SamboraBlog

Bon Jovi will perform the first single "(You Want To) Make a Memory" during country music's CMT Awards in Nashville on April 16, and will also visit "American Idol" on May 2, and NBC's "Today" the day the album comes out.

One of the tracks, "We Got It Going" featuring country duo Big & Rich, serves as the theme for ESPN's coverage of the Arena Football League, in which front man Jon Bon Jovi co-owns a team. One of the album's producers, Dan Huff, previously worked with country stars Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts.

The title track, though, is not related to the country classic popularized by Hank Williams. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote it with the album's other producer, John Shanks, and it can be heard in the surprise box office hit "Wild Hogs."

Bon Jovi recently won the first Grammy in its career, in the country category, for its collaboration with Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland. "Who Says You Can't Go Home" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, the first time in almost 30 years that a top billed non-country artist has reached No. 1 with its first attempt at the country chart.

"Lost Highway" is the follow-up to 2005's "Have a Nice Day," which has sold 1.4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Bon Jovi has yet to announce tour plans; the group finished 2006 with the No. 3 tour according to Billboard Boxscore, grossing $131 million.

Reuters/Billboard