NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Jon Bon Jovi

Episode Date: February 3, 2020

Rock star Jon Bon Jovi and his wife Dorothea Bongiovi talk to Kate Snow about his record deal at 20 years old and their mission to give back.

I graduated high school. I wasn't going to college. This was it. There was no plan B. It was music or nothing? No plan B. Dorothea Bon Jovi, Jon Bon Jovi, this is your new place. Welcome, JBJ Kitchen. People know you for your rock and roll. Do you want rock and roll to be your legacy? Or do you kind of want this to be your legacy? Oh, no.

You know, it's just so encompassing. I mean, what we do philanthropically, it's not stereotypical rock and roll star stuff, you know? It's not. It's not. And I didn't care about that. This has nothing to do with that. But I tell people oftentimes when we're able to do this and volunteer in our restaurants or if you come and volunteer, you'll feel the same kind of high. And I'm not exaggerating when you leave a restaurant that you do when I get off working, because truthfully, you leave buzzing about what you've done for the day. We opened our first Soul Kitchen 10 years ago in Red Bank, New Jersey

after Superstorm Sandy and the second one in Tom's River because those were the people most impacted by it. Now what we realize is that there were kids in colleges that were hungry. The Soul Kitchens are a community restaurant where the model is you pay it forward. If you leave a 20 on the table, it paid for your meal and the cost of somebody's meal next to you. For those who cannot pay, and you'd never know the difference, they volunteer. The tough part is for people with the stigma is that they self-identify. So we try to make that process as simple as possible.

They come in, we ask them, have you dined with us before? We explain the model, and then they're given the choice. If they want to volunteer and participate, they can. If they just want to pay it forward, they swipe their meal. It's like a meal plan. So it empowers everyone and anyone to participate in the model. You're a kid from New Jersey. You ever stop and think about how this all happened? Oh, sure, every day. You know, I mean, we wrote Who Said You Can't Go Home? You know, I mean, it was the state song film. So I did it.

I think people know that song. Yeah, but it's just... I might know all the words. Thank you. Yeah, every day. Every time you sit down and think, I get to do a job that I love to do. And I still get to do it at the level that

I've grown accustomed to so it's a blessing. I read that you were a janitor in a recording studio. Well I was a gopher. Okay you were a gopher in a recording studio. Sure you know when you when you're doing something and you're at that early stage of your career you'll do anything and at that time in my life I had an opportunity to be a gopher in a recording studio I graduated high school I wasn't going to college this was it there was no plan b it was music or no plan b and your parents like that you know I was fortunate enough that the drinking age in New Jersey and this is relevant was 18 which meant that you could play in a bar at 16 you could slip in there and pretend to be 18.

So I was already doing it. You were making it already. And so my folks were like, well, you know, you don't really have great responsibility yet. Try, keep going. And by 20, I had a record deal. You guys are finishing each other's sentences.

30 years married? Pretty big accomplishment in the universe of musicians. I mean, that's... There's other people though. Bono and Bruce and us and there's a lot. And Patty and... Married to Keith Richards. Oh yeah, Patty and Keith Richards.

That's true, that's true. I don't know, just... Rock stars get a bad rap, you know. Unjustly, I might add. Has this now, has this philanthropy sort of become what you do as a couple? Well, we do a lot of things, but this is one of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's a big part of who we are and what we are for a long, long time now.

You're going on tour again this summer. Yeah. Well, because I have a topical record called 2020. I really didn't want to go. I've been working a lot, and the record is really topical. So I got to get out there. You can't go on tour in 2021. You got to go on tour in 2020.

So topical meaning political? Well, social. I really addressed, without taking sides, the shootings that are becoming acceptable to people because they turn the channel and then they forget. You know, these everyday... I cover them way too often. They're heartbreaking. Soldiers with PTSD, the political environment in which we're living. Do you still like the touring? No. I'm really good at it. You are really good at it.

What were the keys along the way that led you to this? The thing is that I grew up in public. I got a record deal when I was 20 years old. It's been the same record deal with the same band and the same wife and the same life. So I've grown up in public. And so people have been along for the ride. Pictures from the 80s are my baby pictures. But we didn't try to be anything we weren't.

It just grew up and people came along that journey. Some got off the ride, some got on it later. But it continues to be my journey. And I don't think there is a destination. I think that you start out thinking, oh, you know, if you were playing in a club, oh my gosh, that's, you heard the song on the radio, oh my gosh, that was a milestone. Like all these milestones, and then you just end up where you are one day. Did you have a lot of help? Like, did you have mentors along the way?

Everybody helps, you know, whether it's the band or the producers of the record company, the managers or the, you know, however your influences were. And then leading ourselves into this is one of our board members today is a nun and people would joke on said the rock star and the nun, you know, this must be a reality show. Sister Mary is like, she's a saint. What's been the biggest hurdle? I don't know if there's been hurdles. We're blessed because we have the ability to do what we want to do in this forum.

There's a great saying that says the path, the obstacles in the path is the path. So whatever obstacle it is, it's just the way you're going. Yeah. What do you say to young musicians out there? Be true. It's a whole different world now. No, I just tell them be true to themselves. Don't chase fads or fashions.

Don't try to emulate something that you think will make you popular because by the time you catch that wave, it's past, and it's not yours to begin with, so you don't know what to do next. You have to stay true to who you are. If I pretended to follow rap and then country and boy bands and, you know, or tried to dye my hair to stay young, it would be yucky. If you could give people advice about how to give back

and how to make a difference. Find your own it. Find what moves you. Get involved locally and see what does inspire you and what is your passion. And, you know, our thing kind of just came from, like I said, not wanting to see people suffer. Thank you so much. I don't know if we can cheers with coffee cups. We will.

To your big opening tomorrow. Thank you. Very exciting.