Well rested
Lady killer Jon Bongiovi and his similarly titled Bon Jovi band are back. After a five-year hiatus, during which the 38-year-old worked on solo music projects and starred in the marginally successful Moonlight and Valentino, the long-haired musicians recently released their new CD, Crush. Popular among swooning teenage girls and mainstream rock fans since the 1980s, Bon Jovi has sold more than 100 million copies of the releases to date. In 1995, the “best of” compilation, Crossroads, led to the band’s huge world tour and the peak of Bon Jovi mania. Then, suddenly, they were gone, leading the public to suspect a break up. “A lot of people had that misconception,” offers Bongiovi. “But we never officially disbanded. We were all exhausted after our last tour — it was gruelingly long, wildly successful and such a grand production that we thought ‘how can we top that?’ When it was over and our heads were clearer, we chartered a small boat and went into seclusion. I told the guys ‘let’s take a break, shift down a few gears and do our own thing for a while. We have to bake smaller bread for a while or we will burn out.’ They agreed. There was never strife. We just assumed we’d work together again.”