There’s only one place to call Jon Bon Jovi one of their own – and the musician believes his New Jersey heritage made him who he is.
On Thursday, April 25, 62-year-old Bon Jovi (real name: John Bongiovi Jr.) spoke during a screening of the film about how his identity is intertwined with the Garden State Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. “Who we are is what we are and where we come from,” Bon Jovi — who was born in Perth Amboy and founded the popular band in Sayreville — told the audience. “This is who I am.”
(Bon Jovi’s love and pride for his home state are undoubtedly deep-rooted: not only that his eponymous band titled their 1988 album New Jerseybut he also operates JBJ Soul Kitchen – his nonprofit community restaurants – in Red Bank and Toms River, with two other locations at New Jersey City University in Jersey City and Rutgers University in Newark.)
In the 90s, Bon Jovi and his wife Dorothea Hurley moved to California, where they bought a beach house in Malibu. However, he quickly realized that the West Coast wasn’t the right place for them. “I played the movie star game and said, ‘I don’t like this.’ “I don’t like these people,” says the father of four Stephanie30, Jesse28, Jake21, and Romeo, 19, with Hurley – recalled during the discussion at the iPic Theater in New York City. “[It was] Not for me, not for my wife, and we knew we had to get out of there to survive.”
Similar to the series, Bon Jovi credited fellow New Jersey legends Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for being accessible when the “Runaway” singer was just starting out. “You couldn’t imagine the concept of being in Led Zeppelin, but you looked down the street and there was Southside Johnny [and the] “E Street Band,” he said. “17 versions of Santa Claus walking around the bars at 16 and being allowed to touch one of them? This made the impossible possible.”
Jovi also addressed the decision to take cameras with him when Bon Jovi toured for the four-part docuseries in 2022. “As a band, we’ve never been afraid to express our feelings – we’ve just never necessarily had the platform on which to do so,” he shared thank you good night gives an insightful look at “births, deaths, marriages, divorces, addictions, breakups, makeups, the rise and the fall.”
“This is not my truth, it is our truth,” he continued, emphasizing that it is “important” to share the perspective of the entire group and not just the frontman. “Each of us has experienced it individually and so it will vary slightly.”
Meanwhile, Bon Jovi remains optimistic about the band’s future after undergoing vocal cord surgery in 2022. “It’s up to the Lord,” he added when asked what’s next. “Every day is another step on the road and we’ll see if I get there again or not, but I’m feeling more confident every day.”
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story is now streaming on Hulu