just announced a new tour that's going to take them to at least five continents. (See dates below). That's why his songwriting partner, Richie Sambora, just recorded another solo album and toured, and why David Bryan used his "spare time" to write the Tony-winning Broadway hit "Memphis." And the whole band gathered in a movie theater Tuesday night to take live questions from fans around the world. Plenty of bands have strong work ethics, but these guys are insane.
The new tour, Because We Can, is groundbreaking in its concept. They've tiered the ticket prices to seven different levels, partly to thwart the scalpers and partly to give fans a break. While there are some high-end VIP packages available, thousands of tickets are priced at $19.50. Tickets for 1987's "Slippery When Wet" tour were $16.50 -- which is $32.15 in today's dollars when adjusted for inflation. So it's technically cheaper to see them now than it was to see them back then.
Sambora -- whom Bon Jovi describes as "my right-hand man. He's Dean to my Frank" -- took a few minutes from his schedule to talk about the new tour.
MSN: How was your live Q&A with fans from the theater? I'm told that had never been done before.
Sambora: "It's the first time anything like that ever happened. We interacted with our fans, which we do a lot. We had a Q&A with the fans both on Twitter feed and our website. Questions were coming in from everywhere, Australia, South America, Europe. It was really cool. We've got a lot of new music to put out there, so that's what we're doing."
So those people overseas must have been up in the middle of the night to submit the questions.
"Thank God for our fans. I was just in Europe -- I just put out a solo album 'Aftermath of the Lowdown,' and I was in Europe for a solo tour. They sold out in presale! There were people who went to every show. There were people there from China, for God's sake! It's crazy."Well you're on Twitter all the time, it seems.
"Absolutely! At least a couple of times a day. It's definitely me, man. I enjoy it. I like to hear people's opinions. Sometimes I'll just have a question of the day and put it up there because I'm curious about what people think."
You've been a band who are willing to experiment, whether it's your residencies in large stadiums or your new tour where you've gone with tickets priced as low as $19.50.
"It's a band philosophy that came from a long, long time ago, even before we had hit records. We said 'Let's play everywhere. Live, live, live. Let's tour everywhere.' We didn't have a hit record, but we played in all these countries supporting other bands or playing a club tour. What happened was the garden was seeded. The only thing missing was a hit record. Then 'Slippery' hit, and we had a bunch of hit records (laughs). It exploded worldwide. We've always taken a global stance on making music and taking the tour on the road. When the grunge era came in, in the early '90s we went out and broke 20 new markets. Our sales really didn't suffer that much, and we were able to remain ourselves artistically."
Where does that work ethic come from? When you're not touring, you're all still working.
"It's really important when you're a band that stays together all this time, that everybody does have their individual efforts that they can be an individual with. That's very, very important stuff. Lucky for us we all support each other's efforts, whatever it may be. Anytime you do something different, you bring back a whole new knowledge to the band. It's like it's brand-new again. It's a good learning process and it also freshens the relationship. A band is very much like a marriage. If you limit yourself in that relationship … that doesn't work. Here, everybody gets a chance to do their own things."by msn music
Feb. 9 Uncasville, CT
Feb. 10 Washington, DC
Feb. 13/14 Montreal, QUE
Feb. 17/18 Toronto, ONT
Feb. 20 Ottowa, ONT
Feb. 21 Pittsburgh, PA
Feb. 27 Atlanta, GA
March 1 Tampa, FL
March 2 Ft. Lauderdale, FL
March 5 Charlotte, NC
March 6 Nashville, TN
March 9 Cleveland, OH
March 10 Columbus, OH
March 13 St. Louis, MO
March 14 Louisville, KY
March 16 Oklahoma City, OK (on sale soon)
March 17 Lubbock, TX (on sale soon)
April 2 Calgary, AB
April 3 Edmonton, AB
April 5 Winnipeg, MB
April 7 St. Paul, MN
April 10 Austin, TX (on sale soon)
April 11 Dallas, TX
April 13 Kansas City, MO
April 14 Des Moines, IA
April 16 Denver, CO
April 17 Salt Lake City, UT
April 19 Los Angeles, CA
April 20 Las Vegas, NV
April 23 Glendale, AZ
April 25 San Jose, CA
July 12 Chicago, IL
July 24/25 E. Rutherford, NJ
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