THIS TIME BON JOVI’S TAKING AIM AT TRUMP
JON BON JOVI lights up the room with his beaming smile and sense of purpose. But he is clearly a man on a mission. Not only is the new Bon Jovi album, 2020, coming out but, with it, Jon has some things he wants to get off his chest. ‘I don’t think it’s a political record, it’s more a socially conscious record,’ he says as we chat candidly in a central London hotel in pre-lockdown Britain.
Yet I point out that, with the track Blood In The Water, he is clearly taking a political dig at Donald Trump. ‘Sure,’ he replies. ‘If you look at the lyric “a storm Is coming…”, that refers to Stormy Daniels [the porn actress who gained notoriety over an affair she says she had with Trump].
‘Then I’m talking about A Shadow Sold Your Secrets, that was Michael Cohen [Trump’s attorney jailed for election campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud].
‘I wrote this in the summer of 2018. By the time we recorded it in the summer of 2019, the names had changed but the story didn’t. Now it was Rudy Giuliani not Michael
Cohen... now it was another girl who came out 30 years later and said he [Trump] had made unwanted sexual advances.
‘As for the Russian hacking… it’s going to be as prevalent in the 2020 election as it was in the 2016 election. And right now, the names have changed but the story remains the same.’ The 58-year-old rocker, estimated to be worth more than $400million, makes no bones about being a lifelong Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton at the 2016 election. And this time around – supporting Joe Biden – he feels he needs to speak out.
‘We are more divided in America now than at any time in my lifetime, for sure. And I’m scared to death of what happens in this forthcoming election. The division amongst our countrymen is so severe. You are either on one side or the other.
‘There seems to be no room for conversation or compromise, which is appalling. But that’s the state of our union and it’s awful.’
But do you think celebrities getting behind politicians actually works?
‘No, I don’t think it makes a difference what I say to people when I get involved.
My job is to get the people to show up at the rally, not to preach the politics of the candidate or carry that to my stage. I’m there to just lighten the mood for five minutes, sing a song or two and then
leave it up to the candidate to make the difference.’
Another track with a message is Lower The Flag, concerning America’s gun laws. Although he may be appearing to stand on a soapbox, Jon points out he was careful not to take sides.
‘Again, who am I to preach? The song is not about the gun and about who should own one. It’s about how would you feel if your family member was killed in an act of violence.’
Are things ever going to change? ‘The NRA are very powerful and their lobbyists are very powerful and politicians are beholden to money. And this divide has created people’s inability to converse about any common sense.
‘The vast majority of Americans want a background check, simple as that. Let’s give it to the cuckoo guy. But the NRA said, “No, It’s infringing on our rights.”
‘I can’t sell you a beer unless I check your ID but I can sell you a gun.’ Jon shakes his head at the irony. ‘What I wanted to do with it is create a conversation. And that’s what I tried to do with all of these socially conscious songs.’
Out today, 2020 is Bon Jovi’s
15th studio album. So what is it about the band that keeps them going? ‘I don’t know,’ Jon says, modestly. ‘I don’t try to live in my past. You evolve and you write something else and move forward. Those who like it, like it, and some get off the ride and find something else. Life goes on.’ When I say that he still looks incredibly youthful, he laughs: ‘Apart from the grey hair.’
But he is the first to admit he has good genes. ‘I’m not going to dye my hair. I’m not going to get plastic surgery. I’ve grown up and grown older in public – it is what it is.
‘I’m not pretending to be something I’m not. I just couldn’t imagine me being 58years-old, writing “bitch” across my belly and painting my fingernails black.’ However, knowing that he has dabbled in the past with film acting and politics, I ask whether he has any ambitions left? ‘I don’t measure that. My goal now is to just do it as well as I’ve done it or better and just not hurt the legacy. You know, nobody loved the fat Elvis,’ he laughs.
But will he succeed in his mission to change America’s way of thinking? He shrugs but points out: ‘Not every hero has a spotlight on him. At the end of the day, love conquers all and it’s stronger than hate.’
Bon Jovi’s new album, 2020, is released today, bonjovi.com