Jon Bon Jovi: “It comes down to truth.”

You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio.

I think it comes down to truth.

No matter what we're collectively marketing and or the dirty word it's selling, it has to be based in truth because even if you pull the wool over someone's eyes once, it's not going to resonate the second time.

I'm Bob Pittman.

Today is a special episode of Math and Magic, and it might sound a little different, not only because our guest is one of the biggest rock stars on the planet, but because we recorded live on stage at the Possible Conference at the Fountain Blue in Miami. And I hope you enjoyed my conversation exploring math and magic, which I bon Jovi. Today we have a guest who is a magician in many obvious ways, which we'll explore today. But the math's pretty good too. You've sold one hundred and

Five million fans.

He had three top ranking tours in six years, matching a record held by only the Rolling Stones. He is also a successful business person. He and his son started the wildly successful Hampton Water Wine company. He's a generous and impactful philanthropist. He's an actor, he has strong political convictions which make their way into his music. And he's a well known family man, great marriage and role model

And you know, when people start, especially in the music.

Business, you never know who's going to be there thirty years from now, and very few are.

So we got the guy who is here, John bon Jovi.

Well, thank you, thank you, Mom, thank you. I'm happy to be here. Good morning.

We got a lot to talk about.

But first I want to do do you in sixty seconds. What we're going to do is we're going to lightning round style. Give you a couple of choices.

Lay down right like you're ready to go. Ready to go.

Prefer cats or dogs, dogs, early.

Riser, night out, morning guy city or country city, winter or summer.

Summer, salt, your sweet torn.

Beach, your mountains, beach, off of your tea coffee text dark call depends.

Garden State or Madison Square Garden Garden State.

There we go.

Here's the Jersey folks, It's about to get harder. All time favorite musical artist The Beatles. Childhood hero.

Bruce had a lot to do with my being here today.

There we go.

Technology, you can't live without my teenage kids, favorite country to visit.

The final one, What did you want to be when you're growing up?

Me?

And it happens only in America? So let's jump in.

You are one of the best and most enduring brands in music? How do you stay connected with this audience for forty years?

Nothing would have happened if you didn't have a song. So the brand had to be built on a solid foundation, which was the song and being true to who and what I was.

In order for the collective we to.

Then be true to who we were, and so that is the basis of all of it. Not to chase fads and fascions was also really important to me. Fads and fashions come and go, and the truth will always prevail.

Were you ever tempted with any of the fads or fashions.

Not really to be? I don't think well, I don't think so.

I may have been a byproduct of the closure wore in the a or the haircut you hadn't it. But that's who and what you were in real time. And if the next fat in fashion came along, ie in our business, boy bands and then grunge music and then wrap, you know, we were there at the advent of rap, and to start doing duets would not have seemed honest, you know, to certainly be with a boy band and or none of that would have rang true. So I was smart enough to know not to get a flannel shirt.

Let's talk about intergenerational hits, and these are marketers here, so they're looking for things that are enduring. My friend's daughter, it is twenty two. She was in a college bar, living on a prayer comes on. The kids all start dancing on the tables. They weren't even born when the song came out. What is it about your music that connects was such a young generation, even though it was made originally for a completely different generation.

Again, I think it comes down to truth.

No matter what we're collectively marketing and or you know the dirty words selling, it.

Has to be based in truth.

Because even if you pull the wool over someone's eyes once, it's not going to resonate the second time. So when we wrote a song, if I was doing it from a place of honesty, that song resonated with me, and therefore I was confident it would probably.

Resonate with that audience.

Songs like Living on a Prayer, when we wrote them to be bluntly honest, I didn't realize what we had, but I felt that the character driven storyline was legit, and in doing so, you know, obviously that's.

One of the many that has stood the test of time.

It's as simple as that, because it's everybody's story.

So when you create a new song, how often do you know that you've got something special?

Absolutely do not, as you know, as we talk behind the stage. I got in around two thirty this morning and have been recording some stuff in Los Angeles for next year.

And I left there thinking I've got it. I'm a genius.

But I wake up this morning you go, I don't know what I'm talking about. I just did it again, you know, you really, you don't know. There's so many times that I've thought I had it and I don't, and so many times that I was surprised.

So by the way, for us old people, let me just throw something out.

Hey, But you've gotten older, have you got more questions when you were younger? Did you think this is going to be a hit or is this something that as you age you go.

Who knows.

There's a certain confidence you have when you're a young kid.

I was much more fearless, and it was probably naivete. Now I don't live in fear, but I don't pay attention like I used to. There was a story I was talking about yesterday and it was during the era of Slippery and Wet, and I remember this really well, reading a music publication and George Harrison was alive and well, and it was asked about the success of the band and he said, I don't know who they are. And I was initially offended. And I was saying to the

It has to be based in truth.

So let's take that one step further.

You are almost like a rock star by day, family man by night, and everyone who knows you comments that's sort of your reputation. I don't think you've ever fallen victim to the trappings of being a rock star. You stay in rooms, not sweets. There are no trails of limos, there's no tons of security, no visible hangar ons, and you have one of the most six celebrity marriage is how does that happen?

There have to be some lessons in that.

But the group of everybody here who probably has opportunities to get seduced by power and privilege.

So did I look, I'm those saint, I'm the lead singer and a very successful rock band. We've had a lot of wonderful memories, but they were what they were, and you know, on the family side of things, that's my rock and my wife and I went to high.

School together, and I know that we grew together.

That was important, you know, we grew up together, so she saw every facet of this, and then you know, we grew together. That's imperative here. And then you know, the kids, I hope they see that work ethics. So again, if you can bestow on your kids anything is if they could see by example what you've done, maybe they'll take the good of it and disregard some of the bad.

I'm no saint, it's just it's a work in progress.

You grew up obviously the product of the seventies and early eighties. How did your family life influence you? And what are those sort of lessons that you learned there that show up as you today.

In the time that I was born, in nineteen sixty two, President Kennedy was in office, my parents fully bought into the whole camelot. You know, we can go to the moon, you could be anything you want. We're going to buy a house in middle class New Jersey. I was blessed with that. I was born at the right time, in the right place, looking a certain way, and so there weren't a lot of, you know, obstacles in the way

Luck makes for success, you know.

But a lot of it had to do with the time, the place, the color of my skin, the economic advantages of you know, two parents that worked, and that work ethic was instilled in all of us.

Got to hope my kids say something like that about me at a certain point. Are there any words from your parents that echo in your head now? And then that advice they gave you or comments they made.

Other than my mother was smart enough to say the band's name should be bon Jovi.

That was pretty good advice. You know.

Even then, I knew that if I was going to fail or succeed, it was going to be, you know, my responsibility.

So that was actually great advice. That my folks were supportive enough.

And when the drinking age in New Jersey was eighteen and you could sneak into a bar at sixteen, you could cut your teeth, but you didn't have responsibility yet. You didn't have to worry about a paycheck. You know, you lived under your folks roof at sixteen, at least I did. All they told us was that if you're going to be in a bar, at least we know where you are, and so if you're going to focus on something, keep focusing on it. I didn't go to college, you know, but I had a record deal by the

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Give me a little loss of that stability, and the music business not allow of it.

You.

Also, we were talking a little bit of a backstage where parents, we all have these kids coming into their own great temptation to tell your kids what they should do. Did you give your parents a vote, you know.

In retrospect. But I don't want to hear that, Bob. I want to hear that I'm right and my kids.

Should listen to me.

This is bullshit, because I've come to that phase and stage in my children's lives where they don't listen to me any longer. And I'm I'm just dad. Oh you don't know what you're talking about, and you're like, oh God, But you know, it's a continual learning. In the process of learning and being a parent, ever evolving a.

Being a family man. You're actually in business with your sons.

Yeah, in this great successful watch company.

Hampton water, Hampton Water.

How did that dynamic come about?

My son, Jesse, was a walk on football player at Notre Dame and his roommate was a hockey player. And I often drank Rose wine, and for many many years, under the guise of not telling my kids that I was drinking as much, I'd say, Daddy wants.

Some pink juice.

And one night the kid came home and he said, I've got an idea. It's not pink juice anymore. It's Hampton water and you know, and I went, wow, I love that. And then we start to jokingly saying we should have a wine knowing nothing about the wine business, and I said, if you go back to school, use that business degree, come back with a power point if it makes any sense, I know where to go with it. He did six years later, where the number five rose in the world, and he's really on the verge of

So let me get attle entrepreneurs lesson in here.

Yeah, if you had known everything you know now about the wine business, would you have started it?

Then?

Yeah? I like this.

I find it sexier than selling you know, socks. You know, I get the samples. I like taking the samples home at night, so you know, we're having fun with it. More importantly, I'm absolutely pay for the privilege of being in business with one of my children, who make me proud every day.

More of math and Magic right after this quick break, Welcome back to Mathem Magic.

Let's hear more from my conversation with John bon Jovi. Soul Kitchen. You and your wife started it.

It served over one hundred and sixty thousand meals. I think it's the number you've used your power and connections to help others.

That's a hallmark.

I think you've done on a very small scale, and then you're doing on a much larger scale too. Where did that strong commitment to help others come from?

There was probably instilled in me in my years of travel.

The seeds were probably planted by my parents, but they weren't necessarily philanthropic, or certainly weren't political. In my world travels, i'd seen a lot of unfair inequality. But on the streets of Philadelphia, I was the co owner of an arena football team with a buddy of mine named Craig Spencer.

Whose daughter's here today.

And I said, we can win in the market if we think of this differently than the Big four baseball, basketball, football, hockey.

And that was to be more philanthropic than anyone.

One night, I was looking out of the window of the hotel and I saw a man sleeping on a great dead a winter. And I called a buddy of mine who was born and raised in Philly, and I said, if you could find me somebody in the homeless area, I'd like to talk about housing. And he found me the Michael Jordan of the issue, a sister of mercy by the name of Mary Scullion. So Sister Mary and I meet and she says, maybe you guys can save up enough money to refurbish a row home. And I said,

Actually in need.

And get out of your mind's eye that it's a soup kitchen, because it's not those amongst us that are making ends meet barely.

You know the old adage two paychecks away.

In the economic downturn, this was really prevalent again in COVID. People would come to our restaurant. They are greeted by a what looks like a hostess, but really a social worker. That social worker discusses the concept and if you are willing, you participate and that means you're busting a table, you're working in the garden, you're doing something that is earning

It is a hand up.

And so we created this model in the restaurant those who want to affect change directly. If you and I go in there and you put down fifty dollars, it pays for your meal and the meal of that guy and his wife.

Daughter sitting next to you.

Directly, I'm affecting change and that guy's volunteering, or if you don't volunteer, you sort of feel like you're missing out of the party. So we started the first one in a thirty three seat restaurant. It serve over one hundred thousand meals. Our second one was after Supers from

The phone rang off the hook.

From UCLA to Georgia, universities across the nation wanting to open soul kitchens and then COVID hit.

It set us back.

But Rutgers was the first one to stand up and say we want to do this. And now it's doing very well there and at a place called Jersey City University, and now we're going to expand on the college model because, much to many people's surprise, kids on college campus just have food insecurity.

That's great. Great.

We can't leave today without the hot topic AI music.

I want AI to do my interviews to travel for me.

Yesterday was my first opportunity to see that mash up with the weekend and.

It scared the hell out of me.

What I'm hoping though, is that again the truth prevails, and so you know, a real song written by the real guy, I hope is always going to win that fight. So I guess I'm going to offer the same massage I did when I came in. Don't fall for fads and fashions, and let's be aware that that one's scary, you know, AI really is. It can be used for good and it can be used for bad, and we should all be very.

Aware of it.

We are probably all of us in the advertising business, probably overrepresented in New York Silicon Valley, LA. You're out on tour, you really see the country. What advice would you have for everybody here in terms of trying to talk about everybody in America, not just the narrow world we'd live in.

The coasts, as we call it, the flyover. Yeah, there's fifty states with fifty diverse opinions of who and.

What we are as an But that's really what we're supposed.

To have made the nation great, which was that we the people, and you know, everybody has their values and they should be spoken to without just the use of social media. You know that connectivity is what's missing today. And you know, brands to me, bon Jovi is Levi's. We are Cadillac, we are Coca Cola. We're that thing that's been there forever. And those people between the two sides are that right and those values are legit and should be heard.

So we always end the episodes of Mathemagic with shout outs to the greats for you because of who you are, who on the business side of the music business would you give a shout out to?

First name I guess it comes to mind is an old friend named Jimmy Iveen. Jimmy, you know, of course, was a great record producer, saw that there was a change in his own life and making the records that he knew how to make.

It was like what am I going to do next?

So he was smart enough to become an owner and create Innerscope with Ted Field and then go on to be in Beats when Interscope had run its course. So he really created something magical. If I think about my football ties, you think about Jerry Jones, and you know he just took another football team and said, no, this is America's team, and then he created the Dallas cowboys.

So there's ways to take something that is.

Considered to just be bedrock and make magic out of it because you know of what it stood for. So those would be guys, you know, from different walks of my life that I feel that I'd give it the quickest shout.

Let's go on the other side, let's go on the magic side, creative side, producer, artist, Who would you give a shout out to?

I don't know.

I worked with a guy yesterday named Ryan Tedder from a band called One Republic.

I find that he's the next generation.

Kind of whiz kid and very very smart, both you know, playing the instrument as well as talking about the business of music. I used to pride myself on knowing many of the aspects of the business of music.

You know, I'm one of those fortunate guys. I own my publishing.

That's seventeen albums of you know, that's a lot of records for.

You who don't know that. That's like Nirvana.

Yeah, so it's I knew all those things when I was a kid. It was we created bon Jovie Management. I didn't have a manager, the commission stayed in house. So we were smart enough that I knew how to do all that, But I'd see the next generation that's what they do, and.

I'm excited to talk.

To those kind of young guys about it.

John, thanks for coming.

Thank you, Bob, thank you for having me.

Here are a few things I picked up from my conversation with John bon Jovi. One, stay true to who you are. Fads and fashion come and go. For John, staying true to himself instead of chasing the hottest new trend in music has been the key to longevity.

Two.

Luck is no match for discipline. John is the first to admit that much of his success has to do with being born at the right place the right time. However, he wouldn't have achieved his level of success without the strong work ethic his parents instilled in him. Three. Family and business can be a great mix. When john Son came up with the idea of the successful wine brand Hampton Water, John knew he didn't want it to be

That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio. The show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to Sidney Rosenbloom for booking and wrangling our wonderful.

Talent, which is no small feat. Our editor Emily Meronoff, our engineers Jessica Crinchitch and but He Fraser, our executive producers Nikki Etoor and Ali Perry, and of course Gail Raoul, Eric Angel Noel and everyone who helped bring this show to your ears. Until next time,