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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.
He explained that he met Jon Bon Jovi several years ago after doing a music video for a single that the singer he and LeAnn Rimes did together. He then did a second video with the Jersey rocker.
Griffin was starting to dabble in photography, and convinced Jon Bon Jovi to pose for a portrait.
"Jon saw the picture and said. ‘Wow, you really got me,'" Griffin said.
The relationship built, with Griffin touring with the band and taking more photos.
The group had started work on a book, but Jon Bon Jovi was not happy with the process. He cancelled plans for the book and wanted to instead do a film.
According to Griffin, "Jon said to me, ‘You understand us. Why don't you make a film with us? We want to make a documentary."
Ironically, a companion book to the film is being published.
Griffin said the documentary's title, "When We Were Beautiful," is about innocence.
"It's about that time in our lives where our world did not go beyond our block," he told the screening audience. "For these four guys what I discovered by spending more than a year with them was that the world has never gone beyond their block, which is why they stayed together, which is why they're brothers, which is why I think they are more important than just a rock band. "
In the theater lobby after the screening, Griffin admitted he was not an immediate fan of the band. In fact, "When We Were Beautiful" addresses the fact head-on that music critics have never been fans of Bon Jovi.
"I love this band," Griffin said. "I did not love this band when I worked with them from the beginning."
But after spending time with Bon Jovi, Griffin had a change of heart.
"Their honesty that they were able to give me changed my opinion of them from Bon Joni ‘Living On A Prayer' to, ‘My God, these four guys are beautiful, beautiful men,'" he said.
Griffin denied that the film is a whitewash of the band members, who are portrayed as devoted family men. In the documentary, there are no drugs, no groupies, no drinking. Being a rock star is depicted as lonely, grueling work.
"As a documentarian, I have dug," Griffin said. "I have really tried to find the dirt."
Certainly, Torres explains his struggle with alcohol, just as Sambora outlines his problems.
Griffin, who worked for the film's producer — the Oscar and Emmy-winning @radical.media — argued with Jon Bon Jovi about certain scenes. But Griffin maintained that the group leader really let the director retain control.
"I never gave in, never," Griffin said. "We had some fights about what I wanted to say about him as opposed to what he wanted to say about himself."
Jon Bon Jovi was "always very gracious, and said, ‘If you believe that's the way the film should be, then let it go,'" according to Griffin.
The band leader is depicted as a very astute businessman who is full hands-on in terms of decisions and direction. He is also involved in various charities.
"Jon's philanthropy and his business head are co-joined," Griffin said. "He is what he is. He's a very gentle, gentleman. He does not do stuff that he doesn't want to do. But when he does stuff, he does properly."
Griffin, ready to set out for the after-party, described Jon Bon Jovi as a reluctant hero.
"I had been in arguments with him about how reluctant he is to be a hero," Griffin said. "He is a hero. He works really hard to make his band work, make his charities work, make his home life work. His wife is the most beautiful woman, and his kids."
Related:
‘Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful' gives viewers a behind the scenes look at New Jersey's native sons
Bon Jovi set to be first band to kick off in new Meadowlands Stadium
