music, but you had a cover band named Atlantic City Expressway. And there was, how many members were there?

• 29:43Speaker 01

  Ten.

• 29:44Bunnie XO?

  Ten, because I noticed there was a trend. Everybody had big groups back then.

• 29:48Speaker 01

  Horns.

• 29:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Is that what that was?

• 29:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had five horns.

• 29:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Do you, and do you still have horns?

• 29:54Speaker 01

  No.

• 29:54Bunnie XO?

  No, you got rid of them?

• 29:55Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Um, but back in the day, in truth, I was emulating Southside Johnny.

• 30:02Bunnie XO?

  Got you.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  They were just such inspirations to me. There's a sign over your shoulder that, you know, the cameras probably don't see, but see the reflection. It is the cover of their fourth album called The Jukes. And as I sat in a warehouse, Johnny said, you can have it. So that's what that, that's what that is. Um, but I was playing R and B and soul music and Asbury Juke music and Bruce music and a little bit of rock and roll that would work in, with horns, but.

• 30:30Speaker 01

  I was 18, I'm playing in a nightclub one night. I'm opening for a band that to me came off like the Muppet version of the E Street Band. And I know even at 18, I am the Muppets of the Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. And the guy comes into my dressing room and goes, Yo Johnny, I know everyone says you're pretty good. Well, you should be like me. And I'm thinking to myself, you're trying to sound like Bruce. You look like Bruce. There's only one Bruce. I know I'm 18, but I'm not dumb. I looked at my own band and said, I quit. And I walked out on my own band and I went and I asked the guy that had an original band. You need a singer. I could be your guy. I want to be in an original band.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  And from there, I started to learn the process of writing initially from him and then started doing it more and more and more because that band was very short-lived. But I, I knew to get the hell out of being in the Muppets.

• 31:27Bunnie XO?

  But how cool is that that you knew the trajectory of what you wanted? You were like, you know what? I'm singing cover songs. I'm about to just go and be my own person. And then you went and you got a job at a radio station.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  A recording studio.

• 31:39Bunnie XO?

  A recording studio. I'm so sorry.

• 31:40Speaker 01

  I was a gopher.

• 31:41Bunnie XO?

  Went and got a job there, but then you got to see so many iconic legends like Aerosmith and tons of other people, Diana, Diana Ross, just so many other people. And you got to learn kind of your chops from them. Like you soaked up everything that you could in that recording studio.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Well, I did what I could because when you're the gopher, you're, you're asked to bring the beer and the burgers in and then to leave. But what I remember the biggest thing that I learned then and there was the bigger the star, the nicer the person.

• 32:13Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 32:14Speaker 01

  It was the people that were the B and the C players who usually acted as such, you know? And Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were unbelievably cool.

• 32:23Bunnie XO?

  Dude, that's so cool.

• 32:24Speaker 01

  You know, and Little Steven and the E Street Band obviously knew me and were incredibly cool. There were people that were on the B and the C and that they're, they're no longer exist. That would absolutely demean, you know? The burger's cold and the beer's warm, you know, just. Man, I got here as quick as I could. Um, that kind of stuff. So while I was really nothing more than the gopher, I was, um, Cutting demos late at night and on weekends and figuring it out. Going to a radio station was revolutionary. That to me was the brilliance because I thought, who's the loneliest man in the music business? A DJ. Who loves music more than a DJ? If he doesn't have an audience, he doesn't have anybody with him. He's telling you about something.

• 33:08Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 33:08Speaker 01

  And that's all he's doing. He doesn't even know he's talking to. And I was fortunate enough to go to this radio station that was so new, they didn't have a receptionist.

• 33:17Bunnie XO?

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• 34:00Bunnie XO?

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• 34:43Bunnie XO?

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• 35:14Speaker 04

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• 35:26Speaker 01

  And the DJ himself came out and he said, wait, came after the shift. I played him Runaway. He says, you know, it's a hit. And I said, I know, but no one will get back to me. They put it on the radio in New York and that was it. I gotta record you.

• 35:39Bunnie XO?

  That's amazing. The, I actually had a question about the song Runaway because that is my favorite song of yours.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 35:46Bunnie XO?

  It resonates with me so much because of a former life that I had. And you said in the documentary that you wrote it about the working girls on the street.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 35:55Bunnie XO?

  Did you ever talk to any of those girls?

• 35:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, small talk because we'd be, you know, in the bus station, you know, you're, um, I knew I had the good fortune of having come from a home with two parents and, you know, I was taking that bus just to walk 15 blocks up to the studio. You know, I wasn't hanging out at the Greyhound station. I was coming in a mass transit and walking up to the studio. So I would talk to the boys and the girls and then, you know, ended up supporting Covenant House, for example, around the block years later because of the stories I would hear, you know, or the tricks that you, New York was pretty seedy at the time, you know, um, and that inspired the song.

• 36:37Bunnie XO?

  I think it's awesome.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, because I got to walk north and they weren't.

• 36:41Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I never knew the lure of that song or why it resonated so much with me even as a child. And it was just like, it's crazy that, you know, the trajectory of my life that it took. So you literally took this cassette tape and

• 36:57Bunnie XO?

  Put it in the hands of people and it got into the hands of the right person from, was it W A P P? Radio station and they're the ones that started playing it and then your career just starts taking off from here.

• 37:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:10Bunnie XO?

  How do you feel in this moment? Because you've been working so hard since you were, you know, a kid, pretty much, trying to get to this moment. Are you happy or do you just want more?

• 37:24Speaker 01

  Well, you didn't know what more was. You were happy, but of course you wanted more because I don't think in the moment, anyone celebrates you or it.

• 37:33Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 37:34Speaker 01

  Because you, you know, you're in the midst of signing a record deal. You're in the midst of releasing a record. You're in the midst of being out there in the world, but you're a support actor or you're playing in a club with your first record. So none of it really catches up to you for a while. And I was absolutely guilty, like I said, as we started the interview, was looking at my shoes, too focused on tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

• 37:57Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  To enjoy the todays. By the time we got to Slippery When Wet, which really was a,

• 38:03Speaker 01

  you know, historically big record.

• 38:05Bunnie XO?

  Mm hmm.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  I should have truly been taking it in and I was not.

• 38:10Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  You know, it was the burnout that all came with it because he was so anxious to do it again, to prove it again, to, you know, how do I top this? Oh my God, I wouldn't, you can't. Yes, I can. It was murder. But it's okay. I think at twenty five, twenty six, you should still have that fire and.

• 38:29Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Piss and vinegar.

• 38:31Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely. That's a great analogy.

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:34Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about your relationship with Richie Sambora because he comes on the scene after you, um, you guys meet and you bring him into the band.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:43Bunnie XO?

  I just feel like there is so much love between you guys and you've always been so diplomatic in your answers with him. And I really respect that. Um, but there's also another side of competitiveness and.

• 38:58Bunnie XO?

  More on his side of ego, possibly, and I don't, you know, I don't know the man, so I'm just saying what I see. Take me on that journey with you guys' complex relationship through the years, if you can.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  I will try to do my best. The great thing that I have said about him throughout our lives was, you would be lucky to call him your friend. And I mean that. Talented, beyond, beyond, as a guitar player, as a singer, as a collaborator. Wonderful. Right-hand man. Awesome. Couldn't ask for more.

• 39:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 39:39Speaker 01

  I was, I was not competitive, because it's my band. And I don't think I ever saw that, to be honest.

• 39:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  My heartbreak with him is the way he walked out on us.

• 39:59Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 40:01Speaker 01

  Compounded by the fact that it took him years to come back in the room just to have a meal with Tico and David and I and say, "I'm sorry." It's unfortunate. It's heartbreaking. But if what he wanted was to be, you know, just Richie Sambora, not a member of Bon Jovi, do it. I always encouraged all of my guys. Because, you know, just, my attitude was, bring the information back that you learn outside, it'll only help us.

• 40:38Bunnie XO?

  And share it, yeah.

• 40:40Speaker 01

  And so, for whatever reason, you know, he walked out and then that was that. But I can't defend or accuse in any, and it's just not worth it anymore.

• 40:51Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  It's been so many years, I just, you know, if you can't figure, you get it together, then it's not on us.

• 40:55Bunnie XO?

  Right, exactly.

• 40:56Speaker 01

  I love the man. Heartbroken that he walked out on us.

• 41:00Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 41:01Speaker 01

  That's the best thing I say.

• 41:02Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely. I feel like you were the glue that held the band together. Like you, that's gotta be so much pressure on just one human to be, wear all of the hats and then also have to like make sure everybody's okay. Because like you, you weren't drinking, you weren't doing drugs, you weren't doing the partying. But it seems like as the band progressed and everybody, you know, started, you know, making a lot more money and getting more fame, the vices started coming. And that had to been pretty heavy for you to have to try to hold everybody together.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  I don't deserve all the credit either. I absolutely don't. I really don't. It was a team effort, truly, always.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  Richie's contributions could never be discounted.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  And then therefore David and Tico and the poor ghost of Hugh McDonald, because he wasn't even credited as the bass player for many years. Well, he really was because Alec wasn't in physical shape. So everybody's contributions is why this worked. I don't deserve that. But somebody had to be the quarterback on the team. That, that's really what I, the credit I will take is that I was, you know, driving the car. So I would keep things focused, but couldn't have done it without everyone's contributions.

• 42:34Bunnie XO?

  I love how humble you are and you're just always.

• 42:36Speaker 01

  It's just truth.

• 42:37Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  I don't deserve any more credit than that. It was, it was the sum of the parts made for the whole.

• 42:46Bunnie XO?

  I adore, I adore that about you. Playing at Madison Square Garden for the first time, it didn't go exactly as planned. And you're up there scared shitless, but still rocking it. Was there any other time in your career that you had, that you were just as scared as you were in that moment?

• 43:06Speaker 01

  I was too dumb to be scared.

• 43:08Bunnie XO?

  Oh, gosh.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  That night.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  I do remember it like it was yesterday, which is funny because you know how it is. You can't remember something from last week, but you can remember something from forty two, three years ago. Um, we're on the stage, Madison Square Garden. The promoter of the show wanted to be our manager and his play was, look, I can always get you work coming open for ZZ Top Madison Square Garden. We're given a thirty minute opportunity before the record comes out, but it's finished. Other managers all flying in scurrying to try to keep up with this one. We take the stage, Richie's guitar doesn't work, so I have mine on and I have to go, okay, think quick, give him mine and let's go. So now a thirty minute set becomes seventeen minutes because we played like the Ramones.

• 43:55Speaker 01

  We're like, fastest set of all times. I don't think we were scared. I think we were excited. I think I can remember the crowd chanting ZZ Top. But I can remember with my bar band chops, none of us were afraid of the moment. We, we, we knew how to handle a heckler. We knew how to sing the songs. It was just twice as fast.

• 44:21Bunnie XO?

  Right, right.

• 44:22Speaker 01

  And I do remember that we probably had more people backstage than anyone ever at Madison Square Garden.

• 44:28Bunnie XO?

  Ah, because it was your first time. How excited. I think we did that too, whenever Jay first played Madison Square Garden. I think you just, you're so excited. You just want to show everybody in your family like, look, I made it. I'm sold out Madison Square Garden.

• 44:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:42Bunnie XO?

  No, that's amazing. Slippery When Wet. You named the album after a strip club shower.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  True.

• 44:53Bunnie XO?

  Did you ever find yourself in that shower?

• 44:56Speaker 01

  No, they would never let a guy up on that stage.

• 44:59Bunnie XO?

  Tell me about the shower.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  Vancouver was the Wild West. It was an amazing moment in time. This jewel of a city before internet, before cell phones, before fax machines. You, there was no direct flights there. So this was. You know, not the Wild West, but it was a long way away. And the producer of that album, our third album, was willing to do the record if we would consent to come there. Well, we were all single. We were young. We were, we didn't have houses or anything still. Um, we were like, sure. Okay, we'll go there. We didn't realize also

• 45:43Speaker 01

  the city was blossoming. It was coming into its own. It had the World Expo there at the time. And one of the fun things was all the bars were fully nude. They would, they were busy because you'd go there for lunch. You could eat good food in there. And one of the traits at this one place called the Number Five Orange was that the gals would jump into a shower at the end of each of their sets and soap up. And when the album was originally called Wanted, Dead or Alive, we shot a cover all having grown beards and mustaches. So I looked like Jelly, right? I had a beard and a mustache.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  And we had dusters on which came down to the ground and we looked like, you know, the the silly cowboy gang. And the, the record company flew up and they saw the photographs. And basically the PR lady said, over my dead body.

• 46:41Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Everyone's shaving. You know, she's looking at me and I'm too dumb to know better. She's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. Cute boy, go shave that shit off your face.

• 46:53Bunnie XO?

  I thought you looked great with a beard. I actually thought it was hot whenever they showed the pictures in the documentary.

• 46:58Speaker 01

  Six, it was not going to fly for this third album.

• 47:01Bunnie XO?

  They wanted that baby face.

• 47:02Speaker 01

  And Wanted, Dead or Alive was not going to be it. So we jokingly said that, you know, the roadside on the way up there, Slippery Win Wet, uh, was where the title came from, but it really was this and. We then shot a second cover. In this day and age before fax machines or internet, they sent me a cropped photo. The girl that we found on the beach, the photographer found on the beach, was shot from her bottom lip down to above her navel. Okay, it's her boobs, but she had a T-shirt on and the glass was soaped up. Apparently the PMRC at the time were gonna go nuclear and not allow this to happen. So they were like, no.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  And when they sent me the copy and I was, it didn't, the cover wasn't working for me anyhow. It was all blue because Xerox would send you a copy, but it was one color. It was varying shades of blue. And I said, I don't get this cropping. And by the way, what colors are the album cover? He says, it's the colors of the picture, but it's hot pink around the entire border to match her lipstick. And all I could think was this was career suicide. And I won't name the artist, but there was a video of an artist who at the time was crawling around in pink sheets on MTV video.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  And he was a headliner in arenas and he was done the next day. And I was like, this will kill our career. The company said, you give love of bad names already on the radio. We've printed a half a million copies. This album's going out. And I said, it is not going out. And they said, if we don't have an album cover tomorrow, thinking that I couldn't come up with an album cover.

• 48:50Speaker 05

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• 50:20Speaker 01

  The photographer and I went into his studio. We took a hefty garbage bag, sprayed it with water. I wrote with my fingers, slippery when wet, and I said, "Turn it in." And I said, "If it's good enough for Back in Black, it's good enough for Bon Jovi." Black album cover. Boom.

• 50:34Bunnie XO?

  That's like one of the most iconic album covers ever.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Crazy. A garbage bag.

• 50:39Bunnie XO?

  It's insane, right?

• 50:41Speaker 01

  A garbage bag. Because they didn't have pictures. That's why there's only a teeny little picture of us on the river here. And the picture inside was the driveway of my apartment building, which was just everyone hanging out on the beach.

• 50:55Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm. Isn't it crazy? Like, you can try so hard to make an album cover, and then when you don't try, it just goes completely viral. Which viral wasn't a thing back then.

• 51:04Speaker 01

  Wasn't a thing.

• 51:05Bunnie XO?

  You were viral.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  It was a pretty rotten album cover, but it was a very big record.

• 51:10Bunnie XO?

  It was an amazing, amazing album.

• 51:13Speaker 01

  It was an amazing album, but it shoulda, coulda. I've never been very good at album covers.

• 51:18Bunnie XO?

  Ah, I think you've done just fine in your life with album covers.

• 51:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:22Bunnie XO?

  So during all of this, you are literally just becoming this rock star icon. You are with Dorothea.

• 51:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:31Bunnie XO?

  And you guys are high school sweethearts.

• 51:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:33Bunnie XO?

  How did you guys navigate all of these emotions as you're climbing high to rock star status?

• 51:42Speaker 01

  Well...

• 51:45Speaker 01

  The key at the end of the day is that we

• 51:50Speaker 01

  navigated it together. Because we were 18 in high school. She's seen every aspect of this. And you know, when I was playing in the bar, playing cover band music to being in an original band, to having my own original band, like all the way up the ladder. Therefore, nothing was going to be a surprise to her because we were living it together.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  You know, I was in a rock band. But we were at that age together, so it

• 52:22Speaker 01

  nothing was deeper than the connection that we had.

• 52:26Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 52:26Speaker 01

  You know, that's really what mattered.

• 52:28Bunnie XO?

  You guys did have a brief breakup in 1985. Can we touch base on that respectfully?

• 52:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:35Bunnie XO?

  You guys had a brief breakup and you started dating Diane Lane, which you mentioned earlier Diane Lane's mom was a bunny with your mom.

• 52:44Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 52:44Bunnie XO?

  So was that the connection that you guys?

• 52:46Speaker 01

  No, no, no.

• 52:46Bunnie XO?

  You never even knew?

• 52:47Speaker 01

  We met through a guy named Aldo Nova, who made a couple of records. And we met in, you know, 1984 ish.

• 52:57Speaker 01

  No, so it was a very brief

• 53:01Speaker 01

  time that we were together in 1985. But I think that truthfully, after the first record, Dorothea was kind of like,

• 53:11Speaker 01

  bye, you know, I say, yeah, you took off now, you're gone for nine months. And, you know, life goes on and I'm here and you're there. And, you know, where do I fit into this? And so I think that she was not buying what I was selling. So in 1985, I came back going into my second album and went to her parents' house where she lived. And, you know, like did the whole John Cusack, basically standing outside.

• 53:42Bunnie XO?

  I have that in my notes. I swear to God, I said, how did you win her back? Were you standing outside? Yeah.

• 53:48Speaker 01

  You know, I was like, you know, to her mom, you know, hey, is she home? You know, called up a couple of times. And then we were playing at the Meadowlands, which is what it was called. And I was just the opening act. But our second album, which had gone gold, I said, would you come and we're playing at the Meadowlands and we're gonna do this gold album presentation, it'd be cool if you were there. And so we picked it up from there and it just, thank God, you know.

• 54:12Bunnie XO?

  Ah.

• 54:13Speaker 01

  I won her back.

• 54:14Bunnie XO?

  One last question about Diane. Um, did, was the song You Give Love A Bad Name inspired by her? Okay, cuz there's so many rumors out there and I was just like, I have to ask.

• 54:25Speaker 01

  She was a sweetheart and it was a very brief moment in time.

• 54:27Bunnie XO?

  Gotcha.

• 54:27Speaker 01

  Again, it was before cell phones. I didn't ever cell phone, you like, it was like I'd have to call a number to get ahold of her.

• 54:34Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 54:35Speaker 01

  So, no, no, it was just a brief moment in time.

• 54:38Bunnie XO?

  When you and Dorothea got back together and you guys are going on this journey, you guys decide to start having babies. Let's talk about that because you're a dad and now you're actually a grandpa. How cool is that? I didn't know until I was doing my research that um, your son Jake is married to uh, Millie Bobby Brown. How was it meeting her and welcoming her in the family?

• 55:04Speaker 01

  Ah, she's a sweetheart and she's a hard worker.

• 55:08Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm, since childhood.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I, I tell her all the time how much I admire her because her work ethic is unbelievable. You know, it, it, they got married very young, but we blessed it because we, we get it. You know, they're sort of mature beyond their years. She comes from a family where her parents are still together and they married very young. Um, her and Jake fell in love and we just thought, okay, you know, we'll support this. And, and it's, it's working out.

• 55:42Bunnie XO?

  And what's it like being a grandpa?

• 55:44Speaker 01

  Crazy, but great, wonderful. Um, they adopted a, a girl.

• 55:48Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  And we met the baby, obviously, and uh, you know, immediately that becomes your grandchild. You know what I mean, your baby.

• 55:56Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 55:58Speaker 01

  So it's beautiful. I wanna see pictures like every other day. I'm that pain in the butt guy already and uh, and yeah, so it's cool and, and you know. Our son Jesse and he, his wife, they're gonna have a baby. So suddenly it's a shift again.

• 56:14Bunnie XO?

  Isn't it crazy just to see life through all the eras?

• 56:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:18Bunnie XO?

  It's wild, right? And it's like, you can't stop it. Life just keeps going.

• 56:21Speaker 01

  It certainly does.

• 56:22Bunnie XO?

  It does not wait for anyone at all. Moving on from all of the great grandpa news and stuff like that. As a father, can you just tell me what your most valuable lesson has been that your kids have taught you?

• 56:45Speaker 01

  One thing you come to know in parenting as you get to a certain stage in age is they're all uniquely different.

• 56:55Speaker 01

  And Dorothy and I have four kids. It's a big surprise to me that from the same parents in the same house for all the same years. They're very different.

• 57:05Bunnie XO?

  All different.

• 57:06Speaker 01

  Crazy.

• 57:07Bunnie XO?

  I always tell everybody, you can grow up in the, in the same house, a different home.

• 57:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. Now, it makes more sense when you think about, you know, where we were by the time Romeo was born. And so, you know,

• 57:22Speaker 01

  different philosophies just based on living life, but it's still the same makeup.

• 57:28Speaker 01

  It's how to teach us

• 57:32Speaker 01

  a little more patience. Like, I'm not the boss anymore. I definitely do not get to dictate the terms, you know? Daddy would be driving, you know, it's like, okay, everyone in the backseat. No more. You know, which is, takes a little getting used to. But when they grow up and you see what they're doing, it, it's a moment of great pride. Because even though you know they're gonna stumble and you know they're gonna get their knees scuffed up.

• 58:05Speaker 01

  I like who they're becoming. So I'm pretty proud, well, I'm very proud of all four of them. Because they're uniquely individual. And they know where they came from, but they also want to be their own person. Which is big, big. None of them wants to live as the son of. Or the daughter of.

• 58:25Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 58:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:26Bunnie XO?

  It's hard to let go, though. It's hard because we have, we've been raising one of Jay's daughters since she was seven and she's seventeen now. And this year I've had to learn to let go. And I'm just like, and it's actually kind of working out a lot more, but I'm just like, I don't want to, you know, like, I just want, I don't want you to spread your wings yet.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, right, because they could get hurt.

• 58:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 58:49Speaker 01

  It's part of the process.

• 58:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about this new tour that you have coming up and this album that is coming out. My husband's on the album. You have a bunch of people.

• 59:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:00Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about it. Take me on this journey, this next era.

• 59:04Speaker 01

  June, when the documentary came out, it was going to accompany our album, which was called Bon Jovi Forever. Very, very proud of the record, very excited about the record. We released the record with the doc and I'm unable to perform. And I know it. And I have to say to everybody, there's no tour. And in this day and age, which is different than when we began. When you don't support a record by doing TV shows and or touring, that is the day that record dies. Not slowly, not second single, third single, falls off the cliff and dies. There was just nothing I could do about it.

• 59:49Speaker 01

  And I could have easily wiped my hands of the record, but having lived through 2020 and the the COVID issue and the record before that where I was injured with This House Is Not For Sale. I've been making these records and unable to support him was heartbreaking. So with this one, I said, I've got a thought. Let's see. And the bumper sticker phrase would be with a little help from my friends. So I asked a handful of close friends. I'm hurt. Can you help? Jelly, of course, was the first one, you know, he was right there immediately. I said, would you sing on this song for me? So it'll come out when it's done and I get enough guys and

• 1:00:29Speaker 01

  Jason Isbell was probably second and Bruce and Marcus King and Warren Treaty and Laney, who's I guess like a sister to Jelly.

• 1:00:42Bunnie XO?

  Well, we love Laney. Laney's our, Warren Treaty too. We love them. Michael and Tanya talked to them today. I love them to pieces.

• 1:00:48Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 1:00:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, they're amazing.

• 1:00:50Speaker 01

  So great people. Joe Elliott from Def Leppard, Avril Lavigne, just great talents. Robbie Williams. It's incredible. Ryan Tedder. And so then I put this record together, Corinne Leon for a Spanish version of one of the songs. So I took my Nashville friends, my old, you know, rock and roll connections, girls, country, international, Spanish, so I could try to re-release the record with the intention of giving it life that it deserves, under the guise of, you know, with a little help from my friends and the hope that I will be able

• 1:01:35Speaker 01

  to announce some shows finally for next year. And so that's the plan.

• 1:01:42Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  Plans are made to change, but that is my intention.

• 1:01:47Bunnie XO?

  And you guys do have intention to tour?

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:49Bunnie XO?

  And this can be off the record. We can cut this out too. You haven't announced your tour yet?

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  No, we haven't announced dates yet.

• 1:01:55Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:56Speaker 01

  No, there was a rock show over in the singing room yesterday for two hours of me doing it on a daily basis. And then, you know, you just hope that it's all gonna hold together. But I am healed.

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  The process is what it is and we're just hoping that everyone else is healthy and that we're going.

• 1:02:17Bunnie XO?

  It's gonna be amazing and you guys are gonna rock it. And the fact that you guys are still selling out places like you guys have done for decades now just speaks volumes of just that your fan base and the people who love you. So I know that the minute you guys do drop this tour, it's gonna sell out. People are coming.

• 1:02:36Speaker 01

  Thank you. That would be nice.

• 1:02:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, no, they will, they will. All right, and I have one last question for you. If you could go back to 1985, John, standing in front of a stadium crowd, what's the one thing you would whisper in your ear?

• 1:02:50Speaker 01

  Enjoy this. Just step back from the microphone. Take it in. Look up. You deserve to be here. You earned it. You know, now just enjoy it.

• 1:03:04Bunnie XO?

  That's beautiful. John, thank you so much for being here today. I am so excited for what you have coming up and you're gonna catch Jay and I at a show for sure.

• 1:03:15Speaker 01

  Yay. Thank you.

• 1:03:17Bunnie XO?

  We're coming, baby. Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode of Dumb Blonde. I will see you guys next week. Bye.