london kills me


Kerrang! March 9, 1996

Jon Bon Jovi has got the tabloid press in his garden, IRA bombs down the road and Phil Alexander in his conservatory. But he’s still having such a blast here, that he’s written the next Bon Jovi album...

We are sitting in the conservatory of Jon Bon Jovi’s rented house in South London when a pole with a mirror on the end of it is poked over the garden wall. “Did you see that?” asks Jon Bon Jovi, “That’s a paparazzi guy at the wall. That’s pretty wild.”
Quite what a tabloid snapper might expect to find by invading Jon’s privacy on this particular Saturday afternoon is open to debate. There is a pool in the conservatory - maybe he thought he’d find Jon cavorting in there with his wife Dorothea or even with a host of bimbos. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the only thing that’s out of the ordinary are a few birthday balloons scattered around the place in preparation for Jon’s son Jesse’s first birthday. Jon and Dorothea’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Stephanie is running around wanting to open her younger brother’s presents. And that’s about it.
As for Jon himself, he’s been off from filming his role in ‘The Leading Man’ for three days and the adrenaline has stopped flowing. It’s the chance for him to put his feet up. He is also very quick to point out that his home life these days has very little to do with the burn-out and fade-away excesses of old.
“I live such a normal life,” says Jon, shaking his head. “We don’t hang out with big entourages and we never have. Those kind of things don’t really ever happen so it’s hard to imagine why people would care.”
Jon’s reality is incredibly comfortable but relaxed. By the time he’s finished filming in mid-March, he’ll have been in London for three months. His rented house looks deceptively small from the outside. Inside it’s sumptuous and spacious. The kitchen is a large white affair, looking onto the conservatory, its pool and into the garden. The front room has the drapes drawn for privacy and is grandly decorated with a piano and a large couch. In the middle of the room there is a massive entertainment centre that Jon has shipped in, with a TV and a stereo. The room backs onto a den-like study with loads of books about major statesmen and various encyclopaedias.
Jon is quick to admit that he’s always wanted to come and hang out in London for a serious amount of time. Living in South London, he reckons, has been an eye-opening adventure.
“I’ve learnt much more about London,” he nods, “Stephanie is in nursery school and we walk her there. Both in Rumsen and in Malibu where we have houses, you can’t walk anywhere. That is the biggest thing that I love about this. We go out of our door, we walk five minutes and we’re at a pub or a restaurant. That’s really exciting.
Yesterday, we went to a premiere of a cartoon for kids. We took two of the neighbour’s kids too and that’s the first time I’ve done that. I’ve never worked out in a gym in my life, but there’s a cool gym I can go to where the people are great. I’m really enjoying living in London.” Jon’s filming schedule has taken him to several less-than-salubrious neighbourhoods. He spent two weeks shooting in Woolwich Arsenal, a week in Stratford East and one week around town in general. It’s taught Jon a few lessons about the regional differences around London. “I’ve learnt about the prejudice in this town,” he laughs, “I’ve gotten this sense that people in South London are really looked down upon. I have to apologise for renting a house south of the river..”
Culturally he’s noticed increasing similarities between the UK and the states. “The world has become a lot more Americanised,” he sighs, “Little stupid things like the ambulance and police sirens here sound American instead of that ‘nee-noo-nee-noo’ sound that that was classic and English. There’s the way that pubs used to closed at a certain time. Now they stay open all the time.”
Musically, Jon has also found himself in writing mode during his stay, “I’m on a roll,” he grins, “I’m writing another one today and I’m feeling really good about it. The fact is I know now that I’m going to get a set of songs together this year. With every record, you never know if it’s going to be your last. You never know if you’re going to be able to top it or if you’ll be able to write another song. So, when that bolt of lightening hits, you run with it.”
So far, Jon has written three new songs with a fourth on the way. At the time of our chat, he had yet to go through the trauma of losing his lyric book (see below for full details). “I’ve written a song called ‘It’s Just Me’ and another one called ‘All In The Name Of Love’, which I wrote for this film,” he says, “There’s another one called ‘Learning How To Fall’. The one I wrote for the film is interesting because of the fact that there’s always a piece of yourself in whatever you write but you also take on some of the character that it’s about too. It’s good to write a song about that because you learn where you’re at as a person.
People said ‘These Days’ was so dark as a record. And I’m still trying to figure out why because I was in such a good mood. With the new stuff, I’m writing a lot of humbling lyrics because that’s where I’m at at the moment, between the kids and what I want to do with my future.”
Could ‘These Days’ have been a darker record because, looking around, there are times when there isn’t that much to be happy about in the nineties?
“Yeah. I had a discussion with someone last week about politics. We were talking about our leaders and our presidents being selected, and how the dream has faded. But, up until John Kennedy was assassinated, Americans, and probably a lot of the world believed that the white picket fence, two point two kids, a chicken in the pot and a car in the garage theory was going to be true forever. Now, I get really bothered that the kids who read your magazine are growing up in a world that says that you have no future. If you’re told that long enough, you start to believe it.
I’m not going to candy-coat anything any more. A song like ‘Hey God’ questions things rather than just saying ‘This sucks’. I will question authority and question myself or the situation to try and get the best of it rather than condemning it.”
With talk of condemnation, the renewed IRA bombing campaign in London comes into focus. With his family here and coming into contact with the effects of the Canary Wharf bomb on February 9th, Jon has experienced things first hand.
“It’s a shame that people get scared and are made to fear for their life in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities,” he states with a shake of his head. “To think that can still happen is just terrible. I watched the news that day and they said that Clinton knew about it before it went off. How heavy is that? Bill knew before it happened. He had to wait to see how many were dead. That’s a scarey thought. I’m just learning about it all. We pretty blind about it all in America. Now I understand it at least.”
Do world events and issues - like homelessness - that confront everyone on a daily basis mean that music is more important in 1996 than ever before? “
Music is something that you can hold onto,” Jon agrees, “It’s changed a lot of people’s lives. It’s the one universal thing that people can still believe in if they can’t believe in politics or society any more.”
But what would Jon do if his kids turned around and said, ‘Dad, we think we’re going to join a band’? “I’d say ‘Go ahead’. It’s a good job if you can get it, you know? It was the rainbow at the end of all my dreams. When I think about all the things that we’ve accomplished in our lifetimes, all the things I’ve seen and places we’ve been, it’s incredible.”
But, after selling millions of records and playing to literally millions of people, what drives Jon now? “
My wife’s credit cards!! Nah, that’s a hard question to answer honestly because it’s easy to say, ‘You wouldn’t believe the money I get paid for this’. It’s easy to say ‘I really like playing stadiums’. But those aren’t the honest-to-God answers. I get a bigger thrill out of writing a song than I do out of recording it or performing it live, because that feeling of doing it is going to be with you for ever. That’s probably the real reason why I’ll carry on doing this because I don’t know that I’d necessarily get a hard-on over the idea of packing up a suitcase all over again. We’ve done too many of those kinds of tours where it’s got too much. This summer we’re only doing 30 shows and I know we could have done another 50 but that’s out of the question. I want it to be relaxed and 30 shows is like a fun vacation.”
Does that mean that Jon is willing to shatter the age-old myths of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll and become the voice of reason?
“Ha! We all grew up believing that myth which was all romantic and cool and we lived it too, like any other young band,” he laughs, “When I hear about Oasis throwing TVs out of windows and buying Rolls Royces, I laugh, because we did it. Everybody did it. Keith Richards did it and John Lennon before that. All the stuff about ‘We’re the young band, we’re going to grab girls’ tits on a TV show’, we’ve all done it and that’s what it’s all about when you get out there.
Now it’s not that we’re getting softer, or that I’m writing baby songs but it’s difficult in the morning when my daughter comes in and goes, ‘Put a shirt on’ or ‘You better shave’ to relate to all that other stuff. The kids are so young that I’m not going to miss any of that. I don’t want to do 240 shows a year. I don’t want to be anybody’s machine. I want to love every night that I’m up there.”
What’s the most gratifying thing about being Jon Bon Jovi in 1996?
“Musically speaking?” Anyway that you want to take it... “That I have the health of my two kids and a wife that loves me. That’s the most gratifying thing. I would trade it all in a minute to guarantee the health of my kids.
It’s also gratifying that other things have happened as a band. The most gratifying thing about that is that we’ve survived it all, both mentally and physically.”

Jon Bon Jovi hypnotized in search for lost book
Jon Bon Jovi is to enlist the services of a hypnotist in a desperate attempt to try and locate a Bon Jovi lyric book lost on the set of his new film ‘The Leading Man’. Frantic Jon has looked everywhere for the blue book which contains lyrics and song ideas for the next Bon Jovi album - the follow-up to last year’s hugely successful ‘These Days’ - and has finally consented to hypnosis in a bid for vital clues. Jon believes his book went missing from his trailer on the set of ‘The Leading Man’ and says he last saw the book shortly before he attended the recent Brit Awards ceremony in London’s Earl’s Court. If anyone comes across the blue book, could they please contact Dawn Bartlett at the Mercury Records press office on: 0181 910 5737.