JON BON JOVI on THE TONIGHT SHOW
JL: Alright, my next
guest, big-time rock star and also been in terrific movies like U-571,
currently catch him Monday nights on Ally McBeal, please welcome Jon Bon Jovi!
<crowd cheers>,
<Jon walks onto the stage, raises his arms to the crowd, Jay Leno walks
over and they shake hands>
JBJ: (says into Jay’s ear as they’re
shaking hands) You were fearless!
<Jay goes back behind his desk, Jon walks to the first chair next to
thedesk and brushes it off>
JL: Hey, you want . . . (offers Jon
a blue paper that apparently has somekind of animal sprinklings or something
on it)
JBJ: (wrinkles nose and waves Jay off) No!
(laughs)
JL: How you been, buddy?
JBJ: Good! You’re psycho . . . rubbing
heads with that cat (referring to the lynx the exotic animal trainer had on in
the segment before Jon)! (fingers the lapel of his leather jacket) This is one
of your last guests!
JL: Really? There you go!
JBJ: I’m from Jersey, I’m not afraid
of any snake. <Jay laughs> You know, that was wacked, man!
JL: You should have come out here
when the animals were here!
JBJ: I took care of them afterwards! <crowd
laughs> That’s the poop!
JL: Got bit in the finger . . . .
JBJ: I saw that! Bush babies bite, I’m
telling you,those bupkins (???) are bad, you got to be careful!
JL: Bush babies bite, always
remember that. How you been, everything good?
JBJ: I’m good, I’m really good!
JL: Still riding, still doing the
bike thing?
JBJ: Well, I gotta say, I’m gonna get
outed here on national television, cause my bike is in semi-retirement.
JL: Oh come on, what are you, an
old married man, come on!
JBJ: Any married man . . . .
JL: What, you got a station wagon,
a minivan?
JBJ: No, my bike, I loaned it to Harley,
which I know you’re a big Harley aficionado, but it’s going on tour with
Elvis’ bike crowd cheers>. It’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a
year, so I put it in the Hall and Harley’s taking it out for their hundredth
anniversary. So I’m doing without, you know.
JL: So you walk?
JBJ: No, I just walk around the house
going vroom, vroom, vroom! <makes motorcycle-revving motions with his hands
and laughs>
JL: Now, did you ever get tickets,
were you like acrazy man on a bike or what?
JBJ: Not so much that I was getting
tickets, you get stopped a lot and you take off the helmet and they go "Oh,
that rock star guy." I could get away with murder pretty much in Jersey.
JL: Yeah? Hey, you could do it in
LA!
JBJ: Well, LA, I don’t know, there’s a
lot morecelebrities there.
JL: Did you ride as a kid?
JBJ: Yeah, I’ve been riding since I was
a little kid,I mean, I got my firstbike when I was 13, I had to earn it, up at
mygrandfather’s house, riding itaround the house and learned to ride then,
and weused to live in Sayreville,New Jersey, it was . . . <crowd cheers>
JBJ: . . .oh yeah, all of you all are from
Sayreville, right? <crowd laughs> But it was a great place to grow up.
It was claypits, so we learnedmotocross back there, in the dirt. Now it’s,
ofcourse, you knowneighborhoods.
JL: Right. Did you ever take any
trips, like,cross-country?
JBJ: Couple times, those are my Kerouac
years. Youknow, those are the bestexperience - anyone who ever rode a bike,
get on itand go cross-country, gofind, in search of Route 66. It was life, you
know.But whoever’s leadingthe pack decides where you pull in, my friend
Obie,who you’ve met herebefore, we’re riding in and he sees the
FlintstonesMuseum, and he goes,"we’re going there!" So, you know,
I’ve gotpictures of me like in BarneyRubble’s car going (holds right hand
up and wavesand gives a thumb-up sign).<crowd laughs> Cool!
JL: Where is that, Arizona? Because
that’s the siteof the actualFlintstones excavations, you know, over 5,000
yearsago.
JBJ: Yeah, it’s hard now to get the cast
out there,you know, they don’t wantto work there anymore. <laughs> But,
um, goingcross country, you find allthings that I don’t get to see. You know,
we’reflying to big cities,playing arenas, stadiums, whatever, but you
don’tget out to the FlintstonesMuseum.
JL: Yeah, how often though, you
know, the caverns,the big guy with the bigbowling ball, I mean, all that.
JBJ: Right, right, right, right, right.
I’ve beenthere, I’ve been there,see, you’ve been there, too.
JL: So now you’re doing the
acting thing, now. Isit more fun than rock androll? It doesn’t seem like it
would be.
JBJ: Well, first of all, it’s like this
game of golf,which I also am notreally fond of. You go there, and people play
golfwhen it’s still dark out.Why do they do that? You know, like they show
upand they want to be thereat dawn to hit the ball off the tee and chase it.
Idon’t need any morestress in my life! Same thing with acting - theywake me
up at 5 o’clock inthe morning! If this was the band, we’d be going tobed,
now I got to get upat 5!
JL: Right, right, yeah, yeah!
JBJ: You show up, you shoot a scene,
before I’m, thefirst scene is alreadydone already and then the sun comes up,
I’m likewhat the hell, it’s like abunch of vampires, you know? <crowd
laughs> AndCalista, like, I think shelives there, I think it’s just the
Truman Show forher because she just goesto work every day all day, twelve
hours a day andshe keeps saying "bye" and"hi" and she’s
always there! I show up, I get toleave, and this poor kid .. .
JL: But it’s a lot of work,
it’s not like, withmusic you play for a couplehours and then, whee! trash
the hotel.
><crowd laughs>
JL: You can’trash your trailer,
you have to comeback to it tomorrow.
JBJ: That’s true, you know, it’s a lot
of work. Theywork very, very hardthere on this TV stuff. But, I’ve been
prettyfearless, you know, you gofrom music to movies, movies to television, I
mean,I had no desire to do TVwhatsoever - when David Kelley gives you a
call,it’s like the Godfathercalling, you know, so you jump at the chance...
JL: Right.
JBJ: ... I walk into the set the first day
afterbeing asked to do this rolefor a while, and I’m thinking, you know,
this is allright, David Kelley’s apretty hot, cool guy, he’s got three TV
shows, Ihear he’s married toMichelle Pfeiffer, I’m expecting I’m going
to walkon the set, there’s DavidKelley, big hug, kiss, you know, come on
over, meetmy wife, kind of thing,I’m like all excited, I want to talk about
Grease 2.No. I get on the set,you hear this voice from above, this <pulls
his fistto his mouth to simulatea loudspeaker> "This is David Kelley,
I createdyou." And you go, yeah,you’re God. And so you start doing your
schtick,but these people are wacky.All these people have been together for
five years,they’re eight episodesin before I even show up, it was a
littleintimidating.
JL: You’re the new guy.
JBJ: Yeah, you know, that dancing baby
thing, it’sreal, he’s got his owndressing room, he’s a midget! <crowd
laughs>
JL: Now the character you play, you
play what, is ita contractor?
JBJ: Yeah, but, you know what I’m
turning into? Youknow that, you rememberthat character Schneider, with Bonnie
. . .
JL: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
JBJ: . . . I’m just always there but I
don’t doanything, you know! Theyhanded me a wrench, I didn’t know if it
was a wrenchor a plier, I’m underthe sink fixing the sink, the other day I
saidthere’s no chance in hell I’dbe ever fixing the sink!
JL: Now, are you a mechanical guy
at all?
JBJ: No . . . if the light bulb’s . . .
JL: You’re from Jersey, you’re
a Jersey guy, comeon, Jersey guys can fixstuff!
JBJ: I’m a rock and roll star, you know!
<Jon laughs>If the lightbulb goesdead, I throw out the light! You know!
JL: Really?
JBJ: Completely useless! I have more
people thatwork at my house than AT&T.
JL: Really?
JBJ: Oh, people here all the time!
JL: Now, I would have guessed
Jersey guy, roll upthe sleeves, yo, put somenew . . .
JBJ: I play a great one on TV, but . . .
JL: Yeah, but no, don’t fix
anything at all?
JBJ: No! I wouldn’t know how to work,
you know,anything. I could makecoffee in the morning and . . .
JL: Was your dad handy?
JBJ: No. <crowd laughs>
JL: No? So, this is, so the whole
family is just pretty much useless, I guess.
JBJ: Pretty much.
JL: Yeah, yeah, thank God you can
sing.
JBJ: I was telling, here’s a good story.
I was going out, I went last week end to, you know the Cub Scouts? The Cub
Scout . . . do you have any sons? You have any sons?
JL: No, I don’t have any sons,
but I know the Cub Scouts.
JBJ: They have a Pinewood Derby. It’s a
six-inchblock of wood.
JL: Sure, I know that.
JBJ: A big deal.
JL: I
was a Cub Scout.
JBJ: So was I. Thirty-five years ago,
thirty-fouryears ago, I was a Cub Scout, and they give a block of wood and
they say "make a car out of this piece of wood." Well, I am haunting
my father tothis day because he didn’thelp me make this car, so now it’s
my son’s turn.Well, I’ll be damned ifI’m not going to go and you know,
fly my plane allthe way back to Jersey,make this car, I’m there, you know,
I’m hanging withmy son, we built thecoolest car ever. But I actually helped.
My sondid more than I did andhe’s six, but, you know . . . <crowd laughs>
. . .we had a hell of a timeand I got to say I did something handy and
we’retaking a picture togetherand you know, he’s got his arm around his
dad, andI’ve got my two hands upshowing my wife I didn’t cut myself, look,
you know,it’s like I still got all my fingers. So that’s about as handy as
I’mable to get.
JL: Do you still have your car?
JBJ: Oh, yeah, because of you I bought a
Viper.
JL: No, no, but I mean, your small
one, the one that you made?
JBJ: Mine? No, no, no, no, mine’s still,
I showed up at the race, the paint was wet, my hands were blue, I’m giving
my father hell over this Christmas about it.
JL: See, my brother was a carpenter,
he could makehis car look like a realcar that was actually, you know, if you
put it on atable, you’d think, oh,that was a real car. Mine, three of the
wheels wereon the same side, youknow, you know what I’m saying, it’s not
good, Iwasn’t very handy.
JBJ: That was as handy as I’ve ever been.
JL: So you bought the Viper? I told
you you’d like it.
JBJ: I did, I love that car, lookit, we
sound like acommercial - can we get free Vipers, anyone? <Jon, Jay, crowd
laughs>
JL: But you gotta get tickets in
that. Have youbeen stopped out here with that one?
JBJ: No, but I do like driving around LA
with like the plates from home and driving into the lot and all, I really dig
that car. It’s got a great stereo, it’s all about the stereo, air
conditioningand heating and it hasn’t broken down out here.
JL: A rock star with out-of-state
plates! You won’t get in trouble!
JBJ: No, no! <laughs>
JL: Well, thanks, you did some
great stuff therewith 9/11, I know you didn’twant to admit it, but it was
great because I knowwhere you live in Jersey,there were an awful lot of people
there that wereaffected, firemen and all.
JBJ: I was there, I was home that morning,
Richie andI were about to startwriting and he was sleeping and you really
didn’tknow how to react whenyou’re caught up in it and 163 families in my
countywere affected, you knowkids in my kids’ school and firemen that worked
inthe city, you know that goto school with my kids, um, and as the smoke
waswafting over my home and theother two planes were in the air, I mean,
youreally, it went through yourmind, do you run to the school, is this
Armageddon,you start thinking theworst . . .
JL: Yeah.
JBJ: But fortunately, you know, it
wasn’t, as tragicas it was. I delayed thestart of Ally by a month and David
Kelley, ofcourse, understood, because Isaid I have to stay home to do whatever,
whatever Icould, so we did thetelethon, which happened to be next door to a
placewhere I was a gofer in arecording studio 20 years ago. You dreamt
aboutwriting the songs and 20years later, you’re performing those songs for
suchan important night, youknow, and you walked out and saw that
sameplayground, it really had adifferent meaning, you know. But God bless
allthose firemen and policemenand the folks who lost...
JL: Yup. Well, you too, good work,
you’re a goodman. Thank you, Jon! It’sgood knowing you, a pleasure to have
you! <crowdcheers> Be right back with Pete Yorn after this!