Jon Bon Jovi: Legacies, excellence, and rock’n’roll clichés
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.7 • 15.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2024
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s important to live without regrets, to try everything, but also to know when to quit. Jon Bon Jovi feels leaving a legacy isn’t about competing with others, but about being able to say you’ve been the best version of yourself.
In this chat with Fearne, Jon talks about why he reckons being hard working trumps talent, and why he continues to demand excellence from himself, even 40 years into his career. Jon also opens up about the reality of working with a bandmate with addictions, and how he’s been able to steer clear of rock’n’roll excesses (for the most part) himself.
Are you good at celebrating your successes? Between them, Fearne and Jon wonder if the Americans are better at boldly owning achievements than Brits...
Bon Jovi’s new album, Forever, is out now.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Happy Place. I'm Fern Cotton and this is the show that |
| 0:04.9 | wonders what it means to leave a legacy you're proud of. Today I'm chatting to |
| 0:10.1 | John Bon Jovi. I'm not trying to compete with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé |
| 0:14.8 | and their successes that have that younger generation. |
| 0:17.8 | But I also don't want to compromise the 40 years of us either. |
| 0:22.1 | So the legacy matters. I have to go out. the you and it's really saying it to myself. I'll show me that I can do this again. Or else I won't because I can't, but it won't be because I didn't try. |
| 0:40.0 | The legacy matters. I'm not going out there and being the fat Elvis. It's just never going to happen. |
| 0:45.0 | It's been 40 years, 40, since the band Bon Jovi released their first album. |
| 0:51.8 | Since then, John sold million records and has been |
| 0:57.8 | inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but he's also had some serious vocal problems. He had surgery in fact that could have |
| 1:05.8 | signaled the end of his music career. Now any of us who've enthusiastically |
| 1:10.7 | attempted it's my life or living on a prayer during a bit of |
| 1:14.0 | kitchen karaoke will know that these are demanding songs. That key change in |
| 1:19.9 | living on a prayer? Oh my God there's no way I'm hitting those notes. So thank |
| 1:24.8 | heavens John's making a great recovery and is now back with his new album |
| 1:29.2 | Forever. While we were wondering to the studio we were talking about the phenomenon that is the Rolling Stones |
| 1:35.8 | because I just got back from New Jersey where John is from where I watched the Rolling Stones play at the Met Life Stadium, which was incredibly cool. |
| 1:45.0 | And it just so happens that Johnny is not only a massive fan of the Rolling Stones, but also |
| 1:48.5 | sees them as a bit of a bar, a benchmark as to how long you can keep going because the stones are definitely still going. |
| 1:56.7 | And it was so cool to talk to John about what leaving an enduring legacy means to him. And actually how to know when to call it quits. |
| 2:06.0 | Oh, this is a gooden. Enjoy! |
| 2:10.0 | Morgan Albright dreams of owning her own bar one day. |
... |
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