They Say It's Your Birthday!

I was thinking about what I wanted to say this week about Bon Jovi and it hit me: Tomorrow is Jon Bon Jovi's birthday. Tomorrow Jon will be 50 years old. I can't believe it. It just seemed like yesterday when the band was in their early forties and now they're pushing fifty. It's hard to believe I've been listening to them for that long. I've been listening to Bon Jovi since 2005. In those seven years the band has produced three studio albums and has come out with loads of live special edition CDs. I felt like the 50th birthday of Jon Bon Jovi would be a good time to reflect on some of the bands major accomplishments.

Bon Jovi is unique compared to other bands in that they have something no other band has. Bon Jovi is a major corporate organization that is selling a brand.It's not a bunch of guys that dress up and play rock band every night. Bon Jovi is run by one person: Jon Bon Jovi. He is the president, he is the manager, he is everything. He has complete control of everything related to the band. All the other band memebers in Bon Jovi work for him. He pays them to play in the band and he can fire any of them if he feels their playing or behavior is unsatisfactory. This is the significant difference as to why Bon Jovi is different compared to other bands. In other bands every band member has a fair share as to what they want to happen. This doesn't happen in Bon Jovi. Jon runs the show. Obviously this comes off a little selfish but since the band formed Jon told everybody that this was his vision. His vision plus the other band members' made it their vision. Ever since then Bon Jovi has been extremely successful. Part of this reason is because Jon has constantly changed the music style of the band to keep up with the evolving music industry. This is probably the biggest reason why they've been successful for so long. All eleven of their albums sound completely different (Excluding their first two albums). They even won a country music award for their album Lost Highway in 2007 which made them the only Rock band to have ever won that kind of award at the time.

Another one of the band's accompishments is that from 1986 to 1990 the were statistically the biggest band in the world. They played more concerts and sold more tickets than any other band during that time period. This was because of the 1986 release of Slippery When Wet and the 1988 release of New Jersey. Slippery When Wet was the band's breakthrough album that put them on the track to international superstardom. This album sponded two number 1 hits (You Give Love A Bad Name, Livin' On A Prayer) and a top 10 hit (Wanted Dead Or Alive). The tour that ensued had them headline 130 shows and gross $28,400,000. After Slippery the band came out with New Jersey. New Jersey had five top 10 hits (Bad Medicine, I'll Be There For You, Born To Be My Baby, Lay Your Hands On Me, Livin' In Sin). During this tour Bon Jovi played 232 shows in 22 countries. They had sixteen months of touring. This tour almost caused the band to break up. They were all burnt out. However the band reconciled their differences and came back with Keep The Faith. The title track off that album is my favorite song and I'll be sure to write about it soon.

Tomorrow Jon Bon Jovi will be fifty years old. He's had a pretty amazing fifty years. He's built an organization that is now regconized all over the world and at one point in his life he could say he was apart of the biggest rock band in the world. Pretty amazing things to put on your resume. For fans like me, it's very interesting to see just what the next thing is Jon Bon Jovi has rolled up his sleeves.