Bon Jovi's Forever tour launches July 7 at Madison Square Garden
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Key Takeaways
- In a new PEOPLE cover story, Jon Bon Jovi opens up about touring for the first time in four years
- The rock legend underwent vocal cord surgery in 2022 and will kick off the Forever tour with the band at Madison Square Garden on July 7
- “It’s not about perfection. It’s about excellence,” he says of his return to the stage
Jon Bon Jovi is kicking back in the cabana next to his palatial Mediterranean-style mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. Barefoot in jeans and a T-shirt, the rock legend is the picture of contentment as waves ripple through the pool behind him from a breeze off the Atlantic. Soon he’ll return home to New Jersey to resume rehearsals for his band’s upcoming tour. But on this blue-sky Sunday afternoon, he’s soaking in every off-duty moment.
“See my bracelet? It says ‘Papa Jon’ — I’m like the pizzeria,” Bon Jovi, 64, jokes of the beaded friendship bracelet bearing his new nickname since becoming a grandpa twice over. His middle son, Jake, 24, and daughter-in-law, Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown, 22, announced last August that they had adopted a baby girl three months before oldest son Jesse, 31, and his wife, Jesse, 32, also welcomed a daughter.
“Jake and Millie were here today with the baby — they just left — and Jesse and Jesse were here two weeks ago with the baby,” a beaming Bon Jovi says. “It’s awesome, it’s absolutely awesome.”
Credit: Michael Schwartz
Bon Jovi has learned to appreciate the little things even more after weathering a health crisis. Four years ago he had surgery for a strained vocal cord, and in 2024 he told PEOPLE he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to tour again. Finally he’s ready to return to the stage for the band’s Forever tour, kicking off in New York City in July. And the “Livin’ on a Prayer” singer is now living in the moment, onstage and off.
“Well, outside of work, what brings me joy is realizing that the sun is shining. It sounds a little trite, but it’s not,” he says. “I used to always have my nose to the grindstone, always put my head down, thinking of tomorrow, never living in the today. This forced me to not only live in the today but be appreciative for every today that’s still here,” he adds. “So the simple joys of waking up with my granddaughter today, playing tennis with some guys that I’ve never met before, staring at the little puffy cloud in the sky . . . This is it. This is as real as it gets. That’s joy.”
Credit: Michael Schwartz
After Bon Jovi’s last tour ended in 2022, he underwent a vocal cord medialization to fix a damaged cord. “I’d often joked and said the only thing that’s ever been up my nose was my finger. I never did anything to hurt the cords; I didn’t have any excesses. I’m a trained vocalist. I’ve practiced the craft,” Bon Jovi says. “So when a doctor had to explain to me that one of the cords was literally atrophying, it was confusing.”
While the surgery was successful, the rock star’s future in performing was up in the air. Today, after years of working with vocal coaches and exercising his voice, “I’m fully recovered,” he says. “It was longer than I’d ever expected, but it had to be right. We never lost faith.”
Credit: Michael Schwartz
Bon Jovi’s bandmates stuck by his side as he retrained his instrument. “They never doubted [me] and never looked for work or decided to retire. The sacrifices that each one of them have made to be there for me is on a whole ’nother level,” Bon Jovi adds of the brotherhood he has formed with keyboardist David Bryan, percussionist Everett Bradley, bassist Hugh McDonald, guitarist John Shanks, drummer Tico Torres and guitarist Phil X. “They said, ‘No, we’re with you.’ Every day of every rehearsal they were there with me. My love for them has only deepened.”
Credit: Lise Pedersen
On July 7 the band will kick off their Forever tour with a nine-night residency at Madison Square Garden before heading overseas for more sold-out shows in England and Ireland.
“It’s not about perfection. It’s about excellence,” he says, launching into an analogy about the magic of live music. “It’s like I have the gift to be able to hold this light. The gift that I receive is being in the reflection of that light when it hits the audience, and that’s what I’ve been working for — I’ve been training to find the ability to hold that light. It’s like this whole spiritual communion between the band and me and the audience.”
After founding Bon Jovi in his native Sayreville, N.J., the frontman (born John Francis Bongiovi Jr.) broke out with the 1984 release of “Runaway” alongside Bryan, Torres, the late bassist Alec John Such and former guitarist Richie Sambora (who left the band in 2013). Two years later their seminal album Slippery When Wet — with their first No. 1 hit “You Give Love a Bad Name” — “changed our lives,” says Bon Jovi, who learned that “music is an international language” by traveling the world with the band.
Credit: Michael Schwartz
Back home he came to understand the importance of its unifying power. “I found America — and all the beautiful things that make this melting pot and great experiment — riding my motorcycle cross-country when I wasn’t making records,” he says. “It is a big country with a lot of differences of opinion, but now more than ever, you better figure out things that bring people together, like music.”
Despite selling more than 130 million records while leading one of the most successful rock acts of all time, Bon Jovi never forgot where he came from.
“My license will always say New Jersey. Almost everyone feels that from whence they came, it’s what they become. I think that we all carry that piece of home with us,” he says. “Growing up in the shadow of New York City made us who we are. The idea that the greatest city in the world was right out your window made us inspired, gave us aspirations — and Jersey gave us perspiration. It gave us a reason to sweat and to aspire.”
Credit: Michael Schwartz
Still based in the Garden State part-time, Bon Jovi has carried on traditions from his childhood — like beach days on the Jersey Shore — into his own family life with high school sweetheart Dorothea Bongiovi and their children, including daughter Stephanie, 33, and son Romeo, 22.
Refueled by his family, friends and gratitude for his reclaimed voice, Bon Jovi is facing the future with some healthy perspective. “I think that this is a rebirth,” he says of touring again. “It is simply about the joy.”
For more on Jon Bon Jovi, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
Read the full article here
