Bon Jovi (5 page)

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER

Lost Highway
tour, XCEL Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, March 2008.
Phil Griffin

RICHIE:
My journey has been steadfast: to be Jon’s right-hand man. First and foremost, I try to always be there for him, as a friend, on a musical level, and from a business standpoint where he can use me as a mirror for himself.

We’ve always looked to Frank and Dean. Frank was the Chairman and Dean was the right-hand man. That’s the way it was. It was a dynamic duo.

Slippery When Wet
tour, 1986.
Mark “WEISSGUY” Weiss/www.markweiss.com

These Days
tour, backstage, 1995.
Mark “WEISSGUY” Weiss/www.markweiss.com

Rehearsal for
One Wild Night
tour, SIR Studios, Los Angeles, CA, March 18, 2001.
Sam Erickson

JON:
One of my few regrets is never having met Frank Sinatra. When you read the obituaries, the articles, and the books—and you hear the songs—you start to really realize what he stood for. That made such an impact on me. What he stood for in the civil rights movement—walking in the front door with Sammy in Vegas. What he did when he was at his lowest. He didn’t have a record deal, didn’t have a movie deal. That’s when he won the Academy Award. He ended up owning the record company. He put his guys together and created the Rat Pack for what was supposed to be a couple of years of fun and it changed the world.

He got a president elected, for God’s sake!

He fought for respect and he ultimately won it. He had the respect of his friends, his fans, his people.Yet he always had a chip on his shoulder.

But he could hang with princes and he could hang with paupers, and I like that about him. The guy was down and out but he kept coming back. He could have been just a teeny bopper idol. But ultimately, he became a king and he was always confident in who he was. Frank knew what he was, he knew what he did, and knew how to do it well. I thought that was pretty cool.

My mom got to meet Sinatra a few times when she was a Playboy Bunny. After I was making records, she went backstage at a Sinatra concert. She reintroduced herself to him and he made small talk about her kid, the singer from Jersey. She’d taken a
Rolling Stone
magazine with me on the cover and he signed it to me. I was like, “Oh, that’s nice, Mom.” Of course now I would have wanted to sit there for hours peppering him with questions. Especially, why’d you stay so loyal to those guys? I just love the idea of what he stood for.

Richie fits into the Dean role because he’s been the comic relief, but also the voice of reason. He would always be that shoulder I could lean on. In a partnership, writing a song, or as your pal, he’s the guy who has your back. If anyone were to ever say anything, Richie would be the first one to jump into the fray and punch him in the nose.

I liked how those guys supported each other throughout. But everyone knew Frank was the boss. He was the Chairman.

It seems to work in our little organization. It’s fascinating because if you consider our peer group when we broke big, it certainly wasn’t anything to latch onto. My peer group wouldn’t have known what the Rat Pack was, yet we just naturally fell into that model.

Dave gets to be there for the comic relief, the Sammy kind of brunt of the joke where he knows no one’s laughing at him. They’re laughing with him. Richie gets to play the character of Dino, though Tico’s really the guy who goes to bed early now.

From top: Snakeskin jacket in Richie’s quick-change tent; Dean Martin image in Richie’s quick-change tent; Frank Sinatra image in Jon’s quick-change tent. All three photos taken on
Lost Highway
tour, 2008.
Phil Griffin (all); Frank Sinatra image @ William P. Gottlieb; www.jazzphotos.com

RICHIE:
Part of what I do and what I’ve always done, consciously, is really try to bring a good feeling to the organization. I’m not a guy who is shy about saying, “Hey, I love you,” and giving you a hug.

If I can help Jon be in a great mood as much as possible, I’m going to do it. And that’s the responsibility I put on myself and the guys too. I always felt that I gave good band.

Taking care of the guys was part of my gig and it started to fall apart a little bit when I was broken and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t fulfill that responsibility to myself and the guys anymore. And that’s when they started to realize they needed to pick me up. And they did. With the shit that I’ve been going through in my life over the past couple of years, the karma is being paid back by my mates.

They are looking after me now. They pulled me out of the wreckage. Just because you’re a rock ‘n’ roll star, it does not make you exempt from life’s little tragedies. And obviously, my life is so good, how did I get caught up? How did I get tripped up? How did I get so broken? You’re supposed to be a man and not be broken when you’re older, but that’s false. That’s bullshit. When things mount up on you, those trials and tribulations that happen in your life, you need your best friends and family to keep you grounded. This is what this band is about. I needed help. I think it was a bad need. If it was anybody else in the band, we’d all do it, together. Everybody would join forces. That’s the secret of this band.

Contact sheet of candid outtakes from
Have A Nice Day
photo shoot, Brooklyn Navy Yards, Brooklyn, NY, June 28, 2005.
Olaf Heine

TICO:
That’s where the band comes in. We do that for each other. We try to watch each other’s back in every way. It saved my life.

DAVID:
Everybody knows now when to take a stand, when to make a move, when to stand up and say, “You’re wrong.” It’s safe for us to be open and honest with each other.

TICO:
Amongst ourselves, somebody always picks up the slack here, picks it up there; that’s what makes it work.

Photo shoot on location of “Everyday” video shoot, Very Large Array, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro County, NM, July 7, 2002.
Sam Erickson