Jon talks politics, charity work and death of B sides

Posted February 17, 200817 yr

FRESH from a triumphant return to Melbourne, Jon Bon Jovi talks about entering politics, charity work and how iPods are killing the B-side.

Apparently you're running for US politics with Al Gore's backing . . .

I don't know how that happened. It came from that crazy story in the New York Times. Al Gore is probably my hero. I'm honoured enough to call him my friend. But it's not true.

No interest at all?

I take a bad review hard, let alone that 50 per cent of the people hate you in politics before you've left your house. I don't need that beating! It's a very difficult job and I don't know that it's anything more than a thankless job. I don't know why anyone would aspire to do it.

What's your take on the American election?

I'm listening, like everyone else. I'm a Democratic supporter, a lot of their platform is about giving back. I'm hoping the country's paying attention this time.

You're covering Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah these days. . .

It's a pleasure to sing that song. I'm jealous . . . what a song.

Is that a song you wish you'd written?

It's right up there, man. It's up there in the Top 10 of all time. The only thing that gives me any solace is that I read it took him five years to write it. It's a masterpiece.

Do you like the Jeff Buckley version?

I do. I saw him in a bar, couldn't have been more than 50 people there, no exaggeration, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was for that first EP (Live at Sin-E) with the coffee cup ring on it. He was this close to the bar. He could sing. The honest-to-God truth is that was the first time I heard Hallelujah.

I didn't know Cohen's version before that. I heard that song and went, ‘‘There's the hit!'' and my friend went, ‘‘You genius, it's a Leonard Cohen song, you're not so bright are you?'' Nope, but at least I wasn't the last one to know it was a Cohen song.

You also covered the Dave Clark Five's Glad All Over in Australia.

We heard this satellite station in a rotten restaurant in Japan. That song came on and I rang the band and told them to learn it. We're just a big-bar band at the end of the day.

Last year's country-tinged Lost Country album excited some people, confused others. How do you look back on it?

There's the artist in you who wants everybody to love everything you do, then there's the rebel in you who wants to fight with everybody who says they don't like it. What was most important was that I like it. The true test of time will come in two years if I still want to sing it. When you write it and put it out, you love every song on every record.

But do you want to sing them 20 years from now?

We'll see.

So if you look at the Bon Jovi setlist in 2008, they're the songs you still love?

Ninety per cent. There's one or two in there 'cos they're audience faves I might be bored with. Generally speaking I don't mind playing Runaway 25 years later. There's others I look at and go, ‘‘I could have done a better chorus, I know it was a hit song, I can't believe that got through''. I have no problem singing (Livin' on a) Prayer and (You Give Love a) Bad Name and Wanted (Dead or Alive) and It's My Life. Thank God we've had a lot of hits. I'm OK with that. Could be a lot worse.

What do you think about today's rock music then?

My Chemical Romance are very smart young guys. I love John Mayer, he'll be around for a long time. Damien Rice is the next generation's (Leonard) Cohen if he keeps an eye on it the way Ryan Adams needed to. But the reinvention of rock 'n' roll is alive and well. The idea there's going to be the next Led Zeppelin, I haven't seen that since, maybe, Nirvana. I can't think of a band that has been that big since then.

Were you excited about the Led Zeppelin reunion?

I wasn't a huge fan. I liked it from afar. The lyric was a little ethereal for me. I was more about meat and potatoes and tell me a story.

Jon Bon Jovi: pro or anti-downloading?

It's not an easy yes-or-no question. I miss the experience of an album, holding that vinyl when you were a kid, saving your money, taking it home, reading the lyrics. Track seven may have been the song that influenced you. My eldest is 14, they love music, they love classic rock. But when they hear a new thing they buy the track; they press their download button and buy that song. So Track seven is lost.

You have an iPod, though?

I bought a dozen of them like everyone else. But there were magazine articles with artists saying, ‘‘All I have to do now is write three or four great songs and I can go tour''. I thought, ‘‘You're killing Track seven''.

I said to (Apple's) Steve Jobs at least for 99c give them a B-side, so that can represent the art and (the other song) the commerce. He said, ‘‘I can't do that, there's mechanicals, there's publishing''. I said, ‘‘This is all become about your Christmas bonus, about commerce''. He said, ‘‘Johnny, it's always been about commerce''. I thought he'd just turned into the Devil, they've taken away the art form.

Now, eight years later, they're all saying, ‘‘Damn Steve Jobs, I'm not going to license him our songs''. They were thinking about quantity, not quality. Not a whole album from start to finish, like Led Zeppelin 4, Born to Run, Let it Be . . . As far as getting it out there, downloading it, sharing it, I don't need another $5 in my pocket, that won't make or break me. It's just the idea . . . you want people to hear it. When the kids get a rein on that, they'll figure out a new way to have a career like this.

You seem to have become involved in charity of late?

To give back, I find more pleasure in that than almost anything -- it's right up there with performing. You're making a difference to someone's life. I want to make volunteerism hip.

Your football team, the Philadelphia Soul, does a lot for charity . . .

It's a model for what pro sport can be, going forward. It's got so big in America they sometimes forget how to give back. So we're doing that.

There's talk of a second Bon Jovi greatest hits for Christmas?

There are conversations. Not sure yet.

There was a quote from the UK where you slagged off Robbie Williams and Oasis, saying they couldn't fill a club in the US . . .

Of course the English took it out of context. They were talking about the success they (Robbie and Oasis) have had in America. I said they couldn't play a club there. I'm a huge Robbie fan, buy all his records, seen him live. But he couldn't play a big venue in America. It's not a slag at him, it's like, ‘‘Look how screwed up the industry is, he can't play a club here but he plays three Knebworths (outdoor stadium) in the UK''.

Any movie work on the horizon?

I'm reading, but there's nothing worth stopping the day job for.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5889508,00.jpg

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...89-2902,00.html

Edited February 17, 200817 yr by *Nicky*