Quote of the day

"Last time, we were playing these stadiums and Alec was falling down onstage. Literally falling down! I’d pick him up and say, ‘All my life I’ve dreamed of playing a stadium and here I am, pickin’ you up! If I didn’t love you so much, I’d kill you or fire you!‘ He realised that it was out of control and got himself into shape.” (JBJ 1993)

Mr. Routine

"Wake up between 12 and 1, have room service say good afternoon when you ask for coffee and toast. Go to the gym between 2 and 3, shower pack travel, go to sound check at 5, 6pm eat because I normally forget to, 7 determine the set list, 7:30 warm up, 8:30 rock the house! "(JBJ)

Quote of the day

"I got a fractured leg. I cracked the tibia and I get it taped up so I can still bounce around on it. Maybe they'll have to cut the leg off, but only after the tour!" JBJ, April 1989

I am Aquaman!

So Jon, it’s pouring outside and you’re about to play an outdoor concert. How do you feel about this?

People think it’s a drag. This is the best. One simple reason - anyone can sing in the shower. Welcome to my f**king shower! This is the best singing weather in the world, humid and wet. They’re going to have to pull me off the stage tonight. You think Michael Jackson’s weird? I’m in the shower the whole time. I need humidity man. I am Aquaman.

It's just me...

Essa declaração foi tirada do documentário When We Were Beautiful. É certamente um daqueles raros momentos em que o Jon deixa de lado as respostas ensaiadas e fala honestamente sobre o que sente.


"You know what I try to do and I realized it...I do this to a fault. I try to find the optimism to a point where I don't write the downer song. I have...but I don't...typically. Because I want to use that moment for the people that are listening to find something to lift them up. 


I don't ever say I need you to help me...get through. I don't think they want that from me. And I don't want to show them that. They don't want to see the guy that...they might...I'm not going to let them see it." (JBJ)

Intentions...good!

How did "Misunderstood" come about?


Jon: The way that "misunderstood" came about was a series of errors, and working too hard, combined with being away from home. I think that the best songs that come out of honesty are the ones that you're quick enough to write down. For instance, "Bed Of Roses", when I was writing that song in `92, was in no mood to be writing a song due to the circumstances, and instead of putting the pen down and walking away from the piano, I sat down and wrote "sitting here wasted and wounded with this old piano..." and the hurt that I was feeling physically that day. Well this time I was in Los Angeles for a better part of 5 months doing a television program, and came home, I think it was on a Thursday, and had meetings at the house on Friday, and then on Monday morning began recording the record. At which time my wife looked at me and said it's time to straighten up. You know, you'd better realize that there's more to what you do than what you do. And I was in the doghouse. Instead of putting my tail between my legs or barking back, I just wrote "right". I should apologize for everything I'm about to screw up here. And you know, made light of it. And in a fun and funny way, for every guy that's been in the doghouse before, I think they can relate to that. And I like the vulnerability, and the honesty about it. So I was on a roll, and Richie said, "Run boy run". And we did!

Something for the pain

I did a TV show for Italian broadcast here in New York, 1984, the beginning of our career and Sammy was frail at the time and he was walking towards the little stage in the TV studio and he was on a cane, glasses, walked in rather gingerly, as soon as those lights went on and I saw the director, go three, two, one to Sammy, that cane was gone, the glasses were gone and the showman came out again. I never forgot that. You see? And that's the magic of performing. And nobody can explain that to somebody who's a layman who doesn't understand what that is. You have to have done that sometime in your life. My wife again, has always said, I could perform with my head cut off. I don't realize the pain. (JBJ)

Edge of a Broken Heart - a melhor outtake de todos os tempos

Até hoje é incrível pensar que essa música nunca entrou no Slippery When Wet. Virou demo, outtake e foi parar numa trilha sonora. Finalmente depois de muito anos, Jon se redimiu e colocou-a no box set com um formal pedido de desculpas:

This is the song that you've all wanted me to play live... people ask me why didn't this make Slippery? Well, this was the same era that I didn't think that Livin' On A Prayer was a hit. I never claimed to a good A&R guy. But Edge Of A Broken Heart was an outtake of Slippery. It ended up on a soundtrack for a little movie called Disorderlies and it starred a very early rap band called The Fat Boys. i know you guys like it so we found the masters and we put it on this box just for you. It was absolutely appropriate for the Slippery record - coulda, shoulda, woulda been on Slippery had cooler minds prevailed. Here's my formal apology. (JBJ)


Essa é a versão demo gravada no porão da casa do Richie:



Ai eles foram pra Vancouver e fizeram essa versão demo que já tava maravilhosa:



E finalmente a versão do box set:



Pode isso Arnaldo? Pode deixar uma música dessa fora do álbum? Peloamor da Nossa Senhora de Nova Jersei!

If you don't love me baby, lie to me...

These Days é um dos meus álbums prediletos. Marcou uma época maravilhosa da minha vida. É um álbum que, na minha opinião, tem as melhores letras da banda. Sempre que posso mostro o mesmo banner de Lie to Me nos shows. Ele já tá velhinho! No Rio, ano passado, durante Always o Jon olhou vários cartazes e ia apontando e concordando com todos. No meu de Lie to Me deu um sonoro não! Hehehe...mas a paciência e persistência dos fãs às vezes vencem a cabeça dura do Jon. Ontem foi um dia desses pra entrar na história e ele finalmente tocou Lie to Me. Meio sem jeito, errando a letra, não importa. 40 mil pessoas fazendo a segunda voz, coisa mais linda. Grazie, Italia! :))) 

"Richie and I wrote it one afternoon at my house in California. It came together pretty quickly. It's the kind of song you get a charge out of playing live every night", says Jon of this soulful song about clinging to the one thing you have left:"If you don't love me, lie to me cause baby you're the one thing I believe. I think it's an emotion that a lot of people have to admit to sooner or later in their lives. Sometimes if things aren't going right the last thing they need is the person that they hope would believe, won't believe. It's the difference between jumping off the roof and not. So many people become slaves to fear, you're always two paychecks away. If that one person let you down you don't know if you can go on". (JBJ)

Happy 4th of July!

A melhor música do box set, sem dúvida nenhuma. De cortar o coração...

Fourth of July I wrote in Malibu. I used to have a house in Malibu, California and I stuck a piano in one of the bedrooms and I'd close the door. And in what I called the Grey Period in my life - 91, 92 - post Young Guns. I didn't know what the future held. I was really concerned that the innocence that I had when I picked up a guitar as a teenager was gone, and gone forever. Suddenly you became this head of a corporation, and a boss and a tool for the machine to go on. You more often than not would burn yourself out to please somebody... I sat at the piano at that whole period and wrote songs like this and Bed of Roses... There's a lot of my hurt in that innocence that was lost... "I used to live/I've learned to cry." We were listening as a band for the first time to the whole box and Richie said, "You know this is my favorite that we never did." And I heard it and I thought, you know, I really like it, too. It sorta hurts to hear it because I know what the lyric means. But I remember thinking, "boy it'd be great to hear Don Henley sing this!" - it'd be just perfect. So, you know I really do like the song. It's just, it hurts too much sometimes. (JBJ)

A Entrevista

Tão raro o Jon gostar do repórter que o entrevista, menos ainda dar respostas não ensaiadas...esta entrevista é o que uma boa entrevista deve ser: um bom bate papo. Incrível ver o Jon falando de Hearts Breaking Even (uma das músicas que eu escolheria pra ouvir ao vivo se o gênio da lâmpada me desse 3 pedidos na Terra!)

Mais ainda comentar de forma tão racional o fato de que o Hugh nunca vai ser um membro da banda.



"Although Alec is no longer a member of the band nor we see him, he's left the face of earth as we know it, he - in my eyes - will always be the bass player of the band. It bothers Huey! It bothers us that this bothers Huey, but that's the way it is. He's as loyal as the day is long, he's an amazing player.  I pay him for his services. He's an employee of the organization. It's hard for him and it's hard for us, but that's just the way it is". JBJ

I'm complicated...

Jon is a complicated fellow. It is Jon's tireless drive and complexity that create such a perfect foil for Richie's infectious enthusiasm. To my mind, this is what makes these guys such great partners. (Phil Griffin)

Jon is an insane workaholic. As much as he hates to do it, he loves to do it. He was a unique situation: you're the star. The focus; everything lands on you. But that's Jon's world. He's a complicated dude. (David Bryan)

Question: Are you shy?

Jon: Introverted maybe. (pause) Introverted and yet just incredibly determined or focused to do whatever it is that I want to do. If it’s to go running this morning, or if you’re determined to drink tonight, it’s going to be the whole bottle. I don’t sip. If it’s to do anything in my life, I’m just incredibly focused and I just get pissy about it. So it causes you to be a little one-dimensional at times, but it is what it is.



Get well soon, Sambora!

"For twenty-five years, Richie Sambora has been my right hand - the brother, partner, and friend you hope to one day find from the time when you're a kid. I tell people - and I mean this as the highest compliment - you would be lucky to call him your friend. He has the talent and desire that set him apart from the average guy slinging a six-string around.

Sure, there are loads of guys who can play. There are lots of guys who can sing. But there is - and only ever will be - one Richie Sambora. " JBJ

Sweet surrender

"I don't feel much of anything anymore. Sometimes you love me just to hate me and sometimes I just think that you love to hate me. I can't help myself, baby. I'm like a moth drawn to the flame; I know I'm gonna burn but it's so... it's getting hot that makes me feel so good. Just call it...sweet surrender". JBJ

That's alright, Jon!

"Jon being a very handsome guy, I think our shows involve a lot of idol worship. It's like Elvis. We have a bit of that with Jon. Jon is that idol". (Richie Sambora)

It's just me...

"My dominant mood?" he says one afternoon, sitting high atop Manhattan, in a 35th-floor restaurant. "It would seem like borderline crankiness, but that's not it at all. I'm usually just very pensive and thoughtful. I mean, Richie's the happy one. He comes in the room and it lights up because he's there jerking everyone off. I come in and talk black and white, Xs and Os, dollars and cents. And then I gotta go. Let's go. And my mind is always rolling with other things, which doesn't mean I'm not being attentive. I am. But I'm also thinking. Right now, I'm thinking, My wife is down at the apartment, and my team has an important game tomorrow, and I want to know what's going on with the band, and by the way, we gotta play this club tonight and is Richie going to be okay? And, truthfully, I'm also sitting here thinking, I gotta pee."