SamboraBlog

Jon Bon Jovi's Opening Act

(CBS) When you mention the name Bon Jovi, you are really talking about two things: it's the name of one of the most famous rock bands in the world, and it's also the name of its front man and lead singer, Jon Bon Jovi. Either way, after a quarter of a century in the spotlight, you are still talking about one of the most successful acts in music history.

As correspondent Steve Kroft reports, since emerging from the clubs of the New Jersey shore a decade after Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi has sold just as many records around the world, but without the fanfare and critical acclaim.

None of it would have happened without the founder, Jon Bon Jovi: showman, salesman, philanthropist, sportsman, and clear-eyed CEO, who is very much an anomaly in the music business.

On a hot New Jersey day last July, Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands was packed for a Live Earth benefit featuring some of the most famous rock stars on the planet. A few thousand feet overhead, Jon Bon Jovi-one of the main headliners and the crowd's favorite-was surveying his domain.

"This is my hometown stadium. I'm so crazy about this building," he said.

And with good reason: in this day and age there are only a handful of groups that can fill a football stadium, and Bon Jovi has done it at Giants Stadium eight times.

A half an hour later, he was on the ground and in the dressing room chugging little bottle of Ginseng, as the rest of the band went through its pre-concert routine.

After a few pictures with his fans, more than 50,000 people would get what they had been waiting for.

It was the beginning of another good run in a very long career that has been full of them. His tenth album, "Lost Highway," was number one on the Billboard charts, and he was just beginning another world tour that is expected to gross more than a quarter of a billion dollars before it ends this summer.

"This has been a very good year for you," Kroft remarked.

"I haven't had a bad year since the doctor slapped me on the ass, you know," Bon Jovi replied, laughing.

He's not bragging-he's just commenting on his own incredible good luck. He was born John Francis Bongiovi an hour's drive from the Meadowlands to a father who was a Marine-turned-hairdresser and a mother who was a Marine-turned-Playboy Bunny. It explains the good looks and the discipline he needed to survive the stigma of being one of the original 1980s hair bands.

"You've got to laugh and have some fun with it. I've jokingly said I'm responsible for the hole in the ozone layer," Bon Jovi joked.

He laughs about it, but he thinks it may still be affecting his street cred.

Asked if he has gotten the respect that's due, Bon Jovi told Kroft, "Well that depends on how do you want to define the word respect. Is longevity respect? Is coming home and having your family be proud of you respect? I don't know if what you're asking me is, critical acclaim, you know? There are critic's darlings. That I won't be. I got that."

When Bon Jovi's third album, "Slippery When Wet," debuted in 1986, Rolling Stone wrote that it sounded like "bad fourth generation metal," and neglected to mention a cut that would soon become a rock anthem.

That song was "Livin' On A Prayer;" the album sold 25 million copies and Bon Jovi got the last laugh.

"One of the biggest albums of all time is called 'Slippery When Wet.' If 'Livin' On a Prayer' hasn't crossed generations and had its influence on this culture and isn't the biggest karaoke song or stadium song that's its up there with anyone ever, let me know. Because it's just obviously not the truth," he told Kroft.

He followed it up with six more platinum albums and enough hits to make his sold out concerts among the hottest tickets in the music industry.

In a business that's struggling to survive, Bon Jovi is still a cash cow and no one works harder at it. He does four or five two and a half hour shows per week when he's on the road, with only a couple of two minute breaks to change clothes and cool off before going back on stage.

"I have to think every night like, I'm a prize fighter going out on that stage, that it's gonna be the last fight. You'd think, why would I beat myself up like that after 25 years?" Bon Jovi asked. "'Cause you want to be the best. I don't want to think that anyone's coming in there and gonna be better tomorrow night."

That blue collar work ethic to put on the best show possible has won him a loyal audience that generally prefers beer to wine, knows what they like, and could care less about the cognoscenti.

Bon Jovi likes to think that they are drawn to his honest, optimistic music, but he is not oblivious to his sex appeal, which is why he wears those tight jeans for all the ladies on their night out.

Asked who comes to a Bon Jovi concert, he told Kroft, "I think it's probably a 60/40 mix of girls to guys."

"Why so many women do you think?" Kroft asked.

"They pay me for two things: singing and shaking my rear end," he said, laughing. "So hopefully they are still coming and feeling good about themselves too, out in public and enjoying that euphoria with their friends."

"At some point that, over the years, must have posed a bit of a distraction for you, didn't it?" Kroft asked.

"Well, sure. I mean, how could it not? They are beautiful to look at, but if the question is, you know, 'Why not indulge?', ultimately I got it right the first time," Bon Jovi said.

He's talking about his wife Dorothea, a former high school sweetheart who he's been married to for 19 years. She makes it a point to keep herself and their four down-to-earth children out of the spotlight.

"Does she understand all this stuff?" Kroft asked.

"Yeah, most definitely. Because she has been through it with me since its inception," Bon Jovi replied.

"I know she's talked about women like crawling over her…to get to you," Kroft remarked.

"It's true. But, like I said, she's very self-assured and independent and strong-willed. And knows who she is," Bon Jovi said.

She also happens to be a black belt in karate. The Bon Jovis split their time between New York, Long Island, and a sprawling estate on the Navesink River in the horse country of New Jersey.

"I never would have figured you for a French chateau," Kroft remarked.

"Well, there you go. Never judge a book by its cover," Bon Jovi replied, laughing.

Bon Jovi says he and his wife wanted something timeless and classic. Something understated, he joked, that they could grow into.

The living room for example has a unique feature: with the push of a button, the floor parts, and from below a giant screen emerges that turns the parlor into a screening room.

It is more than suitable for hosting titans of industry, entertainment moguls and presidential candidates, all of which Bon Jovi has done at the home. And it serves as a signpost for just how rich, successful, and ambitious he has become.

He has aspirations of one day owning part of an NFL franchise, which is one of the reasons he decided to buy the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League in 2004.

Nostalgic for the days when players were accessible and tickets prices affordable, Bon Jovi has tried to recreate the era when a dad could take a bunch of neighborhood kids to a game and a sports franchise gave something back to the community.

"Does the football team make enough money for you to be doing it all in their name?" Kroft asked.

"No, not at all," Bon Jovi said.

Bon Jovi said it doesn't make any money at all. "But we're not losing a lot of money either," he pointed out. "I didn't do it to make money. In fact, on paper, owning a sports team doesn't make any sense to anybody. It makes no sense. It's not economically viable."

So Bon Jovi made the team the umbrella of his philanthropic endeavors, like refurbishing 15 townhouses on what had been one of the worst streets in Philadelphia.

The homes were refurbished by the team. "The idea was that I was gonna take all the monies that we made and give it back and utilize it in ways that would affect the community," Bon Jovi explained. "So initially I was playing Robin Hood. And if you needed a playground at a foster home, we built it. If you needed beds for a covenant house, we gave 'em to you."

It helped make the Soul one of the most successful franchises in the league. And just a few hours after they won their home opener before 15,000 people at the Wachovia Center, the arena was being transformed for another Bon Jovi event. This time it was his night job: another sold out concert that was taking place on his 46th birthday.

A few days later the traveling circus with 92 employees and 27 truckloads of gear had moved west to Pittsburgh. And as with everything else in his life, Jon Bon Jovi is the ringmaster.

Asked what his payroll is, Bon Jovi told Kroft, "Outdoors it's a couple million a week. Indoors it's half of that. It's high. I mean, I get sick, man. There ain't no insurance for that, you know."

"Jon is the leader of this organization. It's defined. That's an advantage," Bon Jovi's lead guitarist Richie Sambora said.

"1985, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Jon was the only person who was actually on the record contract. And the rest of you were all employees of his," Kroft said.

"That's true," Sambora said.

And Sambora said that it is still true today. "It's the most unique position and the most unique thing in the record business, I think, to date. It shows you even more the solidarity of what this union is about."

Sambora, who has made up for Bon Jovi's absence from the gossip columns with a highly publicized divorce from Heather Locklear and troubles with alcohol, says no one in the band has ever regretted the arrangement.

"Jon, he's the master of all philanthropic endeavors, sports teams, you know, song writing, record production. I mean, the guy is very, very smart man. And then on top of that, best brother a guy could ask for," Sambora said. "Very consistent. Always. I mean, played a big part in helping me out of my deluge over the last year, you know? Kept me up. Kept me working."

The loyalty goes both ways and Bon Jovi has made them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Sambora, Tico Torres and keyboardist Dave Bryan have been together for 26 years now, since the earliest days on the Jersey shore, and they remain among Bon Jovi's closest friends.

"You guys seem to get along pretty well for a rock band," Kroft remarked.

"We speak the same language. We've grown up in the same place. I mean, Jon and David, and I were born by the same baby doctor in the same hospital," Sambora explained.

"It's a relationship that's closer than marriage. You know, we can't divorce each other. Or, the only way out of this band I think is death. That's about it, Bryan added.

It's taken them to London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and a few years ago to Nashville, for what many people thought was a high risk venture into the world of country music.

But a collaboration with Jennifer Nettles and Sugarland on a Bon Jovi song led to one of their biggest hits in years. "Who Says You Can't Go Home" became the first song ever written by a rock band to reach number one on the country charts, and won Bon Jovi a Grammy, a new audience, and another life.

He thinks he still has a couple more to go. "My biography's only half written. This was just the opening act," he said.

"And what's the rest of the story gonna be?" Kroft asked.

"That's the beauty of it. I never was gonna be a coulda/shoulda/woulda. Too many people I've met are, 'I coulda done that, I shoulda done that, I woulda done that,'" he replied. "Me, I said, 'Let's go.'"