Jon Bon Jovi and his eponymous rock band have been “living on a prayer” for 40 years, taking a look back at their rollercoaster ride in the spotlight in a new limited series. Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.
The four-part series, premiering April 26 on Hulu and Disney+, follows the band from their breakout single “Runaway” in the early 1980s to the present day, as they prepare to release their 16th studio album, Foreveralthough their frontman suffered from vocal cord damage that required him to undergo surgery in 2022.
“Day in and day out, I work hard at it,” Bon Jovi told ET’s Nischelle Turner at iHeart Studios in Los Angeles, noting that he works hard on “vocal therapy” every chance he gets. “Nothing else matters until I work on getting better. At this point it is up to God. I did everything I could do.”
Despite the difficulties, the legendary frontman insisted he is not giving up and also assured: “I won’t fake it… the legacy is too important.”
“I won’t compromise who we are as a band live because I like to think we’re a damn good band,” he continued. “I sang on the new record. I did that.” MusicCares and I nailed it… When I woke up after that night, it was the first time in a decade that the only voice in my head was mine – no fear was there, no doubt was there – and [my wife] Dorothea texted the kids and said, ‘He’s back!'”
His health issues weren’t the only difficult issue he had to deal with Thank you good night. Bon Jovi and his band also had to deal with the death of original bassist Alec John Such, who died in 2022 after being released from the band in 1994 due to drug and alcohol problems.
The series is dedicated to Such, but some of the most tense and heartbreaking moments occur between Bon Jovi and his former bandmate Richie Sambora. During their chart heyday, the duo wrote many of Bon Jovi’s biggest songs together. However, Sambora left the group in 2013 and has only played with them once since then – at the band’s Rock and Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2018.
“There was never a fight,” Bon Jovi told ET about Sambora’s dispute with the band. “It was never about money, it was never about a girlfriend. He had problems…and literally didn’t show up. We played in front of 20,000 people and there’s a black hole on the stage.”
“Substance abuse or anxiety or single parenthood, all of these things weighed on him, the loss of his father. “It was all very difficult things,” admitted Sambora’s former bandmate. “But to be fair, why would I take away the livelihood of not only the band but also the 120 guys in the crew? Or the millions of people who bought a ticket? “Don’t you want to go to rehab?”
Ultimately, Bon Jovi said that he and Sambora actually watched the first three episodes of thank you good night together, and Bon Jovi said it was the first time he heard Sambora onscreen apologizing for his departure – adding that time helped heal their relationship.
“You read, you talk to experts, you sit with yourself, you learn to understand from a different perspective that your decisions were not made out of hostility either,” he reflected.
From that perspective, he noted, it wasn’t “hard” to say so about the in-depth documentaries — on which he neither serves as a producer nor has approval for the final cut.
“I have very few regrets. Mistakes are part of life and part of the journey,” he explained. “Also, I have no creative control over the editing, really didn’t want a puff piece and give the director and the producer the opportunity to create this film… Looking at some of the things that were said – that I may not agree with.” You – I never wanted to deny it because that is your truth.
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story Premiering April 26 on Hulu and Disney+.
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