Exclusive 'Bon Jovi: The Story' Book Excerpt Chronicles Band's Shaky Start

Bryan Reesman’s new biography Bon Jovi: The Story delves into the history of the highly popular and in many ways highly underrated New Jersey rock band. The public focus has always been on dashing frontman Jon Bon Jovi, but this book explores the band as a whole unit — including Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres, Hugh McDonald, and former bassist Alec John Such — and their individual contributions as well as outside endeavors. Other notable collaborators like songwriter Desmond Child and video director Wayne Isham also get their due.

Nearly 40 fresh interviews were conducted for this unofficial book, including early Jon and Richie bandmates like Jack Ponti and Bruce Stephen Foster, rock icons like Rob Halford and Herman Rarebell, producer Luke Ebbin, and film director Jonathan Mostow. Rather than an outside biographer acting like they were there, these stories come from the people who actually experienced them.

The following exclusive excerpt is from the latter half of Chapter 3 (“From Jersey to Japan”), which covers the years 1984 and 1985 when the band released their first two albums, Bon Jovi and 7800o Fahrenheit. While everyone remembers them as the multiplatinum superstars of the late 1980s, the group initially worked hard to win over converts and compete in a crowded hard rock marketplace. They achieved modest success initially, but life was far from being peaches and cream. They coped with financial problems, personal struggles, and theft.

Reprinted with permission from Bon Jovi: The Story © 2016 by Bryan Reesman, Sterling, an imprint of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

After the lengthy touring of 1984, Bon Jovi did not rest. Jon told MTV in the summer that he had been informed by the label that they would begin work on their next release on November 10. The tour ended November 6. So they quickly jumped into writing and recording their second album, 7800o Fahrenheit. Given that the main hit from their previous album was not performed by the band [except for Jon on vocals], and its second single was someone else’s song, this was their chance to prove themselves with all-original material.

For several weeks between January and March 1985, the Jersey quintet assembled their sophomore effort at the Warehouse, a new studio in Philadelphia where Lita Ford had recently recorded. Jon and Richie would soon become the core writing partners in the group, but David contributed to three tunes (“Only Lonely,” “The Hardest Part Is the Night,” and “(I Don’t Wanna Fall) to the Fire”) and Tico to one (“Secret Dreams”). David’s songs in particular had a larger-than-life emotional quality that helped them stand out, which makes it a bit surprising that he has since played less of a part in the songwriting department.

Returning producer Lance Quinn generated a slightly harder vibe than their debut effort, and the guitar and keyboard sounds kept pace with the times. The lyrics were slowly maturing as well. Although a harder album than its predecessor, 7800o Fahrenheit continued to tell tales of romance gone awry, relationships falling apart, as well as life on the road—all personal themes the band members knew intimately. They had gone through their share of heartache. By the end of their first year of touring, Jon’s four-year relationship with Dorothea had ended and Tico’s marriage had disintegrated. Tico owned a home and Alec was also married, while the rest of the band lived with their parents. The long periods of separation, and perhaps the financial stress, were tearing some relationships apart, and the strain and sadness surfaced in several songs.

“In that era of that second album, everyone lost their girlfriends, wives, whatever,” Tico Torres said on Inside the Actor’s Studio in October 2009. He recalls how they were stuck with each other’s misery, “We were all living together.” They were also making little money. The group shared a poorly heated apartment with little furniture and minimal food in the fridge. Richie reportedly did solo gigs and Tico did session work to make ends meet. In spite of these issues, their fun camaraderie prevailed and the band became musically tighter and more assured than ever. They evidently channeled their frustrations into song. Two of the album’s three videos, “Only Lonely” and “Silent Night,” reflected that emotional turbulence.

A couple of ominous signs surrounded the making of the album. Speaking to Sylvie Simmons of Request Magazine in 1996, Jon recalled: “I remember going through some legal hassles with a production company that claimed we had a deal with them and wanted a piece of the band because now all of a sudden we were touting our success. And we literally had to carry the tapes with us to and from the studio for fear of somebody stealing them.”

Partway through recording, Bon Jovi’s rehearsal studio in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, had been broken into and much of their gear stolen. Doc McGhee put up a $2,500 reward for information leading to the return of the instruments and gear. Derek Shulman recalls that nothing was ever recovered.

After the album’s release, Bon Jovi hit the road again. The first stop on the band’s tour was Japan. They went on to play the World Music Festival with Deep Purple in Dallas in August followed by two dates at the Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donington in the United Kingdom. They came back to play a Cotton Bowl festival in Dallas with Scorpions, Ted Nugent, and ZZ Top, then the first Farm Aid in Austin,

Texas, on September 22 with a diverse roster including John Denver, Huey Lewis, X, and Van Halen. During the year, Jon was briefly involved with actress Diane Lane, but by year’s end he had returned to his hometown to win back Dorothea and reignite their relationship, which was to become a cornerstone in his life.

Regular touring resumed in mid-October when they joined Ratt’s extensive American trek, opening for them through the end of the year. “I saw one of those shows, and they were great,” says Joe Franco, veteran rock drummer and owner of Beatstreet Productions. (He had briefly filled in for Tico after he left Frankie and the Knockouts.) “Sambora was great. They were like f**king rock stars. They had the arena thing down.”

Along the way the members of Bon Jovi did press with MTV and any radio, video, and print outlets that could give them exposure. Despite nonstop touring and regular promotion, the album (unlike its title) was not catching fire the way they had hoped. (Funnily enough, 7800o Fahrenheit referred to the fictitious, and subsequently erroneously reported, melting point of rock. The real temperature is closer to 2300 o F.)

“There was a lot of concern around the time of 7800° because it was expected to be the record that was going to really blow it up, and when it didn’t there was a lot of panic,” recalls radio, television, and music industry veteran Eddie Trunk in our interview. “I remember working in a record store, and the hype and the push for 7800° to be the

breaking record was pretty sizable. When it didn’t happen there was concern that maybe this band wasn’t going to go the distance like everybody thought. Here in New Jersey it was still a big deal, and the records were still getting played. When they shot those videos on the boardwalk there was a lot of people that went to see them. But nationally it didn’t catch. I have a 12-inch radio promo for ‘Silent Night’ and the picture on the cover is Jon and it says, ‘The best kept secret in radio,’ because they just couldn’t get it over nationally.”

The band needed a creative shot in the arm, especially as they were in the midst of what would eventually become a six-year grind of making an album and touring, then back to the studio again.

The stakes had been raised. Although Bon Jovi had toured hard and sales were up over their debut (750,000 versus 350,000), 7800° Fahrenheit was not destined to be the release that broke the band to a massive audience. When they set about crafting their third album, it was make or break time. And they would answer that challenge with their biggest statement ever.