Maybe it’s Easter Monday afternoon when we talk. But speaking with Jon Bon Jovi one cannot help but think of a god who has now become man. And that while he was sweating blood in the rock garden of Gethsemane, he was filmed by a zooming camera without discounting his throat muscles pulled into spasm, like those of a fish asphyxiated in a bucket. In search of very high and ancient notes – Livin’ on a prayer one would say, remaining in the religious suggestion – which a vocal cord disease did not allow him for a long time (and perhaps will no longer allow him) to achieve.
Of course, in the four-episode documentary coming out on Disney+ on April 26th there is also everything you hope for from the hagiography dedicated to a legend that has been floating around in the imagination for 40 years: the beginnings in New Jersey in the legend of Springsteen. The erotic charge of optimistic America that inoculated the muscles and curls with the idea that one could become whatever one wanted. There are alcohol and drugs, which derailed entire pieces of the band while Jon, like a Paul McCartney in the USA, tried to stay sober to safeguard his voice (fate is mocking…) and not see his friends burn before his eyes (with bassist Alec John Such, unfortunately, he didn’t succeed). There’s the money that goes to your head and the exhaustion of senseless tours wanted by bloodsucking managers: «When I saw Baz Luhrmann’s film on Elvis I really identified with it. We lived those things » he says, in one of the many intimate scenes of the film. «When we set out to make the documentary the goal was to be introspective and honest» explains Bon Jovi, black shirt and layered hair, from his home in Miami where he has always wintered. «I knew I didn’t want a banal story about the contradictions of fame but something authentic. And working with director Gotham Chopra, who had never made music documentaries, allowed me to be honest and trust the entire two-year process. I hope the viewer understands that success only comes with hard work. And with sacrifice.”
But in the more than four hours of Thank you, goodnight: the Bon Jovi Story it’s not just the sacrifice. There is desperation, etymologically understood, and pure. That of a wonderful 62 year old man who against the gods has just released a new album, Forever. But that she no longer knows if she will be able to go up on stage, take the audience’s scream straight to her chest, and scream One, Two, Three, Four before the snare drum starts the show once again.
I know you are Catholic and please don’t get angry, but I really feel the analogy with the Gospel.
«Well, no: I’m sorry but I don’t accept it. Simply, the documentary is partly focused on my vocal cord problems and the rehabilitation process. Making music has been my life’s work. And I wanted the audience to look beyond the curtain, towards the truth of our lives: a little fun during concerts, but otherwise, a lot of work. There is nothing more.”
Allow me to disagree: here, commitment and work have little to do with it. There is pain and fear. She collapsing to the ground exhausted. The laser of a medical instrument aimed at the neck to find the paste of the lost voice. If not Jesus certainly Ulysses, the hero who throws himself away to find himself.
«His considerations touch me a lot and make me humble. But the truth is more banal: I love what I do and the effort I put in is sincere. I think every parent would teach their children to do things with the same commitment. I imagine that every soldier goes into battle with the same spirit. May each teacher bring this desire into the classroom. For my part, I don’t think I do anything different than anyone who is dedicated to a job or a passion. But really, I appreciate his kind words.”
These are not kind words, but it is the empathy that this film inspires. Dramatic moments such as the sequence in which his wife, after the concert in Nashville, joins her behind the stage and says “Love, I saw you in the glorious days, and unfortunately those days are not these”. A courage and a love to which we are forever indebted.
«In fact I feel immense gratitude for having spoken to me like this, and ultimately, for having told me what I already knew in my heart. I had given everything that night too: everything. I had started the concert with Livin’ on a Prayer like I did 30 years ago, the highest note, the most difficult song, sung a cappella. Then in the end I got off the stage and said to myself, come on, it’s done. Not great, ok, but not that bad either. I repeated it while lying to myself, when all I wanted was to hear the truth. And with all her weight, she brought it to me.”
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