German interview

that is very interesting to read.  I used Google translate for this.  Please, if you are offended by anything Jon says, take it up with him and not me.  I won't argue about how things are lost in translation. 

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/der-saenger-jon-bon-jovi-im-interview-a-901048.html


Where only with all the money? With his band, Jon Bon Jovi has earned more than most other rock stars. In the interview he talks candidly about costly mistakes, wrong styling - and so it goes downhill from now on with his career.

Teeth very expensive, very tight shirt, a lot of jewelry - such as his own wax figure he sits on a sofa in the middle of his suite in the classical ambience of the Bayerischer Hof in Munich. The day before "rocked" as they say in these circles as his band, 62,000 people in Munich's Olympic Stadium. So does Jon Bon Jovi, 51, the imprint "Blue Note" on the T-shirt of the journalist, and he comes to life.

Bon Jovi: For God's sake! Do you know what the "Blue Note" is?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: A jazz label, a jazz club. Why?
Bon Jovi: I thought so too! May I tell this a crazy story? 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But you are.
 Bon Jovi: I was at a gala, it was busy, it was loud. Behind me was Ralph Lauren, the fashion designer, and chatted with the investor Ron Perelman. With half an ear, I heard that he mentioned "Blue Note", and so I turned to him and asked: "Did I just 'Blue Note' is?" And he said: "Yes, I wonder if I should buy because you interested in that too.?" And I was like, "Absolutely!" And he said: "Okay, you're in!" I was hooked, and my lawyers regulated the then. For a while I lived in the happy consciousness of being a partner in a jazz club ... Until I realized that Lauren had not meant the label or the club. But a Mexican restaurant in East Hampton, which means something like: Blue Parrot. Since then, it always bothers me when I hear that name.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you have the shares been sold?
 Bon Jovi: no. Terrible food, unmarketable shares. But I've got my money for charitable purposes out of the window. My restaurant project "Soul Kitchen" was far from good. There, everyone should give what he can. One pays $ 20 for a menu, the other 20 cents. But you can also help with the dishes. Meanwhile it works.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If you could meet the young Jon Bon Jovi, what would you advise him? 
Bon Jovi: I would advise him to rethink his hairstyle. Boy, do something with your hair! On the other hand, it was the eighties. And now I would like to see your youth photos from this time. 

SPIEGEL: On your new album you sing of a punk rocker who nachweint the legendary CBGB's, a journalist whose newspaper has closed ...
 Bon Jovi: ... and a factory worker whose factory has moved to Asia, yes. This is the social and cultural reality in our country. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But what have you to do with it? They are like the CEO of one of the most successful companies in the entertainment industry and certainly not a poor man
Bon Jovi: How can a rich man singing about the problems of a poor man? 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: I would like to know from you. 
Bon Jovi: No one would be interested in the concerns of a rich man, especially since his worries compared to those of an unemployed are rather laughable. That's not my job. I tell stories, that's my job: to credibly tell of things with which my audience can relate to. Do I have to be a punk rocker to sing about punk rock can? I do not think so. My grandparents were poor people who had to work hard my parents have worked hard, and my brothers still have no money, have debt! So I know quite what I'm telling. And when I sing it to wash the dishes, which is more than a metaphor. Because I really wash the dishes when I am in the kitchen of my restaurant. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And in your spare time then buy a Mexican restaurant. Accidentally
Bon Jovi: That was one of my biggest mistakes and I learned from it. I have worked with humility and discipline my success. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You quote these virtues. They stand three hours in the evening on stage. You do what you "honest" could be called music. They sing about the troubles of so-called little man. They come from New Jersey. Keep yourself physically very fit. They are considered as down to earth and support the Democrats in the election campaign.
Bon Jovi: What are you getting?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Does it annoy you sometimes, not to be confused with Bruce Springsteen?
Bon Jovi: Well, the critics love him and me and my band nontraditional. We have a success that he - at least temporarily - could only dream of. The weights are all on somehow. When I was young, I saw the pictures of Led Zeppelin before their own aircraft, of Kiss in their glamor, which were far above the sky, so to speak. No chance of even beginning to move into these spheres. Eventually it dawned on me: It was all there, right around the corner from me! You did not have to be from another planet. The studios at the Port of New Jersey and history was made. That was encouraging. Even if I, with all due respect, culturally come from a completely different area. We have glamorous metal made at the beginning. There is also a different generation: Springsteen's older than me. But I do think that we sometimes have a similar audience. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You should time together playing golf. 
Bon Jovi: For God's sake. I know Bruce, but we do not hang together off or so. We are, I guess, but too different. But if we do what quite happens to occur every now and then together, we know very well where the other is and what we have to hold each other. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your acting career was once considered promising. It's over, right?
 Bon Jovi: I just wanted to say "yes", then I remembered: No, right now it goes on. I called and asked if I would play himself in a new series or better speak Fox. I said yes, five episodes are already finished "Murder Police". As such, it goes with my acting career straight uphill again. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you have this freedom also to Bon Jovi? In 30 years, you have never changed your formula.
 Bon Jovi: That's right, Bon Jovi is not about open spaces. On the contrary: it is, as I said, to ensure consistency. We have survived the grunge, we survived the hip-hop, drum'n'bass we survived. Why? Because we have nothing left of it in our music. I have nothing against hip hop, but you will never hear me rap. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Other artists of your generation are just on reunion tour ..
Bon Jovi: ... or dead, exactly. So far it is not coming with us. But as long as people do not like to hear us, why? We are probably really stable, and we are true to ourselves - and thus our audience. That's why people are not disappointed in us, so our songs are your songs all over the world, and not just limited to one generation. They are timeless.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And how long is this going to last? Just left the band your guitarist Richie Sambora.
Bon Jovi: I think it will not go on for a long time. My management do not like it, but I thought the other day: Folks, we are now there, where artists such as Elton John and Eric Clapton were before. Not that it is not still great musicians, but I think we have reached our cruising altitude. Could it be that we now turn to descend. Not that I would not like to earn more money, but at 70, like the Stones, I do not want to do this job really.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What next? "Bon Jovi - The Musical"? The hits, you would.
Bon Jovi: Yes, recently there was even an offer. If this is meant as an insult from you, I can not conceive. I mean, with "Mamma Mia" Abba have earned more than all their plates earlier. Without this musical know but in the U.S. no longer a man, who was Abba. So if someone wants to write the story and to bring our songs to Broadway - only!