At Mom's house, I gathered up the rest of my Bon Jovi stuff I had found, the pins, t-shirts, posters and piled them in the boxes with all the other items I brought back with me to Texas, china, photos, a few dolls, toys, and letters from me. Mom kept every card or letter I had sent to her after I moved out of the house. Four boxes full! I told ya; no spring cleaning. But I'm so thankful now I have all those cards and letters. We found she kept a lot from other relatives mixed in with them, from my dad who I lost ten years earlier, aunts, uncles.
I didn't think much about my old fascination with Jon and the boys until a girlfriend asked me in January (2006) if I'd like to go with her to one of their concerts. I didn't even realize they were still recording. I had stopped listening to them around the New Jersey album and had moved on to other heavy metal bands: Ratt, Queensryche, Skid Row, Metallica, Judas Priest. (I had gone through an angry phase as a young 20s something kid when I was running around with a bass player who wanted to make it big. I was the girlfriend who ran the lights for their shows in a few small bars around the college I was going to. Well maybe it wasn't an angry phase, but to the guys in my boyfriend's band, it was much cooler to listen to Queensryche than Bon Jovi so I had to kinda keep that on the down low. Here and there I'd listen to my favorite two albums on the way to my morning classes. I can still remember driving down certain roads in my home state listening to "Wanted Dead or Alive.")
When I got home from work that day and told my husband of thirteen years that I was going to a Bon Jovi concert with Suzanne, he replied, "A nostalgia tour? They're doing one too?" And that's what I thought too. What was it gonna be like with all those old songs. Did the guys even look that great to see? I hadn't seen Bon Jovi when I was a kid. I had missed their Slippery When Wet tour so I had hoped maybe someday I'd get to see them. But I wasn't exactly thrilled to go, eh a bunch of old musicians looking for their youthful memories of long ago. Oh well, Suzanne wanted me to go, so off we went.
Needless to say I was blown away immediately with the concert. That night in Dallas, Jon opened up the show with a song called "Last Man Standing" from their recent album, Have a Nice Day. He was standing on a platform in the middle of the sold-out crowd, some 20,000 people. And he was standing just a few feet from our seats. I got to see him up close and personal and I was dumbstruck all over again. He stood all alone on the platform in a black leather jacket stumming his acoustic guitar. His blond hair tossled but perfectly in place. I turned to my girlfriend after that first number and said, "I've seen it all. I could leave now and be happy."
She agreed because we were amazed we got to see him right up front. Of course, we stayed for the whole show and the two encores. I sang every song I knew and even tried to sing those I didn't know from the new album. I probably annoyed Suzanne cause I later heard a few clips I had videoed with my cell phone and I sounded just terrible trying to sing. :) It was too funny! But I had a great time which is always fun and delightful when you aren't expecting it. And after losing Mom only six months before I needed this type of release.
Bon Jovi's tour ended July 29th, a year to the day that Mom passed away. I don't know why I made note of that when I visited their website and signed up to their mailing list. I just did. When I got the bonjovi.com email that Jon was going to be on the Larry King Live show, I had to tune in. He talked about being in the music business for 22 years. He's 44 now, just seven years older than me. I hope to be that fit at that age. Why not!
What I still can't get over is that Jon's a normal guy. He knows he's good- looking but not in a way that he's vain about it. He smiles a lot when he hears women screaming at him or someone asks about how he keeps his hair so pretty. And that's just the role he plays when he's up on stage, entertaining the crowd, the entertainer. But being a rockstar isn't all he does, he does charity work, donates money to organizations and owns a hockey team. Other interests outside of music. He's now talking about doing another movie. I've seen almost all the movies he's been in this year.
Granted, I'll never meet Jon or any of the guys. I even missed the opportunity to see him again after the Have a Nice Day concert when he showed up for a "Have a Nice gig" audition. I even had my camera with me that day, unlike when we saw the band. But that's okay. I have no interest meeting him really. I'm happy with the fact that I wasn't disappointed with the concert and I'm really amazed to find out the more I read about Jon that he's such a down to earth guy, happily married with a family, someone you could sit down with and have a conversation with probably. He now seems very secure, confident, ready for the next challenge, driving his black Viper to the school meetings for his kids.
And his music, the band's music has progressed with time. They aren't all about re-living the past like some rock bands who can't give it up that they were mega stars once. I've already learned about a few more albums I want to buy. Music I wouldn't be interested in if I still listened to just hair metal or heavy metal which Bon Jovi never really was heavy in that cookie-monster-sounding sort of way.
And yeah, I have to confess since that's what this whole spill is about and that's what I titled it, I'm locked in again on Bon Jovi, especially Jon. I like diversions from reality some days. When I need to surf a little at work, I check out their site and see what the latest news is. I sing a few of their songs in my car on the way home and I just slip for a moment into a fantasy or two. Mom had a thing from Elvis and Clark Gable. My sister loves Bruce Springsteen. "We all need our fantasy guys," she told me when I was in for a recent visit.
My brother-in-law who became a fan with their latest album (Have a Nice Day) wants me to go with him to the next tour when they have one. So off again I'll go to see Jon and the guys. :) It'll be fun! I can't wait to see what my brother-in-law thinks of hearing 15,000 women screaming at Jon. That night it was so loud with high pitched screams that I thought surely this must have been what the Beatles invasion was like. And I was screaming too, can't deny that ;) What a fun concert it was!
And likely any new movie of his that comes out or album of the band's, I'll probably have to check it out. So there, there's my confession! 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can't be wrong, right? :P
Check out these links:http://www.bonjovi.com
Photos from their latest tour, Have a Nice Day
http://bonjovi.aeglive.com/photos.html
Jon Bon Jovi videos on YouTube.com
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jon+bon+jovi
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