Jon talks about the band’s new four-part docuseries that’s available now
For the first time, Bon Jovi fans are given an unprecedented look inside the band’s 40 years with the newly-released four-part docu-series, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. Directed and executive produced by multiple Emmy Award winner Gotham Chopra, the series delves into the band’s history with full cooperation from all past and present members of Bon Jovi. The series is available now on Hulu in the US (Star+ and Disney+ globally) and gives an all-access backstage pass into the band’s four decades together.
Following one of the world’s most iconic bands and its frontman, Jon Bon Jovi, the documentary gives viewers a look inside the music and the man. Jon says he was able to give up control of the project to tell the band’s story properly.
“It was easy to let it go and very very rarely, I can remember one instance where I said, ‘You should leave the room.’ Other than that, you just let it go,” Jon says during an iHeartRadio Live premiere of the docuseries that we attended. “Another thing that happened in the film, and I now can realize why. When I gave complete creative control to Gotham and his team to shoot it, and then Alex and his team to edit, it was out of my control for a number of reasons. One, I didn’t want a puff piece. Two, I was more focused on writing this new record. I was more focused on my health issues, so I didn’t have time to deal with those things, which led to this creative piece of art they created.”
The series also chronicles Jon’s vocal issues during the band’s 2022 tour and his recovery from major reconstructive surgery.
“I’ve studied vocally for most of my career, most of the 40 years. I pride myself on being a vocalist, not a stylist. I know how to do this. I’ve sung with Pavarotti, I know how to sing the Great American Songbook, I can do that,” Jon says. “What happened here is sort of an act of God, and nothing I’m very happy about, but I work very hard trying to get back to get back what I know how to do. It’s out of my control. It’s really out of my control, but I’m working hard at it… I’m very capable of singing. I just sung this whole new record. I did the MusiCares event, I jumped up Armin van Buuren at Ultra [Music Festival], I’m gonna do this Jimmy Buffett benefit two days from now, so I’m capable of singing. For me, the bar is two hours a night, four nights a week, because that’s what our friends are accustomed to…I need to hit that bar.”
Jon says touring in support of 1986’s Slippery When Wet and 1988’s New Jersey nearly destroyed the band.
“It’s an age-old story. Band form, band find success, band run into the complications of success, the teams around them in thinking of their best efforts to help the band be successful could burn them out. In our case, that was not a unique story, but managers, agents, and lawyers, they were all doing their best, but really killing us because we were overextended,” he adds. “You’re asked this question often now that you have 40 years of hindsight. ‘What would you have told the younger you?’ Take a break, take more time. You’re capable. You can do it again, don’t worry that you can’t do it again. But we had this chip on our shoulder and I drove this thing hard. We did New Jersey after Slippery [When Wet]. A year after the Slippery When Wet Tour, we were back on the road with New Jersey which had five more top 10 singles and another 240 show tour, and that almost killed us. But we delivered it. We did it, and in retrospect, it was too much.”
Jon says the series could’ve continued beyond four parts, but nothing was off limits.
“There could’ve been five, six, seven, and eight for sure because so much has happened in the last six months that we wrapped it. There’s so much going on just in the pursuit of happiness and this new record release, and my continuing health, that I only wish we had kept going. But everything that’s in there is everything that there was. Nothing was off limits. Nothing.”
Bon Jovi will release its 16th studio album, Forever, on June 7th via Island Records. The album will be available on CD, cassette, and LP with limited edition signed CDs and special vinyl offerings through the band’s website. The album’s first single, “Legendary,” was released in March.
