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Bon Jovi has 'universal appeal'
Posted: March 12, 2008, 7:59 PM by NP Editor

It seems Toronto is like bad medicine, and bad medicine is what Bon Jovi
needs. Tomorrow the rockers will set a new Canadian record by playing
the Air Canada Centre for the fifth time in the same tour, making it
the first time any touring act has played the same venue that many
times. To mark the special performance the band will be giving away
gifts, including a trip to London.

The National Post contributed to a conference call interview with the band back in
February, when they were first embarking on their sold-out tour to lay
audiences down on a bed of roses.

Their new album, entitled Lost Highway, started when the band went to Nashville “with a blank pad and a pen,” said Richie Sambora. “It’s the Hollywood of music.”

Half of the album was recorded in Nashville and half in L.A., which would
explain why it is the band’s first full-length country album.

“What prompted the interest in country is because with this style of music
it’s all about song writing,” said Richie Sambora. “And we fancy
ourselves good songwriters. Besides, Lost Highway is not a country
record, but more of a Nashville sound, and we’re on a constant quest of
evolution. I don’t think we’ll ever make an entire country album again,
but it always has been and always will be a piece to our sound.”

“Country’s not really a genre we’re going to follow,” added Tico Torres. “It was
really enjoyable to for us to play, but not a huge success with the
audience.”

While the band admits “tours are the best way to
promote albums,” they promised the concert would be more a greatest
hits album with a dash of support for Lost Highway.

Possibly the most successful band from an era that produced notorious glam
rockers Poison, Motley Crue and Cinderella, Sambora credits their
continued success to “good songs and great performances—that’s why
we’re still around.”

While they’ve shed the snakeskin of the ‘80s, they consider their new contemporaries to be more along the lines
of the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and the Foo Fighters, said Sambora.

“Our fans are from 6 to 60,” he said, “we just have that universal appeal.”

Bon Jovi play back-to-back shows in Toronto on Wednesday and Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre.- Jesse Kinos-Goodin/National Post