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BY LINDA MOSS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The quintessential Jersey band, Bon Jovi, was in the house Wednesday night for a screening of a documentary on the rock group. That film, set to run on Showtime, is just the start of a whirlwind of events kicking off for the group.
At the Manhattan screening of "Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful," Showtime Networks chairman and CEO Matt Blank introduced the 1½ hour film.
"Tonight it's all about working-class heroes, rock ‘n' roll legends, real Jersey boys," Blank said. "They've sold more than 120 million albums and performed before tens of millions in 50 countries around the world."
Showtime will air "Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful," which chronicles the group's 2008 Lost Highway World Tour, Saturday Oct. 24 at 9 p.m.The companion hardcover book from HarperCollins will be released Nov. 3. And the group's new studio album, "The Circle," will drop Nov. 10.
"It's single ‘We Weren't Born to Follow' is rising as we speak," Blank told the audience at the SVA Theater on 23rd Street.
Keyboard player David Bryan has even done the score for a show that's on Broadway now, "Memphis: The Musical."
The "When We Were Beautiful" documentary airing on Showtime marks the beginning of a promotional blitz for the album.
After the screening, the whole group showed up briefly at the after-party at the Showtime House in Tribeca, where band leader Jon Bon Jovi, Sayreville's most famous native, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres and Bryan took photos and fielded questions from the media.
"When We Were Beautiful" is a behind-the-scenes look at life in a rock band: the grueling touring; the triumphs; the personal demons band members faced; and the bond that this group from Central New Jersey has formed.
Jon Bon Jovi, dressed in a suit and wearing a long chain and pendant, swatted back the question when asked his reaction to the finished film.
"You tell me yours," he said. "I loved it a lot."
Sambora, wearing a leather jacket and long pendant as well, was chattier about "When We Were Beautiful." He bares his soul — about the rocky "dark" period when he got in emotional trouble, when his father died and he was divorcing Heather Locklear — in the film.
"It's a good honest look about what's happening behind the curtains, behind what really goes on in a rock band and the fact that there's a human factor to it," Sambora said.
"Everybody kind of looks at us like we're exempt from human tragedy or whatever goes on in people's lives," he said. "That's not true. We're just regular guys. Because when we go home, we f--king take the garbage out just like everybody else."
The band members are very frank about their personal woes and differences in the film, and the fact that the group almost broke up, until Jon Bon Jovi brought in psychologist Lou Cox to mend fences.
Sambora said the group was always aware of the camera rolling, but they trusted the director, film maker and photographer Phil Griffin.
"We didn't forget that the camera was there, but we got so comfortable with Phil," Sambora said. "He was with us for throughout the course of a year. We became very, very good friends. I love the guy. He became part of the Bon Jovi family. You know what, we got this new album called ‘The Circle.' The circle: It's hard to get in and it's even harder to get out."
Griffin, who flew in from London for the screening, addressed the audience at the screening.
