Bon Jovi is inspired by time spent writing songs here

Sunday, 05/06/07
By BEVERLY KEEL

Next month, Bon Jovi unveils Lost Highway, the album the New Jersey rock band wrote and partially recorded in Music City.

Jon Bon Jovi has been coming to Nashville since 1991 and thrives in the creative community of songwriters and musicians here. "Everybody seemingly in this town is involved in the music business," he says. "I love that. I am not the freak like I am at home when you are the only guy who does what you do."

After the success of "Who Says You Can't Go Home," the No. 1 country duet with Jennifer Nettles, Jon thought the band should try more country collaborations.

He and band mate Richie Sambora stayed at the Hermitage Hotel and immersed themselves in songwriting. "We recorded and wrote and hung out in the bar," he says of his hotel stay. "I need room service and I need a gym.

"When you walk into a hotel that leaves a legal notebook sitting on your desk and has writable CDs in the gift shop, you know you are in the right place," he says.

One night, he and Richie were in the bar when they got a song idea, so they went upstairs and wrote it. When they returned downstairs at 1:30 a.m., the bar was closed, but staffers let them in to have another drink. "They couldn't do enough," he says. "I never heard anybody (complain) about us strumming a guitar at 1 a.m. You might get, 'I liked that one' or 'I didn't like that one,' from the maids or people next door. To me, it was a great hotel."

Dann Huff and John Shanks produced the June 19-released album, half of which was recorded here and half recorded in Los Angeles. It's not a country album, but "a Bon Jovi record influenced by Nashville." Jon says, "It's not our trying to fool anybody into thinking we've gone country."

 

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