Transcript: “Fame Is a Liar. Success Almost Broke Me” – Jon Bon Jovi on Dr Rangan Chatterjee Podcast

You know, and I don’t know what the target date is, but I’ll make it on the target date because I feel like I’m making progress every day.

The Ingredients of a Happy Life

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. The mission statement of the album is the song “Legendary,” and I’ll be listening to it again and again all week. And I’m someone who thinks a lot about the ingredients to a happy, meaningful, and purposeful life.

When I hear the bridge and chorus of “Legendary,” all the ingredients that I write about are in it. “I raise my hands up to the sky” – to me that speaks to something that’s greater than us. “Don’t need more to tell me I’m alive” – it speaks to appreciation. “Got what I want because I got what I need” – gratitude. “Got a festival of friends that will stand up for me” – friendship. “Right where I am is where I want to be” – contentment. “Friday night comes around like a song, Sweet Carolina, we all sing along” – joy. “Got my brown eyed girl and she believes in me” – the love of your wife.

Appreciation. Gratitude. Friendship. Contentment. Joy. And the love of someone. That’s it, isn’t it?

JON BON JOVI: That is the keys to a good and happy, healthy life. Yes. And I feel like I have all of those elements. Yes, most definitely.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Did you know when you wrote that that all the ingredients, or what I consider to be the ingredients for happiness and contentment, are literally contained within those six or seven lines?

JON BON JOVI: Well, I may not have broken it down the way you did, but I knew each line was a complete thought. You know, “I got what I want because I’ve got what I need” – if that was all the chorus was, that’s good enough for me. That’s it. That’s a complete thought. I don’t need anything else.

“Got a fistful of friends that’ll stand up for me” – boy, if that isn’t a complete thought and something that we all aspire to in our lives. Now you’re making me sing it. “Right where I am is where I want to be” – well, am I really vocally where I want to be? Well, pretty close. Not exactly, but pretty darn close. I’m in the room.

So I feel good about that. The progress, the process. “Friday night comes around like a song, it’s Sweet Caroline, we all sing along” – that kind of camaraderie and joy, that is my aspiration. That is the absolute only sole reason I’m sitting here in this interview today. Only sole reason I’m re-releasing this record and the sole reason I want to do another show again.

To seek joy, to hold hands with joy. And that’s the idea. “Got my brown eyed girl and she believed in me” – that was who got me through all this.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You’re speaking to Dorothea, your wife.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

The Secret to Long-Term Relationships

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And as I think about your life and your career, I think about relationships. So many people struggle with long-term relationships, yet you seem to be someone who, from the outside at least, does not. You have a 40-year or so relationship with your wife. You have a 40-year relationship or so with your band. What is it that you know about long-term relationships that many of us don’t?

JON BON JOVI: I don’t know if I know anything more than anyone else knows, but I knew ones that were worth fighting for. I knew ones that are two-way, give-and-take streets, which allows for growth and learning in the process.

So that leaves you with a sense of awe when you’re growing and learning from the others, and as well as an excitement to start a new day. So it mattered to me to take the time to nurture those relationships, to be giving and to get. It has to be two-way.

But whether it was the band who had faith – and all the members of the band that are either with us or no longer with us – and certainly with my wife, they mattered and it was worth working on and fighting for.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: I think everything in life has a cost.

JON BON JOVI: Yes.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: What is the cost of being Jon Bon Jovi?

The Price of Success

JON BON JOVI: The cost has been worth it. Okay. But the sacrifice that you make is you had to work when others didn’t always want to work. You had to, you know, maybe carry a little more of the burden that was self-imposed, but you had to learn how to love. You had to learn how to be a friend. You have to learn how to accept a friend.

When, you know, you might think I could just put up my dukes and carry this burden all by myself – we cannot carry that water all by ourselves. We need people to help us on this journey.

The journey has been long. I’ve lived it. I’m proud of all the peaks and the valleys. There’s nothing I’ve done that I’m truly embarrassed by or anything like that. I’ve had long-lasting relationships and friendships. And even if business acquaintances are no longer part of the fold, it doesn’t mean that there was any ill will.

So if you live a good life, you’re living a truthful life. You’re living a life that you can look in the mirror and be proud of. That’s all I can ask, you know? And so whatever cost I had to pay for that was worth it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. For a fan like me, you have literally impacted my life in more ways than you could possibly imagine. I remember getting my A-level results, learning I’ve just gotten to medical school, got in my car, put the radio on. First song that comes on is “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night.” And I’m like, yes, come on, right? And I could give you a million different examples of that.

And I was thinking this week, what is it about Bon Jovi? What is it about what you guys do that leads to this kind of hero worship where we follow everything you do, everything you say? What do you – I’ll tell you what I think it is, but I’d love to – tell me, what do you think it is?

JON BON JOVI: I’ll be curious.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: What do you think it is?

Exporting Optimism to the World

JON BON JOVI: The music exported optimism. For the longest time, we were America’s greatest exporter of optimism. We took that optimism to places that didn’t even speak the language. You know, you could go to the Soviet Union and win hearts and minds with a language that wasn’t even native to their tongue, and win hearts and minds in South America and African nations. So that was a real thing.

And I think we also represented that American pop culture dream of fun. That kind of, if we can do it, you can do it too. You know, all of that was a part of it. And then I grew up in front of you. You know, I may have been a little older, but I was just on the journey just ahead of you on the road.

So you could see that as something that you looked up to, the way I’ve looked up to my heroes. They were just further on down the road, and we’re all on the same journey. So just because I got there before you, I could look back over my shoulder and say, yeah, this is about to happen. And you’d go, whoa. But I wasn’t a fortune teller. I just got there before you.

And the journey goes on. You know, I’m questioning things the way anyone else is today. But now that the road, it’s making everybody play on a level playing field again. The globe in these trying times – one great thing is the safety net of you always could rely on that lyric. Well, now I could rely on you. I know that you got my back too.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. I want to read you something, if it’s okay, from my latest book.

JON BON JOVI: Please.

A Fan’s Perspective

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: This is my sixth book, and this is how I’ve started chapter two. Long before I knew I was going to be talking to you on my podcast, okay? When I was a teenager, I wanted to be Jon Bon Jovi. My bedroom walls were covered in posters of the singer and his band, and one of my prized possessions was a huge silk Bon Jovi flag that I had pinned up next to my desk.

I honestly thought that if I could be Jon Bon Jovi, my life would be perfect. I mean, what wasn’t to like? He was successful, handsome, talented, and wealthy. He had cool tattoos and hordes of screaming fans. He appeared to be constantly performing in stadiums all over the globe, and he was the center of attention wherever he went. To me, a typical teenage boy, the everyday life of Jon Bon Jovi sounded like heaven on earth.

That’s what got me into you and your music. But over the last week, I’ve been thinking about it. I think, what is it about them? Why have I gone 33 times to see these guys in concert? Why when you play Shepherd’s Bush Empire and tickets were like gold dust and I couldn’t get tickets, why did I go down to Shepherd’s Bush at 9am and spend 10 hours and I got the only ticket from a scalper that day? There was only one available, and I managed to get it about half an hour before showtime.

This is a crazy level of hero worship. And I’m a bit older now, so I can reflect. And I think it was the music for sure. It was your voice, but I think it was the belief that I could listen to your lyrics and feel that I believe every word that he’s singing. Yeah, the passion, the intensity – I think it did something inside of me. I saw in you what I knew I had within me.

JON BON JOVI: That’s right. Yeah. Because I was further on down the road than you are. I was just saying, come on. And we grew up at a time when, in fact, I was taught to believe that you can achieve. I was born at a time when President Kennedy was in office in America. We had two working parents at our house that said that you can go and be whatever you want to be.

And then I carry that as the mantle for the band and as the flag. And those are the lyrics that I felt comfortable writing.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: You know, and music resonates. Music creates sound waves. Those sound waves got into your skin and they moved your soul in a way that you didn’t realize it was being moved. And it made you optimistic and believing in yourself. And that’s a good thing.

You know, some songs can make you sappy, and some songs could make you angry. Our songs made you happy, and that was a good thing. It made you optimistic.

Staying True to Optimism

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. And it wasn’t always cool to write happy songs, right? There were times where the trends were going a bit more depressing, a bit more introspective. You know, maybe the grunge movement of the 90s. You guys have always pretty much put out positive messages to the world. You can be an unashamed optimist because a lot of bands won’t do that.

You also said something that I found really profound, which is you have sung songs to people who maybe don’t even know the meaning of some of those words, but they were still smiling back at you.

JON BON JOVI: Right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Your career has gone through a seismic shift in the way the world operates. You were touring in the 80s. There was no Internet, there was no smartphones, there was no social media. So in a world that does seem so divided at the moment, what do you think you’ve learned over the years by singing your songs to millions of people around the world?

The Universal Language of Hope

JON BON JOVI: Everybody wants shoes on their feet, food on their table, roof over their head, someone to love, the opportunity to dream, to not be oppressed or suppressed. That they want to believe that they may not be the best at anything, but can always win. Doesn’t everybody want that? You know, doesn’t everybody just want that?

And even on a record like 2020, where I was talking about a lot of topical stuff, gun violence and Donald Trump and Covid and, you know, George Floyd, there was still Limitless on that record. You know, life is limitless. You know, there still had to be optimism in the face of Covid. It had to. Because without that hope, we’re doomed to failure and darkness. We have to try to find the light in the darkest of times.

So where I said that we were the exporters of optimism, and then it got to a place where a lot of people were talking about optimism. After that grunge movement, a lot of the pop movement came around to that optimism. Now in these times, it’s going to be interesting to see what people are going to write in the next year or two. You know, it’s daunting for me not to want to sit down and write more topical things, but I really want to feel some joy again in my life, so I’m keeping it away.

Yeah, but everybody wants the same thing, Rangan. Everybody wants the same thing.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Listening to a song like “Bed of Roses” almost has a different meaning now when I think about this. “And a king’s ransom in dimes I’d give each night to see through this payphone.” A payphone is something that my kids will never ever have to use, probably. So this idea that you could be on tour thousands of miles away from home and the only way you could communicate and talk to your wife is by putting in some dimes into a pay phone. It was quite an evocative image this week for me because that’s a world that doesn’t exist anymore.

Technology: Blessing and Curse

JON BON JOVI: No, no, no, no. Pictures that are instantaneous. A world that has brought us all closer together. The blessing has become the phone, the supercomputer in your pocket that gives you access to any and everything in the snap of a finger. ChatGPT, my best friend, is going to be our worst enemy. You know, holy Christmas.

The loneliness that the kids are finding in that little box because they’re afraid to not be up to the standard of looking that way or sounding that way or the attention span of an audience to listen to a song. Instead of giving me three and a half minutes, if I don’t have 10 seconds and a TikTok move, chances are they’re not going to get to the song.

World’s changed. We have political leaders that aren’t motivators, they’re aggressors. But we still have to find a common thread in this anxiety ridden time. And I think that that crazy word that I never heard before 10 years ago is the word that will allow us to come back together by simply admitting that in this darkness. Who’s dark? Me, me, me, me, me. Do we want to find the light? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Then we find the “we” instead of the “me” in the sentence. And then we can get through this. Yes.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Rock and roll has always brought people together, hasn’t it?

JON BON JOVI: Music does. It is the international language.

The Power of Live Music

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And although I didn’t go to any of the Oasis shows this summer because I was away, what was kind of interesting for me is certainly in the UK there was this incredible movement around Oasis this summer. A band who hadn’t performed live for a long time.

JON BON JOVI: Right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And it was almost a sense of nostalgia from people who went to the show. I think you went to see them in New Jersey, right?

JON BON JOVI: I did.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And I think that’s the power of music. I think those shows in the summer, and I’m hoping your shows next summer, which I can’t wait for, hopefully, can be an antidote to the times in which we’re living.

JON BON JOVI: Right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You know, joy, collective effervescence, where people come together in shared purpose and sing along. I mean, I can remember coming out of countless Bon Jovi shows feeling like I could take on the world.

JON BON JOVI: Good.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Like, with a big smile on my face, going, right, I can do anything I want.

JON BON JOVI: Good, good, good.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You know? And is that intentional for you guys when you’re up on stage?

JON BON JOVI: That’s how we felt. Yeah. I wasn’t preaching the gospel according to someone else. It was our gospel. If I could do this, you could do this, too. Yeah, absolutely true. Yeah. And that’s all the messaging was. As I got older and wiser and I could be the narrator and talk about topical issues, that became by choice, but the optimism was, it was our calling card.

Evolution as a Songwriter

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. As a songwriter, it’s really interesting for me to see how you’ve evolved over the years, and I think there’s some just utterly beautiful songs on Forever. I particularly love the new duet with Bruce. I think the Jelly Roll one, I think, is my favorite on the album. I just think that is just his voice in the second verse adds such a different energy to the song.

But when I was listening to “Hollow Man” again this week, when, with the new version and the harmonica was there, I thought that wasn’t there on the original. I went back to listen to the original. This sounds like a Springsteen song.

JON BON JOVI: It does now.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Now with his voice on it, which shows you the, you know, just how important the singer is to a band.

JON BON JOVI: Yes. Yes. I couldn’t have written that song 30 years ago. I didn’t have the life to, you know, have lived that song.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: When I wrote it, amongst a whole lot of other songs for this record, I played the demos for Bruce and he’d called me the day after and said, “Man, that song ‘Hollow Man’s’ really special.” So I was able to then use that, you know, when I called him and said, “Would you do it as a duet with me?” And by the way, knowing that, you know, this revisiting of Nebraska and all, it says, I would really like a harmonica on it. Why don’t you do it like this?

And he did what he wanted to do, but I wanted it on there, so he did that for me. And, you know, it’s one of my really good songs.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: It’s a special song. And the way he harmonizes with you in the, oh, it’s utterly gorgeous.

JON BON JOVI: Thank you.

Progress vs. Change

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Songwriting. In a recent interview, you said that you don’t like change.

JON BON JOVI: Sure. And I don’t like progress, not change.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You like progress, not change. But it’s really interesting. Not many bands from the 80s have endured in the way that you guys have.

JON BON JOVI: That’s true. That’s true.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And I hear someone who says, “I don’t really like change.” And then I listen to Slippery and Wet in New Jersey in the 80s, the band has a little break. Keep the Faith sounds like a completely different sound of album compared to Slippery, New Jersey. Not only that, that’s in ’92. Three years later, when you come back with These Days, that is just a masterpiece from start to finish with a completely different sound again. So help me understand this idea that you don’t like change, yet you were able to change with every album.

JON BON JOVI: Evolution is not change. It’s progress. And I wouldn’t want to, at 35, be writing the songs that we wrote when I was 25. Slippery, I was 24, 25. And by ’95, I was 33, 34 years old. So you better evolve as a man and as a songwriter, because otherwise you’re going to be the guy that got stuck when grunge came along.

And suddenly my peer group are wearing flannel shirts because they think that’s going to fool the audience. That was career suicide. We didn’t worry about the grunge movement. We just evolved. And, you know, as songwriters and as grownups and as family men and as men, that evolution caused us to write a little deeper and wider and better.

But, you know, I love how glowingly people look on the These Days record now. And I really like it too. And the songwriting is great. At the time, because it wasn’t as commercially successful as the records before it, people were like, “Wow, that record didn’t do as well.” Well, now they look on it and they go, “Wow, what a wonderful album.” Well, we thought it was a pretty wonderful album, too, but it didn’t sell as well as New Jersey and Slippery. So with time, it suddenly put up on this mantle. And that’s the thing about history. It’s revisionist.

Redefining Success

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, but that’s really interesting, isn’t it? It didn’t sell as well. Okay, so let’s just talk about success.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Because when you’ve had an album like Slippery One, where, and for people who maybe are not as familiar with your career as I am, that was probably the biggest album on the planet that year.

JON BON JOVI: The biggest record of the year.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So you were literally on radios in every country around the world just going stratospheric, basically. The thing that every band probably dreams of, that was happening, including us, at the same time. To achieve all your dreams in your 20s can be a dangerous place to be. We see this with many sportsmen, how they really struggle at the end of their career.

I once spoke to arguably one of the best rugby players in the world called Johnny Wilkinson. And in 2003, he scored the winning goal in the World Cup final to give him the World Cup. But when he came on my podcast, Jon, what he said to me was, even before the ball had gone through the goal, he was starting to come down. He had 10 years of anxiety, depression after that. And in some ways, reaching his dream so early was a problem, because what do you do next, right?

Now, so in that context, your third album goes stratospheric, you’re still here 40 years later. If you define success purely on album sales or downloads, like, it’s very hard to do that again, isn’t it? So how do you define success these days?

JON BON JOVI: Well, these days it’s going to be different than it was between Slippery and New Jersey. But unlike Johnny with that goal, I would have said, “Well, we’re going to win the championship next year or I’m going to die trying,” you know, and hence New Jersey, or with Keep the Faith that the reinvention in the face of grunge, that wasn’t as commercially successful as Slippery, but it reinvented us, and we were very proud of that.

And not only did we survive grunge, but we thrived. Then I write “Always,” which is a monster song which keeps us going into what became These Days. So the trajectory was steady. We stayed true to who and what we were. We worked as hard as we did yesterday towards getting to tomorrow. We didn’t try to live up to Slippery because there was a moment in time.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: And it was what they said about success or failure of a record, that was on them, that wasn’t on us. Our thing was about do what it was that made you feel good.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: It’s a dangerous place to be, isn’t it? If you are judging success purely on outcomes.

JON BON JOVI: Because eventually you’re going to basically do the Macarena because that’s the biggest song in the world at the time, you know, and now you’re going to be selling your soul to do TikToks today. No, you know, that’s not, yeah, that’s not the right reason. That’s not the motivation. The motivation should be soul fulfilling stuff, not gratification. It should be things that move your body, the resonance of the song, not just the cash cow.

Writing for Yourself

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Who do you write a song for?

JON BON JOVI: Me. Me. That’s it. “Hollow Man” couldn’t be more selfish. “Legendary.” The lyrics of all these songs couldn’t be more selfish. Me, me, me, me, me. You know, that’s it. With the hope that someone else will like it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: I once spoke to Rick Rubin on this podcast and he said to me that you cannot make great art with the audience in mind.

JON BON JOVI: Right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Which I completely agree with. When I’m writing books or even, you know, when I write songs myself. You write them for you.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You know, they say, don’t they, in writing, that the most personal is the most universal.

# Fame Is a Liar. Success Almost Broke Me – Jon Bon Jovi’s Most Honest Interview Yet

The Power of Authentic Songwriting

JON BON JOVI: That’s correct. Because everyone else is feeling that same thing. It’s the ones that come from your deepest place that are most likely to resonate with the crowd because they’re living that same shared experience.

I can sit here and craft a song with you, and the rhymes can be Moon, June and spoon, and it’ll sound like a record, but if it doesn’t move you in your belly and think that I’m going to want to sing this in 40 years from now, there’s no point in doing it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You just mentioned whether you want to sing a song 40 years after that you have written it. And of course, you’ve just announced after a tricky few years that you guys are going back on the roads.

JON BON JOVI: Right?

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And it was kind of interesting. I heard you on our mutual friend Chris Evans’ show a few days ago, and I don’t know if I read this right or not, but you almost seem to suggest that, let’s see what happens when the tickets go on sale. You know, will they shift?

There was a… I don’t know whether you losing your voice over the last years has really shaken your confidence, because we’re all looking at these tickets that are going to literally disappear on announcement. And as I shared with you before we started recording this morning at 9am, I was on the pre-sale link and as I got on, I was on at 8:45. I was early. By the time I got in, I was 140,000th on the list to get tickets to Wembley. There’s only 80,000 tickets available.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So there is clearly a demand. Do you know what I mean? So are you surprised to hear that?

JON BON JOVI: Sure, but I’m pleased. Yeah, I’m surprised. I’m surprised in as much as it’s been a little while. I’m pleased because the reputation of myself and the band has spoken to people in such a manner that they would be on the queue at 15 minutes before it goes on.

Yeah, I’m pleased, but I’m surprised. And now it’s up to me to be ready when the bell rings, you know, to come out of the corner and be ready.

The Beginning of Vocal Struggles

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about your vocal issues. Clearly, very traumatic time for you. When did you first realize something was off with your voice?

JON BON JOVI: Realistically, 2015. 2013 was the year that Richie left the band. We went on and did another 80 shows when, you know, he surprised us by not showing up. And then 2014 was a year of kind of turmoil, you know, uncertainty.

2015, I tried to do a couple shows and it just wasn’t working. And I thought, oh, it’s because I’d been laid off for so long. I sought out medical help. And in truth, the doctor, I’m not sure knew what the hell he was doing because he was like, “I don’t know.” That was his answer. And I could tell something wasn’t right.

2016 we put out “This House is Not for Sale.” We do some 40 or so shows only, and they’re fine. But I could tell, again, something’s not right.

Covid hits, which restricts us from going on the road. I wrote a narrative record. We put out “Legendary,” you know, the “Forever” album in 2024. And after the surgery, it’s not right yet.

So it’s been a long slog and, you know, I just have to embrace… So much of my learning in these last few years has been about excellence, not perfection. And knowing that I’ve planted the seeds, you know, I’ve built the house already. I’m good. It’ll be good.

Believing that is another thing. And then letting it go, you know, so I’m sort of dealing with all that on a daily basis, but it’s getting better and better and better daily because the physical is better, the mental is better, and the spiritual has always been good.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Did you ever have to think about your voice before this happened?

JON BON JOVI: No. Even if it went awry, even if I was, you know, in my youth burned out and out there on steroids, I didn’t know any better. I didn’t think about it. I wasn’t worried about it. It’s like, yeah, it sounds like poop, but I’m not worried about it. It’s going to come back.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Confidence of youth.

JON BON JOVI: The confidence of youth. Yeah.

The Cost of Raw Passion

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Because there’s many singers who’ve struggled with their voice. Obviously, Steven Tyler had to hang up his boots recently. And I wonder, is there something about the 80s rock vibe in the sense that singers today, let’s say Ed Sheeran or Chris Martin, when they hit the high notes, they’re often going into falsetto.

You never did that. You were in full throat voice. I mean, I’ve fallen in love again this week with “My Guitar Lies Bleeding in My Arms.”

JON BON JOVI: Oh, wow. Thank you.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: That could well be my favorite Bon Jovi song of all time. Although I’ve got about 50 top three favorites. So it depends on the day, but in the choruses, you go up an octave. I’m like, how is he singing that high in full throat?

And then when I think about these back-to-back 240-day tours that you did in the 80s, I’m like, well, maybe that’s the cost. Maybe the cost of actually that rawness, that passion that we all fell in love with, maybe there’s only so many times you can do that. Do you know what I mean? I don’t know.

JON BON JOVI: I don’t know either. I’ll let you know.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. So what does success look like for your tour next year?

JON BON JOVI: My ultimate goal that I put up for myself was to be able to sing anything in the catalog that I want to sing. And I’m pretty close to that.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Can I just ask you on that point? This is really interesting. So you said in multiple interviews that your standard is two and a half hours, four nights a week.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Because that’s what you guys have done. I’ve been to shows where I think you play for three hours. But why does that still need to be the standard? Like, no one would mind if you were like, you know what, those four songs are great, but I can’t hit them anymore. So we’ve still got another 40 hits. Do you know what I mean? So to a fan, I’m like, to us, I don’t think it matters. But why do you think it matters to you?

JON BON JOVI: Maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know yet. I’m good with that. You know, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do a different set list, but, you know, I can assure you that I’m singing “Prayer” every day and hitting the high notes.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, I am.

JON BON JOVI: I do. Every day. No problem. It works. So we’re okay.

A Memorable Moment at Anfield

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, I can’t wait. I mean, I can’t wait to see it. You know, the last time I saw you guys live was the last time you were in the UK, in 2019 when you played at Anfield.

JON BON JOVI: Right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And I took my son, who at the time would have been, what, nine years old. And I’d say, actually, this is really interesting. You’re probably pleased to hear this. We read about the organization and how there’s a lot of loyalty in the organization.

Let me tell you something that happened at Anfield. I was really excited to show my son Bon Jovi, this band he’s heard so much about from his dad. And we were in the standing area, and a security guy comes over and says, “He’s too young. You got to go. You got to go up to the tiers.” We have our tickets. I was like, I don’t want to be up there.

And one of your guys who was doing the video, he just called us in. He said, “Don’t worry, he can sit here with me.” So my son literally stood behind in the little square where one of the guys videoing it, he stood just behind him and he watched the whole show, and he was standing next to him.

JON BON JOVI: Beautiful.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Do you think that comes from the top? Because I was really impressed with that. I thought, Jon doesn’t know this has just happened, but I’d love to be able to tell him one day that it was such a beautiful thing.

JON BON JOVI: It’s a beautiful thing.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So why do you think your guy did that?

JON BON JOVI: That’s the organization that comes from the top. That’s who we are. That’s what we are. That’s the kind of people we hire. That’s what I expect.

And I want the people that work for me to represent who we are, and I want the people that work for me to be a part of what it is that we do and feel that pride in what they do. So that connection is real because it’s what we exude. That’s the messaging that we give them to share with that crowd. Yeah, absolutely.

Health as a Wake-Up Call

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. You never had to think about your voice until it went. I’ve been a doctor for 23 years and I’ve seen so many times people who never, ever took their health seriously until something happens.

So the 52-year-old executive who kept working and kept pushing and thought he could just do it all until he has the heart attack, or the 46-year-old mother who never, ever did anything for herself, everything was for her husband, her children, her parents, her community until she comes down with the autoimmune disease.

JON BON JOVI: Right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: But I’ve also heard many times people say that my disease or my diagnosis was my greatest gift. Now, you have to say that with sensitivity because it’s only a greatest gift if you come out the other side. So I have had patients with cancer before who told me afterwards that was the best thing that ever happened to me because…

JON BON JOVI: Yeah, because part. Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: They look at their life differently. So I guess with that in mind, I know losing your voice was incredibly painful. It was your thing. It’s what you’re known for all over the world. But was there an upside?

The Cost of the Journey

JON BON JOVI: All of these trials and tribulations from 2014 on are part of the journey which have made me a better man than I would have been otherwise. I’m aware of that. It’s a hell of a cost. And it’s not cancer, you know, so, yeah, I get it.

And to come out the other side and the way I’m feeling with joy and gratitude and knowing that I don’t have to carry the burden, but it’s we, not me. And all the kind of things I’ve learned in the last couple years through this process will make it that much better.

Because even the reward of it, whatever the it may be, let’s call it the applause of the crowd. Okay. Or the idea that I get to take the bow with happiness in my heart at the end, it’s not just me that’s going to take the bow. You’re going to take it being in the audience. Because you’re going to go, my man did it. Yeah. Your son’s going to do it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: I’m semi tempted to come for the first Madison Square Garden show because I’m thinking that’s going to be. That’s the first date of the tour, and I’m thinking, too much.

JON BON JOVI: But we’re not going to go. You know, don’t even go there. Don’t put too much weight on it. I don’t want that weight. I don’t want any of those burdens any longer. It isn’t me. It’s we. I’m doing this for us.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. Because you don’t need to do it, do you?

The Spiritual Resonance of Performance

JON BON JOVI: Yes. But as a doctor and as a wise man, I want you to take that thought and consider what you just said. Because when people say that to me, I’m so confused by it, because they go, well, you’ve got fame, you’ve got money, you’ve got the. That’s not why we do this.

We do it for that spiritual resonance that happens when the song vibrates and you feel that connection to it or to the band or the band with the crowd, and vice versa. Metaphorically speaking, I’ve realized this. I say I get to hold the light. I’ve dreamt about a light like this. My job is to hold it. The band’s power is powering it. We shine it on that crowd. I get the reward of the reflection. That’s it. That’s all I want. Yes. I don’t need anything else.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: When I say you don’t need to do it. Throat surgery is super hard. You are like an athlete having to rehabilitate your voice.

JON BON JOVI: Right?

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Right. But you’ve also said that being a singer of a rock band is not who you are. It’s just something that you do, and it’s something that you do very well. So when I say you don’t need to do it, what I mean is that you seem to have so many other interests outside rock and roll family. You’re a father, your soul foundation, your business with your son, whatever it might be. Right.

People often say, don’t they, that athletes should retire at the top. I spoke to Eli Kipchoge a few months ago. He’s the fastest marathon runner of all time. He’s run a marathon in under two hours. And then I also spoke to him two days after he did the London Marathon, where he came seventh, and he was still full of pride and joy. He’s like, yeah, I don’t do it just to win. I do it because I love running. I want to show the world that actually the world is a happier place when we all run and we experience joy.

So I guess what I’m trying to get to is this idea that people, fans, the media can put expectations on you, but ultimately all that matters is, why do you want to do it? That’s true. And if you want to do it, that’s good enough for anyone.

JON BON JOVI: Right. And you’re prepared. You know, I mean, he ran that marathon because he can, because he’s trained for it, because he’s not just showing up and singing in the shower. You know, he can do it. So he came in seventh. So what? Who cares?

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

Nothing Left to Prove

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Can you tell me about the T-shirt your friend Obi O’Brien gave to you and why you wouldn’t wear it?

JON BON JOVI: “Nothing left to prove.” Yeah, well, because I think at the time he gave it to me, I felt like if I wore it, it was almost like quitting. And that was pre-surgery, and I wasn’t ready to give up on me. So I did the surgery with no idea that it was going to be the three and a half years of recovery.

But I didn’t wear it for that reason. Now I do wear the shirt, but it has a different meaning to me now. You know, I had to do that surgery for me. Not even for getting back out on this big stage. I just had to do it. You know, if I can sing great in the shower, that would have been cool. That was good. You know, that was fine.

But the kind of bravado of “nothing left to prove,” chip on my shoulder, me against the world. Been there, done that. I don’t need that. I don’t need that. It’s not about that.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, because you really do, from a musical perspective, have nothing left to prove. I mean, you have achieved all the milestones that any band could dream of. You played every venue. You’ve closed the old Wembley Stadium. You’re playing the new one next year. You’ve done Hyde Park. So you don’t have to prove it to anyone else. Is there a part of you that wants to prove it to yourself?

JON BON JOVI: The only thing that I would say about that, if it’s at all proving it to myself, as I would remember as a child, if I would run nine-tenths of a mile and I just stopped before the goal line. Somewhere in my traumatized head, I would say I didn’t finish the race. Yeah, I don’t have to win the race, but I did want to finish the race.

And so there was a time when it was very important to me to finish the job. So this surgery has changed some of the perspective. And as long as I can approach it with joy in my heart and good health, then I have to do it. You just have to. With no expectations. Do not focus on the expectation, just the moment. And if I can remember everything I’ve read and learned in the last three plus years, we’re good.

Growing Old Gracefully

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. When you lose something that you have never had to think about before, your voice, we suddenly realize that we’re a fallible human that things can go wrong. Yeah, but you know, you’re 63 years old. I mean, in my world, longevity is huge. Right. Everyone’s talking about how to live longer now. How do you see longevity? How do you see the fact that you’re getting older now when you’ve had something as serious as vocal surgery?

JON BON JOVI: Right, right, right. The craze now in social circles with the affluent is to try to live forever. Right. All these rich billionaires, you know, they can’t buy time and so they’re trying to create the Dr. Evil’s magic potions. I’m not seeking that out.

I don’t mind growing old gracefully, but I am going to take care of myself in real time during it. That’s important to me. I feel good. So I’ll do the exercise, but I’m not going to take 99 vitamins that I don’t know if they work and this concoction and go to that country to get that special needle. I’m not really chasing the fountain of youth.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: That strikes me as something you’ve always had. Even back in 2000 when Crush came out.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So one of my favorite songs again is just “Older.” And you write in that song, you know, “I like the skin I’m sleeping in. I’m not old, just older.” You were writing that in your 40s. Right. So the sense of gratitude and appreciation has always been there.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And where does that come from? Because a lot of people don’t. Right.

JON BON JOVI: Well, I don’t know who a lot of people are. I know what I believe and I’m grateful for it. Always have been. Yeah. Don’t take it for granted. You shouldn’t.

Fame Is a Liar and a Thief

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. What do people misunderstand about fame?

JON BON JOVI: Fame is a liar and a thief. Fame will ruin you if you buy into it. It will tell you things that you shouldn’t have believed. And it’ll take from you things that you never wanted to lose. You got to tame that pony quick before it gets the best of you. Like it had to so many people. That’s why the 27 Club. How many young of the greats died because they couldn’t handle the ride? I wasn’t interested in that.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: The fact that many of your peers seem to struggle with fame, I mean, it’s a rock and roll cliché. I think about the fact that you have been with Dorothea, or you’ve known Dorothea, your wife, since you were in high school.

JON BON JOVI: Correct.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So she knew you before you were Jon Bon Jovi. To people like me.

JON BON JOVI: Yep.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Let’s go back to “Legendary” for a minute. Second verse. “I know this town like the back of my hand. Every crack in the sidewalk tells me who I am.” Even the fact that you still live in New Jersey, that you’re not in LA or you’re not in, I don’t know, the media hub of the world. How important do you think New Jersey and Dorothea are?

JON BON JOVI: Oh, hugely to this. Huge.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Huge.

The Importance of Partnership

JON BON JOVI: It’s a lot easier to have gotten lucky, as I did, than to wonder if the lady, you know, sleeping next to you is there for the right reasons. And, you know, and when you’re crying at night, which often happens, that somebody’s there to hold your hand when you’re hurting. Because believe me, you know, I’ve had a lot of hurt and, you know, it’s not easy, but you support each other and she supported me and I’ve needed it, you know, it’s been tough, but that’s what partnerships are.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. In 2022, when you were on the roads, that 15 day tour.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Where you were really struggling with your voice, people are commenting online, people are talking about Jon Bon Jovi’s voice. What was it like for you to, I don’t know, read some of that criticism?

JON BON JOVI: I’d be honest, I’d be lying if I told you that it didn’t hurt, but it did. And in truth, you know, you had to really try hard not to look at it and to convince yourself that it’ll get better tomorrow, it’ll get better tomorrow, it’ll get better tomorrow. And it wasn’t from neglect, it was, you know, it just was broken. And you couldn’t have fixed it. Nothing could have fixed it. It was not easy. No, it sucked.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And of course, Dorothea was there, to be honest with you, wasn’t she?

JON BON JOVI: Sure.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You know, I think you said that you came off one night thinking, yeah, I think it was pretty good.

JON BON JOVI: Right. I came off the stage in Nashville and I really psyched myself up to try to be great because it’s Nashville, it’s my friends.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: And I came off thinking, you know, all right, that was pretty good. And she says, no, it’s not, you know, I know when you’re good. And that hurt because I thought that was the end of it, because I’ve tried everything.

And I’m telling you, from a dietary gluten, sugar, booze, dairy, exercise, tons and tons of vitamins, acupuncture, guys on the road, two different singing teachers, two and a half hours of singing before the show just to try to warm it up to a place where it could go 30, 45 minutes after the show, plus the two and a half hour show. It’s not easy. Yeah. But I’ve gotten through it. I’m past it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. It reminds me of a little bit of my own wife. She’ll tell me, like, I don’t think that’s very good. You know, you can do better, of course. And you want that because not many people who are going to tell you that.

JON BON JOVI: Of course.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, yeah.

JON BON JOVI: That’s hugely important. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.

The Impact of Modern Technology on Creativity

JON BON JOVI: It’s getting in the way of the world. You know, they’re getting in the way of your self-esteem. They’re getting in the way of you being a creative. They’re getting in the way of your politics. You’re getting in the way of influencing who and what we are. Because if an algorithm that they’re feeding you, that isn’t necessarily the truth. You know, the gift is the curse. Like I said, you have a supercomputer in your pocket, but unless you tame it, it’s going to break you. And so does that get in the…

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Way of your songwriting?

Meeting Your Heroes

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: It’s interesting for me, Jon. Yeah. I’ll be honest with you. This interview was a really funny one for me to prepare for. I’ve been doing this show for almost eight years. I spoke to all kinds of people, some of the best people in their field in the world, some super famous people like Matthew McConaughey. But I’ve never spoken to someone who was literally on my wall for two decades. And I would see space looking at me, right?

And so I had this really weird thing today because I’ve evolved. I’m not that person anymore. I’m not that boy. You know that chat where I read the first paragraph to you before, from my book, it’s all about, but heroes can be helpful, but they’re not real in the sense that you’re only seeing one aspect of their life.

JON BON JOVI: That’s right.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So you don’t know everything. You think you want to be them, but you don’t know. And they say, don’t they? They say, never meet your heroes. You’ve met quite a few of your heroes in life.

JON BON JOVI: Yes.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Has that been a good thing or has it sometimes been disappointing?

JON BON JOVI: Well, it’s been amazing. You know, my example would be Bruce. Right. He’s like a big brother. He’s 13 years older than me as I’m older than you, and I get all this stuff. And when I look at him, I try to think, well, what is it about him now that I see in that light?

Well, in truth, it’s the same thing I saw when it’s the little kid in me that admired the fictional character of what he is and was. And I admired that and I loved it and I was drawn to it, and I wanted to be like that. But he’s still, you know, just a confused family guy like the rest of us trying to figure it out.

That, too, helps me now to realize that you, as an accomplished author and a doctor and a self-help guru, and with all these years of a podcast that is reaching now, millions of people, we’re all just figuring it out.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

The Burden of Being a Hero

JON BON JOVI: That, to me, is the greatest breakthrough I’ve had in the last several months. Because I don’t want the burden of you looking up to what was a fictional character. I can’t carry that any longer, but I can carry that. You’re going to be rooting for me in the crowd with your boy, and guess what? I’m going to crack. But you know what? We’re going to smile through it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: And I’m going to hit the next note.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: And that’s going to be sexier than all of it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. That’s beautiful. It won’t just be my boy. I’m bringing my daughter this time as well.

JON BON JOVI: Dang.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. So, yeah, I love that because I’ve been thinking about heroes all week, and I don’t think it’s necessarily that we want to be them. There’s just something in them that reflects within us.

JON BON JOVI: Sure.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: I think that’s all it is.

JON BON JOVI: Sure.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: We’re all fallible humans.

JON BON JOVI: That is the greatest breakthrough I’ve had in forever.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: He could take an aspect of a fictional character and hang it up on your wall. Right on. But I love the beauty that we are all experiencing. The human element together.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: And it’s not going to be perfect and it’s not going to be pretty and that’s what’s making it sexy.

Health, Happiness, and Touring Life

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. As a doctor, I’m really interested in routines and how we reach our health goals, how we live a happy, contented life in good health. Because health is related to happiness and happiness, health, it goes both ways.

JON BON JOVI: True.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And I’m just fascinated, like when you’re on tour and this would have evolved over the years, but I don’t know, in the 90s and the 2000s and the 2010s, when you’re getting older, how did you look after yourself on tour or even today, how are you going to look after yourself until. What do you need to do?

JON BON JOVI: I feel better when I do healthy things. Eating, sleeping.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: But you’re an early morning guy. I am. How does that work with rock and roll?

JON BON JOVI: Well, if you’re really in that touring cycle, everything shifts and you’re going to bed at 2 in the morning and you’re waking up at noon. But that’s part of the price you pay to be on the road. That’s just what it has to be. Because by the time you travel after a show and that’s just the way it is.

But let’s just say in my non-touring life, I do like to get up at 7 o’clock, I do like to have my mornings, I do like to journal, I do like to work out in the morning, I do a little something to eat, probably not enough before I sing, but that’s just what I feel most comfortable in my belly with.

But you know, I know that when I had a bottle of wine last night and I wanted it, I didn’t need it, but I wanted every drop of that bottle. It was a long day of work and I was in a good mood. It does cause some cells in the body to be more tired today.

Now what’s that going to do to you? I’ll tell you what it’s going to do to you. It’s going to f* with your head because your head’s going to go. Your throat’s tired. Guess what? Your throat’s tired. Oh, I’m never going to sing good again. Yeah, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out. I had a great bottle of wine last night. That’s all this is, you know, Leave me alone.

So you got to get out of your head and know that I have put in the hours and I have put in the days and the weeks and the months and the year and I am better. But these are all things that you learn, you know, and you evolve.

So if I could go on the stage with two bottles of wine in the 80s, I would never do that and go and think I was playing the stadium tonight. That just wouldn’t happen. You see? So everything evolves. I’m 63. I don’t want to run five miles. I want to run three.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: You know, but I found something else in tennis that moves me, you know, and spiritually moves me.

The Reality of Touring

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: It’s interesting. I’m, as you say, behind you in age. I did my first UK theater tour in March.

JON BON JOVI: Okay.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Just to be clear, I’m not at all comparing it to a rock show. Okay.

JON BON JOVI: Sleeping in a hotel, you’re traveling funky.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Hours, kind of theaters, maybe 2,000 people theaters. I did 16 dates.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: I’m a morning guy. When I’m at home, I get up at 5. Like, I love time to myself, to journal, to meditate, to move, whatever it might be. Yeah. I was coming on stage at half seven and coming off stage usually about 10, 20.

JON BON JOVI: Wow. Three hours.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Three hours with a like 50 minute break.

JON BON JOVI: It’s a lot.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And I loved it. But I’d come off and obviously you’ve got lights on you as well. And the more we’re learning about light and what it does to our circadian rhythm. I’m coming off a wired. Yep, totally amped up. I’m like, how the hell do these guys do it? Because you’re rocking up to a hotel, sometimes you’re traveling after.

And I was finding I was still up in hotel rooms at 2am you can’t phone anyone because your wife and kids are asleep. I’m like, wow, this is why rock stars go off the rails on the roads. Right? Because they want a hotel room with nothing but the minibar, booze, and sleeping pills. Yeah.

So we’re currently looking at dates for next year with all your years of touring experience. And I know I’m the health guy, but I don’t have the experience you’ve got. What would you say to me about how to make my touring life a little bit easier on me?

Keys to Surviving the Road

JON BON JOVI: Sleep is the key to the universe. Hydration is also the key to the universe. It doesn’t have to be seven nights in a row. I won’t do back to backs any longer. It just takes too much of a toll. And even on the last tour you do two, but in our youth we do three or four. I won’t do that any longer. I do one, but that’s okay.

So to me, it’s about sleep. It’s about. I don’t believe that I got to take 99 different kinds of vitamins. I tried all that and I didn’t feel that much better. You know, I’m way into pliability than I am into chiropractic. You know what I mean? I don’t have to have my bones cracked every day like I used to think I did. It was it. Now it’s about stretching. It’s just different. It’s not better.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: How do you wind down when you get to the hotel room after you…

JON BON JOVI: Missed if you’re not boozing, which I was not on that last 2022 tour. It’s not easy to go to bed, especially when your mind’s going. Right. But this is all meditative stuff and reading and you had to find other things to get you to sleep. It’s the road’s not fun. No, it’s not fun. The show’s good, but the rest of the day, yeah, tough job.

Boredom and Creativity

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And you must have been so bored at times because, you know, we were talking before about how the world has changed. You were doing all that pre-smartphones. Right. So these days, people can numb their brains and actually watch whatever they need.

JON BON JOVI: To, but we could never watch television or you get CNN in a foreign country. Couldn’t understand the language.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: But I wonder if that boredom actually had a real upside. And the reason I say that I made a TV documentary last year on smartphones and kids and the impact that they’re having. And I made it with a chap called Matt Willis and his wife Emma. And Matt is the singer songwriter in a UK boy band called Busted who were very successful, like maybe around 2003 time.

JON BON JOVI: Okay.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And he said to me while we were making that documentary, he said, Ron, the problem is your smartphones now is I don’t write songs anymore because I’m just looking at this phone the whole time.

JON BON JOVI: Yuck. Yeah.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So that would be time where people would actually. That boredom would lead to them picking up a guitar. Right.

JON BON JOVI: Okay.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And starting to sing and like writing. So I don’t know. To me, it seems like all these smartphones perhaps getting in the way of songwriting and real creativity.

JON BON JOVI: No, not songwriting. But, you know, am I victim to playing with the Instagram a little too much? Yeah, I do that. I don’t have any of those other things on it. And in fact, I have made a point mentally to say, I just got to even erase this thing. I made sure I don’t look at anything about me. You know, I make sure, like, my algorithm don’t come up in there.

But no, even getting rid of that is a good thing. No, it doesn’t get in the way of the songwriting. No.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You mentioned before that you’re spiritually in a good place.

JON BON JOVI: Yes.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And I’ve read in another interview that you’ve been saying that as you are getting older, you’re becoming more spiritual.

JON BON JOVI: Yes.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: What does that word mean to you?

Spirituality and Gratitude

JON BON JOVI: I’m in touch with that higher power with God. I don’t ask for favors or for successes. It’s all about gratitude. And it’s not going to church on Sunday, which is a little still broken to me, but the connection is there more than ever and ever and ever been.

But it’s all about gratitude. And that’s really what I get out of it. Humility, gratitude, and knowing that everything happens for a reason.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Have you always believed that?

JON BON JOVI: Well, it’s been magnified more as I’ve gotten older.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Does being a creator, does songwriting perhaps feed into that belief that there’s something greater out there in the sense that, like, where do these songs come from?

JON BON JOVI: That’s for sure. A little bit of that. Sure. A little bit of that. I mean, our better angels are all out there if we had take the time to see them. You know, it’s a dark world, in my opinion right now, but there are beams of light, and there are people that are doing good that aren’t in the spotlight and not on your podcast and not on the stage behind a microphone, but they are the ones that are keeping the lights on.

And these are very trying times. And with kids that are victims of these smartphones, for example, and the learning deficit that happened during COVID, those five years, grades are falling behind, and it’s scary as f* out there right now, but there are people that are shining rays of light, and I’m still not giving up on it because of them.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You’re a very humble guy. You say there’s people out there doing great work, but so are you and your wife.

JON BON JOVI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Soul Foundation

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: So can you just tell people about the Soul Foundation, what it is, and why it’s so important to you and your wife to actually do this kind of charitable work?

JON BON JOVI: We’ve done it for a long time. World travel made us a little more enlightened when realizing that there were the haves and the have nots. And that divide was happening more and more and more as my life has gone on.

When we started the foundation some 20 years ago, it was under the guise of sport ownership. I used to own an arena football team. In order to ingratiate ourselves to the community, I wanted to be more philanthropic than what we called the Big Four: baseball, basketball, hockey.

And at first, we were whatever you needed. Pencils, computers, bedsheets. Okay, fine. We give it to an orphanage. And then one night, when I saw a homeless man sleeping on a grate outside of City Hall, and I realized that you didn’t have to be young or old, black or white, Republican or Democrat. Homelessness could hit anybody at any moment, as most of the world lived paycheck to paycheck, two bad weeks or months, and you’re on the street.

So I found an expert in the field who taught me everything I know about it. In 2008, Dorothea conceptualized this whole kitchens, where there are no prices on any of the menus. It’s all farm to table food. If you want to come there and effect change directly, instead of writing a check to a charity and wondering, what good did you do? You’d see it because your donation just paid for your meal and the meal for someone in need, the person that was in need.

And you would never know the difference between you and the person in need. They volunteer for their meal, and in turn, they’re empowered. Empowerment is the key to the universe, because now there’s a pride in it. There’s a sense of, I’m a part of this.

And so we have four of these restaurants, and the need is only growing. And it works. We don’t need the scientists to find the cure.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: What has it given you?

JON BON JOVI: Oh, a great sense of satisfaction, great sense of pride in knowing that, you know, you’re putting more food in someone’s belly. It’s as comforting as you imagine it would be. You can’t think of yourself in that position without wanting to cry.

And it’s given me great feeling of satisfaction and pride knowing that our little ripple in the water has resonated.

Happiness and Family

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. What does happiness mean to you today?

JON BON JOVI: I mean, it’s top of my list. To be happy is to be joy filled. To be thinking of myself less and to be fearless the way I once was would give me all the happiness that I want in the world, you know, and I know what we do in service, that’s all well and good, and I feel good about that.

But spreading that optimism is something that I look forward to doing, you know, in the next year.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You’re a parent. You’re a new grandparent, I believe, as well. Congratulations.

JON BON JOVI: Thank you.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: I’m super fascinated by what is it like being the children of Jon Bon Jovi. Is it hard, do you think, growing up when your dad has been so mega successful, that’s a kind of a tough bar, isn’t it?

JON BON JOVI: Well, inasmuch as what would your work ethic be? No shortage of that. So they’re all working very hard, independent of each other, and I love what they’re all doing.

The blessing and the curse of being the son of is that, you know, your name is recognized everywhere and everyone’s going to look at you most times because, you know, we’ve done a lot of good in the world that benefits them. And so, you know, overall it’s not been bad. It’s not easy.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: But it’s not bad either.

Regrets and Lessons Learned

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, for sure. Any regrets?

JON BON JOVI: Even the bad was okay because, you know, these were lessons learned. Even the bad things that you did in your life were not bad enough to put you in jail or give you cancer.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: So everything else was an opportunity to learn from it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. I think a lot about regrets, and I’ve come to believe that regrets are a form of perfectionism. Actually, you mentioned perfectionism before because I think regrets, for many of us at the heart, there is this belief that we think that we could have done better, but I think we’re always doing the best that we can based upon what we know and based upon what we have availability to do and what…

JON BON JOVI: And what you put into it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: And what you put into it. So I kind of feel in some ways, and I know not everyone will agree with this, but I certainly feel for me that regrets are a waste of time in the sense that that’s not me saying that I couldn’t have improved things, but I’m like, no, let me look back and go, ah, you know what? I made that decision. But if I’m in that situation again, I’m going to make a different decision.

JON BON JOVI: Now because I’ve learned failure is different than regret.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah, exactly.

JON BON JOVI: You can fail all day long. In fact, that’s great.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: Regret is not getting up to work out so that you can run the marathon. Regret is staying in with the drink and the drug instead of writing the song that day.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: You know, so, yeah, it’s all been great.

Final Words of Gratitude

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Well, Jon, we started off talking about gratitude, and I want to end off talking about gratitude. I’ve already mentioned it on the show today, but I just want to express my gratitude to you and everything you and your band have done over the years.

I’m not exaggerating when I say your music has literally provided the soundtrack to my life. It has touched me, it has moved me. Joy, belief, optimism. And although me being a doctor and doing what I do today might seem very different from rock and roll, I think you have a role and you played a pretty significant part of what I do today. So I want to say thank you.

JON BON JOVI: Thank you. That means a lot. That means a lot. And that will help me tonight to put my head on the pillow and get through, you know, and do it again tomorrow.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah.

JON BON JOVI: So thank you for that.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. For someone who is watching this, Jon, who knows that they’re not living their life and they have a dream, they have a passion, but they’re not living it, do you have any words of advice for them?

JON BON JOVI: I don’t know how many lives you get, but take this chance while you get it. If you have a dream and it’s truly your dream, pursue it. I don’t care if you fall down. I don’t care if you fail, pursue it. Because when you lay your head down on the pillow at night, you just need to know that you gave it your all.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Yeah. Love it. Jon, you’re an inspiring man.

JON BON JOVI: Thank you very much.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: You’re humble, you’re optimistic, and it’s been a sheer joy. Thanks for being on the show.

JON BON JOVI: This was great. Thank you very much. I looked forward to it and I appreciate it.

DR RANGAN CHATTERJEE: Thank you, man.

JON BON JOVI: Brilliant. That was great.

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