SamboraBlog

Torres, along with bandmates singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora and keyboardist David Bryan, should enjoy their performances. They're looking at touring through July in support of their latest album, the country-tinged "Lost Highway." The band was reluctant to reveal anything about the show, which comes to The Palace of Auburn Hills, Wednesday.

"It's going to involve a lot of media and a lot of visuals," Bryan said during the same conference call. "But it's a surprise. We can't tell you too much. It has pretty amazing screens and the stage is just awesome. It's probably the best stage we've ever had."

Sambora, also on the conference call, was a little more specific about the show, which will clock in at about 2 1/2 hours, without giving away too many details.

"We have a bunch of HD screens that morph into different things," Sambora said. "It's going to be a spectacle and feature things people have never seen before. We're very, very excited about it. From what we know after 25 years of experience, it looks like a 'Holy cow' moment. People are going to walk away going, 'Wow. This is really cool.'"

Bon Jovi hoped fans would have the same reaction to its 10th studio album, "Lost Highway." Torres explained the record came about through various visits to Nashville.

"We kind of did it as an experiment and it turned into a real record," Torres said. "Everybody seemed to like it, as well as ourselves. It was something that happened at the time. I don't think it's a genre that we'll follow.

"However, to have the success it did kind of catch us by surprise. We've been going to Nashville on and off individually and as a group for 17, 18 years. It rubs off. It was a nice adventure for us to do that."

This "adventure" spread through the Nashville community, bringing on board new fans young and old.

"The great thing about Bon Jovi fans now, there's multigenerational fans that we do have at this point," Sambora said. "I think there's probably three generations of Bon Jovi fans. We've been around for almost three decades now. There's kids who think we're a new band. They've been following us for maybe two or three records. Then there's people who have been there since the inception."

Torres calls his band a "brotherhood," and that bond reared itself when Sambora was admitted to a Utah rehab facility for addiction treatment. This followed his divorce from actress Heather Locklear and subsequent child custody battle. His father also was dying from lung cancer.

"Obviously just because you're a rock 'n' roll star, it doesn't make you exempt from any of life's tragedies," Sambora said. "The band was obviously a great, great aid in pulling me up and helping me out of those situations. Obviously my mom and friends were too. Also the band and also the fans and the work. A week after I got out of detox and stopped all that stuff, I went right back to work. We just started touring and promotion on the 'Lost Highway' album. Between the band and the fans and my faith, I got through it."