Frontman Jon Bon Jovi and keyboardist David Bryan of Bon Jovi joined Audacy's Karson & Kennedy "backstage" -- but more like in the cozy living room -- following their intimate performance for fans at the Mix 104.1 Beach House in Cape Cod, MA this summer.
LISTEN NOW: Karson & Kennedy talk with Bon Jovi at the Mix Beach House
“It's a unique performance spot. Now, I will say it's not the first time we've done something this crazy,” Jon recalls, turning to David and asking, “Remember in Australia, when we played at that lunchtime in a little float in the middle of the water? They put us on a barge, and the people were on the land -- it was like some kind of lunch hour thing. So that it was the opposite of the crazies where they jump in from the land to swim out to the barge instead of the boat swimming onto the land.”
“But you know what else is beautiful about it? Summer, you know… you realize that these folks are just here to have fun,” he adds. “They know the PA is only this [big], they don't care. We're just strumming acoustic guitars the way these songs were written. That's the beautiful thing about all this. It's just a celebration.”
Going into the event, Jon says he felt a little hesitant, but after seeing U2 and Dave Matthews Band pull off similar performances he admits, “I was like, ‘Well, we can do it, but should we do it?’ I was like, ‘I'm playing on a porch and I'm sober doing it…’ Usually, if I'm singing on a porch I've had a few.”
“Yeah, that's the only, that's the disappointing part,” David jokes. “We didn't have a few.” However, after 40 years of “working” with the group, each time he gets to perform is a blessing. “You say work? You play music, you don't work music," he explains, “and music is playing. It's just fun. You play an instrument when you're a kid because it's fun and then we got to never get a job. We get to keep playing until the road runs out.”
“When you're in good health and you've written songs that people remember for all these years, we didn't even dip our toe into the catalog of hits today,” Jon continues, “it's astounding the relationship that we've had with this audience by and large for four decades. And we're not on the ‘Where Are They Now’ pile,” he adds of the band’s latest release, Forever, which arrived in early June 2024. “This is the top five album around the planet. If it weren't for that pesky Taylor girl,” he says of Pop star Taylor Swift’s massive chart success, “we would have been number one everywhere!”
“Isn't that fantastic that, on our 18th album, we're still having big hit successes? So, it's knock on wood and why not be joyful?” Jon says, as David adds, “Again, instead of ‘Where Are They Now?’ We're still here having fun, making hit records, and playing to the people.”
Of course, this type of intimate gathering is quite familiar to Jon and the rest of the group, who also host events through the JBJ Foundation and the JBJ Soul Kitchen which his wife, Dorothea, created as a model restaurant with a pay-it-forward concept. “If you guys come, and you wanna effect change directly, leave a suggested donation that pays not only for your great farm-to-table meal, but you're taking care of somebody else who can’t afford to pay -- and you will never know who can afford to pay because none of that is ever discussed,” he explains of the organization's efforts. “There's no prices on the menus you see, and it's all farm to table. There's no soda pop, there's no candy bars, there's no government subsidies. It's all really good and good for you. We have four of them, two in regular retail outlets in New Jersey, and two of them on college campuses. Because you never think about it, but a kid that is in college is not always eating ramen because it's fashionable. They're eating ramen because they can't make ends meet.”
Don't miss Karson & Kennedy's full chat with Bon Jovi's Jon Bon Jovi and David Bryan at the Mix Beach House above -- and stay tuned for even more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.
Plus, listen to Bon Jovi Radio and more on the free Audacy app