Bon Jovi joue devant la Reine Elizabeth

Two visits in one year a bonus for Bon Jovi fans

Rockers recently played for a big fan -- Queen Elizabeth

Source:http://www.canada.com Heather Adler, CanWest News Service

Published: 3:02 am

BON JOVI

When: Tonight at 7:30

Where: Rexall Place

Before they sold 120 million albums, before they set the record for most top-10 singles from a hard rock album, before they released 10 studio albums (nine of which have gone platinum), before they toured the world (including a stop in Edmonton just last summer), Bon Jovi were just a bunch of hot-blooded boys looking for a hit single and hanging out in Vancouver strip clubs.

"At the time, from where we came from in New Jersey, they didn't have nudity. So the first time we walked into a go-go bar in Vancouver, and these girls took off all their clothes, well, you can imagine our amazement," guitarist Richie Sambora says with a laugh. "We fell in love with that city very quickly and, consequently, I think that we are honorary citizens of Canada. We lived in Canada, up in Vancouver, through three records."

It was in Vancouver that Bon Jovi not only found appreciation for this country's talented dancing girls, but they also recorded their quintessential Slippery When Wet album, which propelled them to superstardom.

Prior to the band becoming a household name with that record, Sambora didn't have a home outside of his parents' house, was in debt to the band's record label for millions of dollars and didn't know if Bon Jovi would become the eclipsing project it is today.

"It was do or die at that specific time. Sink or swim," he recalls. "(Singer) Jon (Bon Jovi) and I just hadn't got good at writing together, that was the thing. The band was playing great, we were a well-oiled machine. We just didn't have the proper material yet. The world was greased up, waiting for us to be successful. ... All we needed was a hit single, and luckily, we wrote it."

In retrospect, Slippery When Wet came dangerously close to never happening. In fact, one of its biggest hits, Livin' on a Prayer, wouldn't have made the cut if singer Jon Bon Jovi had been left to his own devices.

"When we wrote Livin' on a Prayer, I thought it was a monster and Jon used to tell this story onstage a lot about how, after we wrote it, he said, 'Ah, we're going to give it to a movie soundtrack or something.' I went 'No. That's going to be a great song for us,' " Sambora laughs. "And it was obviously our first big, big, No. 1 in all kinds of different countries."

And then there was the little matter that Sambora almost never ended up in Bon Jovi. Just before joining the band that made him a star, he had auditioned for a guitarist slot in KISS.

"They called. I was a session musician in New York and doing all that kinds of stuff," he begrudgingly admits, adding he's sure his life would be much different now if he'd taken that career path. "(My life would) be probably pretty salacious. Lots of makeup, things like that. I'm glad I didn't do it."

Thankfully, Sambora ended up where he belonged and, following the success of Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi went on to become one of the most successful rock acts of all time, surviving decades of trends, never subsiding "nostalgic act" status, and staying remarkably relevant on each of their diverse albums.