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Documentary on the band's Lost Highway World Tour airs Saturday at 9 p.m. on Showtime
BY LINDA MOSS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey's Bon Jovi has survived and thrived for a quarter of a century, music critics be damned.
This weekend viewers can catch a behind-the-scenes glance at how these native sons have survived while other groups fell to the wayside.
Showtime will air "Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful," a black and white documentary on the group's 2008 Lost Highway World Tour, on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 9 p.m.
The film will help Bon Jovi promote their new studio album, "The Circle," which will drop Nov. 10.
The documentary, which was acquired by Showtime, goes on the road with Bon Jovi to Abu Dhabi, Dublin, Marbella, Munich, London and the closer locales of Madison Square Garden and Central Park.The band members — Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres and David Bryan — also do candid one-on-one interviews with director Phil Griffin, a filmmaker and photographer. They talk about the group almost breaking up, their own personal demons, their success and the loneliness of life on the road.
There's no question that Jon Bon Jovi is the boss of the band, with a hands-on grip on its financial affairs.
"True, it isn't a democracy," Jon Bon Jovi says in the film. "I've had a vision. The vision seems to work."
People who know anything about Jon Bon Jovi — who is a successful actor, and politically and civically involved — would peg Jon Bon Jovi as an empty-headed pretty boy. But in "When We Were Beautiful," he cements a new image, that of a hard-nosed, savvy, ambitious, calculating, worrisome and sometimes profane businessman.
Approached about investing in a pro-football team, Jon Bon Jovi is seen talking on the phone to his potential partner in the deal. Jon Bon Jovi tells the man he wants to meet with him, so he can see that Jon is not a rock-band cliché.
"I'm the CEO of a major corporation who is running a brand for 25 years," Jon Bon Jovi says.
In fact, Jon Bon Jovi just made history when he struck a unique deal to be NBC Universal's first "Artist in Residence." Under the pact, Bon Jovi will appear exclusively on NBC Universal TV outlets for two months to promote "The Circle." That includes appearances on the flagship NBC network and cable channels such as Bravo.
The "When We Were Beautful" documentary, from Oscar and Emmy-award winning producers @radical.media, was done when Bon Jovi had reached a new peak, with the No. 1 album and No. 1 grossing tour in 2008, according to Billboard magazine
On the group's Web site, Jon Bon Jovi lists his hometown as Sayreville. He now lives in a mansion on the Navesink River in Middletown. Sambora's hometown is Woodbridge, and he resides in California now.
Bryan's hometown is Edison, and he still lives in New Jersey, while Torres, originally from New York, resides in Florida.
Music critics have always loved another Jersey artist, Bruce Springsteen. But in "When We Were Beautiful," both Jon Bon Jovi and Bryan tackle dead-on the fact that while fans love them and they've had huge commercial success, music critics have consistently panned them.
