« Richie Sambora jailed for fraud | Main | Review: Daughtry holds his own with Bon Jovi »
March 18, 2008
Sambora talks about the tour, the album and some tough personal times
In the past year, guitarist Richie Sambora and his band Bon Jovi have hit No. 1 in at least 10 countries with their 10th album, "Lost Highway," and embarked on a world tour with more than $7 million worth of video gear in tow. But the 48-year-old New Jersey native also split with his longtime wife Heather Locklear and underwent a successful stint in rehab.
As Bon Jovi pulls into St. Paul for a two-night stand at the X, here's what Sambora had to say about his recent ups and downs during a conference call with reporters.
On going through rehab:
"Obviously just because you're, you know, a rock 'n' roll star doesn't make you exempt from any of life's tragedies. I had a couple of them kind of mount up on me a bit. But, you know, the band is obviously a great, great aid in pulling me up and helping me out of all those situations ... about a week after I got detoxed and stopped all that stuff, I went right back to work."
On making the country-tinged album "Lost Highway":
"In Nashville, there's a lot of great songwriters and, you know, we kind of fancy ourselves good songwriters, also, because it seems that we get to people with our lyrics and our music. So (it was) a natural progression and a natural: 'Why not try that and see what happens?' We're striving for evolution, and when you get an opportunity of an avenue opening up like that, it's kind of hard to walk away from it."
On making another country record:
"It's completely unclear that we will stay in that genre. I don't think we'll ever make another country album again. Well, you never can say never, but it doesn't sound like we're going to stay there. I think that it will always be a piece of our sound. I mean, the Rolling Stones had a lot of country elements to them in the beginning ... there's a definite link between country and rhythm and blues."
On the tour's technology:
"We've got a bunch of high-definition screens that are just (morphing) to different things. And it's going to be one of those things, I think, that will be a spectacle people have never seen before. We're very, very excited about it ... it looks like kind of a 'Holy cow!' moment. You know what I mean? People are going to walk away saying, 'Wow, this is really cool.' "
On the band's opening act Daughtry:
"Chris is, you know, unbelievable. I mean, obviously, he was a fan of Bon Jovi's when he was on 'American Idol.' He was doing a bunch of our songs ... and he had a lot of respect for what we did. (We became) fast friends with him and it was one of those that just was, you know, kismet."
On Bon Jovi's fan base:
"There's probably three generations of Bon Jovi fans. We've been around for almost three decades now, so there's the new kids that think we're a new band. They have been following us for, you know, maybe two or three records, and there's the people that have been with us since the inception of this organization."
On the possibility of a Bon Jovi reality TV show:
"The closest thing we ever came to a reality show was back in 1988 when we did what was called 'Access All Areas.' And we had camera crews follow us around what ended up being one of the nuttiest years of our life. It was such a pain in the ass. We're doing a documentary right now (with Barbara Kopple). ... That's about as much reality as we're going (to do)."
Posted by riesambo at March 18, 2008 10:21 PM