Bon Jovi keeps on ‘getting better’

The members of the rock band Bon Jovi have cranked out music for three decades, and they aren't planning to stop any time soon. In fact, with their new world tour, "Because We Can - The Tour," and their new album, "What About Now," due out March 26, keyboardist David Bryan considers them better than ever.

In a January phone interview that also included guitarist Richie Sambora and drummer Tico Torres, Bryan explained how they keep up a demanding pace and said they will continue to keep rocking.

"How do we keep it up?," he said. "Because that's what we do; we're musicians and we love to play and make music. And with every album we get better and with every tour we get better and it's fun, and we just keep going.

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The members of Bon Jovi, who are about to begin an 18-month world tour, are (from left) Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, Jon Bon Jovi and David Bryan.

"I guess now really the Rolling Stones are the gate, so I guess we've got 'til 70-something, so we've got another couple years there. And we just keep going on."

The band headed by lead singer Jon Bon Jovi will keep going on when they hit the Bryce Jordan Center stage Feb. 23 as part of their approximately 18-month multi-country tour.

You have to physically prepare for a tour that long, Sambora said.

"But once you get out there, you get in a groove, man, and like Dave said, this is what we love to do," he said. "Fortunately, it's an anomaly that we still all get along together and have a great time playing together and we're still making good music that people want to hear."

The overall feeling going into the tour is great, Bryan said.

"We got another world tour that we've been privileged to be able to play and we're going to go out there and do what we do as a rock band - kick ass," he said.

Sambora credits touring and loyalty from and to their fans with the bands longevity and ability to attract generations of fans.

"Obviously it starts with our dedication to touring and we've always had that adage that we would play everywhere we could in the world and take our music to every place we could," Sambora said.

"We've been very, very loyal to our fans and consequently our fans have been very loyal to us. We just write songs that people can relate to, and it becomes a part of the soundtrack of their lives. That's a privilege in itself. It's a complex situation and a complex question, so I think there's a lot of reasons for it."

The first single off the album, "Because We Can," seems a departure from the band's harder edge, but Sambora didn't see it that way.

"Hmm, I don't know. I think we just kind of followed a song," he said. "When we get in the studio and whatever, however the song gets through best, is what usually makes the record."

Sambora and Bryan said the sound of the album is authentic to them.

While he did not help write the single, Sambora said he thought the idea for it came from this, "If you're going to ever make a change and be optimistic about something, what about now?" he said. "That's what I think about it. That's what I read into it personally."

From what they saw of how economies in different parts of the world, including America, were affecting people influenced the record, Sambora said. But it didn't turn down the energy.

"It's not a bummer of a record. It's certainly not a negative record. It's a very, very optimistic and positive record and that's the way I look at it, anyway," he said.

An album goes through a lot from when the creative process starts to what fans hear, Torres said.

"It starts with an idea, concept, a story. Then there's melody and rhythm and everything gets compounded. If it's one writer or two writers or three writers, that's a conception. When it comes to being in the studio as a band, you throw all the instruments in there for your changes and the dichotomy of the song and how it can go in direction, so it's real experimental. And we've always been in the habit of working on stuff and trying never to say no to an idea. But at the end of the day, you've given the song its due," he said.

"Sometimes you do a record and you also wish you were touring where you could do that record or songs three or four months live, because they also take [on] a character, and then go in the studio and cut it. But when you do it in this situation, you try to exhaust all your ideas and try to come up with the best record you can."

Mirror Staff Writer Amanda Gabeletto is at 949-7030.