?
Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi are blasting into a world tour to promote the band?s 12th studio album. With every album, ?we get better and with every tour we get better and it?s fun, and we just keep going,? says Sambora.
Photograph by: Larry Busacca , Getty Images for Clear Channel
Leave it to Bon Jovi to rock out on a snow day. As you probably heard, the American band had to reschedule the opening night of their Because We Can world tour due to the snowstorm-induced mandatory travel ban in the state of Connecticut last Saturday.
No doubt you also heard the musicians performed anyway, mounting a free, two-hour concert for the hundreds of fans and employees already at the venue. An official make-up date is already on the calendar, too.
It was a memorable kickoff for a tour that will plow through Canada this week, stopping in Montreal Feb. 13-14, Toronto Feb. 17-18 and Ottawa on Feb. 20, before circumnavigating the rest of the world.
The album they?re promoting, What About Now, doesn?t come out until next month. Produced by John Shanks, Bon Jovi?s 12th studio effort is expected to be an energetic rock album with an underlying social conscience.
In a teleconference phone interview with the members of the band (but not their heartthrob of a frontman, Jon Bon Jovi), before the tour started, guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres and keyboardist David Bryan discussed the new album and why touring is so important. Here?s an edited transcript of the interview.
What inspired the new album?
Sambora: What was happening in the world kind of pushed this record out. Guys like us, we travel around the world. Our last tour was about 52 countries and the different economic situations that were happening all over the world, and how people were, more importantly, reacting to them personally. We started feeling those undercurrents all the way back then.
In our particular fashion, just having a very optimistic outlook in the songs is always very important. Even a song like the first single, Because We Can is a song of inclusion and also if you can help somebody, you should try to do it because you can. We were feeling how people were feeling about the things that were happening in the world.
How do you feel about going back out there?
Bryan: The feeling is great. We?ve got another world tour that we?re privileged to be able to play and we?re going to go out there and do what we do as a rock band ? kick ass.
Sambora: We?re musicians and we love to play and make music. And with every album we get better and with every tour we get better and it?s fun, and we just keep going. I guess now really the Rolling Stones are the gate, so I guess we?ve got ?til 70-something, so we?ve got another couple years there. We just keep going on.
How will you duke it out over the setlist to strike the right balance between old favourites and new material?
Bryan: There?s really no duking out. Jon really is out there singing it, so he comes up with a set list. We have a master list of how many songs that we have (but) he comes up with the list. When we get to the show, we get handed the list and there you go. And then there?s extra ones on the side that he?ll call, so we?re always ready. We never do the same set twice.
Has there ever been a time where you see a set list and you go, ?Oh my God, not this song again.? Has that ever surfaced?
Sambora: How many shows have we done together, something like 3,500? Every once in a while there?s a setlist that comes up that may not work as well as the one from the night before, but it?s not a stressful kind of situation really for us at this point. It?s fun for us to try to the new equation out ? and when I say equation, I mean the new setlist ? and how all that kind of rolls and what it feels like, the ebb and flow.
How do you prepare for such an extensive world tour?
Sambora: You have to physically prepare for it. But once you get out there, you get in a groove, man, and like Dave said, this is what we love to do. Fortunately, we still all get along together and have a great time playing together and we?re still making good music that people want to hear. And obviously by the result of our last tour, that people want to come see us play and that?s a big magnet also.
Torres: As far as preparations, you try to keep yourself a little healthier, only because you?re on the road. And when you have to sing and perform, getting sick is not an option. And so really, you?re more attune to staying in shape for that reason.
What would you say is the secret to Bon Jovi?s success?
Sambora: Obviously it starts with our dedication to touring. We?ve always had that adage that we would play everywhere we could in the world and take our music to every place we could. And I think that we?ve been very, very loyal to our fans and consequently our fans have been very loyal to us. And I think that we write songs that people can relate to, and it becomes a part of the soundtrack of their lives. That?s a privilege in itself.
lsaxberg@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/lynnsaxberg
? Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
?
?
?
?
?
?
Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F294/~3/XHBlF89JB-g/story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.