Thirty years on, and Jon Bon Jovi's still going strong. Picture: Fenton Andrew Source: National Features
JON Bon Jovi is lost in a blizzard and wishing he was chasing the sun. And he blames misbehaving in Australia for his current predicament.
The band were forced to postpone the opening night of their Because We Can world tour to launch new record What About Now when a snowstorm crippled the American northeast last month.
They made the best of a bad situation, playing an impromptu gig for the fans who had been stranded travelling to the Connecticut concert.
"Life goes on and I guess you've got to make it fun where you can," Bon Jovi says.
But a few days later in frozen Montreal, the singer, activist and potential politician is wondering whether his karma account may still be out of balance for a rock'n'roll lifestyle lived to its fullest in his youth.
"Who books a tour to Montreal in the middle of winter?
"I must have really pissed someone off. Or maybe I am making up for a lot of bad things I have done in the last 30 years," he says.
Like what? "Oh baby, I have been to Australia. Trust me," he says, chuckling.
The "why me?" thought must have crossed his mind - even for a millisecond - when his eldest daughter, Stephanie, was hospitalised last December after a drug overdose.
"There's no manual that comes with parenting," Bon Jovi told entertainment news show Extra.
"You surround your kids with love, give them everything you can, you learn, you listen and there were no telltale signs."
But just like his most famous music characters, Livin' on a Prayer's Tommy and Gina, the frontman knows surviving adversity is the connection that resonates most strongly with his audience of millions.
For 30 years, New Jersey's second-most famous rock son and bandmates Richie Sambora, Tico Torres and Dave Bryan have made struggle town anthems, and rallying cries to rise above it all, their stock in trade.
What About Now is no different.
Songs like the title track, The Fighter, and What's Left of Me hook into the plight of the everyman - which has also been the bailiwick long shared by Bon Jovi's mate, Bruce Springsteen.
"Sure, it's a classic subject matter for rock music - and it's never going to go away," Bon Jovi says.
"A lot of these songs address what has happened after the first term of Barack Obama. And they are not candy-coated - they are pointing a finger and taking a social, not a political, stance.
"(But) you can't say 'Baby, baby, baby' all the time."
Ah, sorry, but we have to point out that the album cut, That's What The Water Made Me, does indeed start with those very words.
"If you are trying to explain something to someone, 'wait, wait, wait' isn't a good lyric," he says, laughing.
"Songs are meant to be conversations and you have to start from somewhere."
Bon Jovi takes great pains to insist "this is not a political record. At all".
It is understandable that the lines between his role as a rocker and his charitable work and political activism may have become blurred. Without the profile of one, he would enjoy lesser success with the others.
He was one of the first on ground after Hurricane Sandy decimated his home state and was named a member of Obama's White House Council for Community Solutions two years ago.
When it comes to music, the songwriter sees himself as a commentator rather than an agitator.
"This album is trying to consider more social equality.
"I have been blessed to travel the world and see enough in my 50 years and the conclusion I've come to is that's what we need," he says.
A couple of months after the triumphant Concert For Sandy Relief, Bon Jovi is still buzzing from the afterglow of not only its fundraising success but its myriad rockstar moments.
Organisers assembled a Triple A-list of rock's biggest names, with Springsteen and Bon Jovi rubbing shoulders backstage with Sir Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, Kanye West, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys and Coldplay's Chris Martin.
"Oh yeah, there were some moments," Bon Jovi says.
"There are all these pictures hung on the walls backstage at the (Madison Square) Garden, which depict moments from over the years and on that night, all those pictures came to life.
"There were the Stones and the Beatles and the Who and Bruce and Bon Jovi ... it was crazy, crazy good. That concert was a slice of rock history.
"I think every kid dreams about things like that, but I never thought 30 years ahead to something like that.
"And it felt so different to the 9/11 show - it felt like we could fix this one."
And while he wouldn't dare to dream about achieving the level of success and the power it offers him when he was a teenager sweeping floors at his cousin's recording studio, Bon Jovi believes there is a fair bit of that boy left in the man.
"A lot of hours of each day, I still feel like that kid, still with that chip on my shoulder to prove I can do it," he says.
"I always feel that in the anticipation of a show or the excitement of a record coming out.
"You always want that exuberance of the 18-year-old with the experience of doing this longer than most."
* HEAR What About Now - out now.
* SEE Bon Jovi will tour Australia in December with more details to be announced soon.
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