ARTIST

Bon Jovi

The year: 1986. The band: Bon Jovi. Like a cowboy, Jon Bon Jovi rode in on a steel horse to sell over 9 million records and set the standard in the questionable art of the power ballad. Only this cowboy was a New Jersey boy named John Bongiovi, and the record--Slippery When Wet--was the first album in rock history to be market-tested on teenaged Jersey heshers. Bon Jovi was a group truly of its moment, hitting its creative peak precisely as the pop planets aligned to produce the perfect opening for a lite-metal powerhouse to seize the nation's attention. Van Halen had created the formula and the demand, but self-destructed in 1985. Bon Jovi took not only the idea for Van Halen's name, but also the brass ring that a Halen without Diamond Dave could never snatch.

John Bongiovi got his start sweeping floors at his cousin Tony Bongiovi's famous New York City recording studio, the Power Station, where at age 19 the young singer got his first professional gig: crooning the part of a disgustingly sweet child on the song "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas" for the awkwardly titled 1980 Meco/John Williams' record Christmas In The Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album. Eventually, he recorded his own demos there, and one of them, "Runaway," sparked radio and label attention, leading to a deal with Mercury in 1983. Since the deal was just for Jon Bon Jovi, the rest of the band--keyboardist David Bryan, bassist Alex John Such, and drummer (and winner of the surprisingly competitive Funniest Name In The Band competition) Tico Torres--were hired as his employees. That made it easier for him to fire original guitarist David Sabo (later of Skid Row) from the lineup after meeting Richie Sambora, who saw the band in a club shortly after the signing and talked his way into an audition.

Though their first two albums registered some low-level hits, it was Slippery When Wet--the songs for which really were selected from a larger pool by New Jersey teens--that catapulted the band to superstardom. In between two massive world tours, the formula was repeated and the success continued with 1988's New Jersey, which also went multiplatinum and spawned another litter of hits nearly identical to those from the last record. Jon Bon Jovi was even inspired by the movie Young Guns II to issue the solo blockbuster Blaze Of Glory, consisting of the title theme he wrote and a raft of "inspired by" songs. Amidst all the hubbub, the band almost escaped blame for helping pals Skid Row and Cinderella snag record deals of their own. (A lawsuit over Skid Row's royalty rights soon followed.)

Following a brief hiatus while Sambora and Bryan also put out solo albums (you mean you never picked up Bryan's soundtrack to Netherworld), the band returned in 1992 with Keep The Faith, which, while not a blockbuster, still managed to sell a few million and chart at number five. The same could not be said for These Days, the band's lackluster 1995 "comeback" which continued the sales drop-off and encouraged Jon Bon Jovi to pursue acting and Tico Torres to take up art. (Alex John Such quit the band just before the album, and was not officially replaced.) Jon additionally put out another solo record, Destination Anywhere.

The new millennium found Bon Jovi ready to make another go as a unit, and the band took some time out together in the studio to plan its next release. The result, Crush, was a welcome return to form and spawned the VH1-friendly hit "It's My Life." Jon Bon Jovi took some more time out for acting--temporarily joining the cast of Fox TV's Ally McBeal--before the band re-emerged in 2002 with Bounce.

Wrriten by Scott Chernoff