Bon Jovi releases When We Were Us & Walls + When We Were Us music video + live on Colbert

The re-release of Bon Jovi's This House Is Not For Sale album, featuring new tracks "When We Were Us" and "Walls" is out now. You can download or stream the album on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and more via this link. I was pleased to find that I could purchase the new songs individually without having to buy the whole album again.

I did, however, renew my Tidal subscription just so I could watch the new "When We Were Us" music video, which dropped exclusively on Tidal today. If you're a subscriber, you can watch it below.

When We Were Us

The video features shots of the current lineup interspersed with footage from previous tours (mostly Lost Highway and The Circle/Greatest Hits tours from what I can tell). When it's up on YouTube (probably in two or three weeks, if the previous THINFS videos were any indication), I'll update this post with the link.

UPDATE 5/03/18: The video for "When We Were Us" is now on YouTube:

Bon Jovi's performance of "When We Were Us" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert also went to air. In my previous blog post, I referred to the iHeartRadio performance as the live debut of "When We Were Us". Technically the Colbert performance was the live debut, because it was recorded back in January, but the iHeartRadio gig was the first chance anyone who wasn't at the Colbert taping got to hear "When We Were Us" live. I reckon Jon sounded better on Colbert than he did at iHeartRadio, but you can be the judge of that.

Bon Jovi Perform 'When We Were Us'

Bon Jovi at iHeartRadio 21/02/18

Bon Jovi played a gig for iHeartRadio in New York which was streamed live on the web. It was a Thursday where I am and I was at work so I couldn't watch it as it was happening, but I did catch up later on. "When We Were Us", which will be on the re-release of This House Is Not For Sale, made its live debut.

Jon said he's had contact with Richie Sambora and Alec John Such and they're looking forward to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

It was also announced Bon Jovi will receive the iHeartRadio Icon Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 11.

Here's the full concert:

The set list was as follows:

New York City, NY, USA - iHeartRadio Theater - February 21, 2018

1. This House Is Not For Sale
2. When We Were Us
3. You Give Love a Bad Name
4. It's My Life
5. Lay Your Hands on Me
6. Bad Medicine
7. Who Says You Can't Go Home
8. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
9. God Bless This Mess

RSO releases I Got You Babe & Forever All the Way

RSO has dropped some more new tunes. One is a Richie Sambora-led original, "Forever All the Way", which I really liked on the first listen. The other is a cover of Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe", which RSO has been teasing for a long time, even describing themselves as "Sonny & Cher on steroids" on numerous occasions since getting together. Given Richie dated Cher after she divorced Sonny Bono, I always found the comparison a little odd but that's not my thing to judge. 😉 I will say that I enjoyed RSO's version of the song a lot more than I'd expected to.

The new tracks came out on February 9 and were billed as a Valentine's Day present to fans, presumably because they're both love songs.

You can buy (download) or stream "I Got You Babe" and "Forever All the Way" via this link.

You can also listen to them on YouTube.

RSO - "I Got You Babe":

RSO - "Forever All the Way":

Bon Jovi on Colbert

Jon Bon Jovi was just on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert two nights in a row (January 16 and 17). First to do this interview, in which he discussed:

• meeting Colbert at a pre-Grammys party hosted by Clive Davis; 
• writing and performing; 
• the JBJ Soul Kitchens; 
• his newfound social media use;
• Bon Jovi's upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Watch the full interview:

On the second night, Jon returned with Bon Jovi to perform "You Give Love a Bad Name":

I read somewhere that they also recorded a performance of their new song "When We Were US" that's slated for broadcast around the time the single is officially released, but maybe someone can confirm this?

Howard Stern to induct Bon Jovi into Rock Hall; debuts When We Were US

Jon Bon Jovi appeared on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM Radio on January 17. During the show, it was announced that Howard Stern will be the one to induct Bon Jovi into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. "When We Were US", a new Bon Jovi single that will be released on February 23, was also played for the first time on the show. Here's the song in full, recorded from the broadcast:

"When We Were US":

 

What do you think?

I'm not subscribed to Sirius XM but there are some clips from the interview on Howard's website.

Here's Jon telling the story of asking Howard to induct the band into the Rock Hall:


And Jon on Donald Trump's alleged campaign to prevent him from buying the Buffalo Bills NFL team:


Listen to more snippets on Soundcloud and HowardStern.com.

Jon Bon Jovi on The Moment with Brian Koppelman

Jon Bon Jovi & Brian Koppelman
(Photo: @briankoppelman/Instagram)

Jon Bon Jovi was recently interviewed by Brian Koppelman for his podcast The Moment. The episode aired on January 9, 2018.

In the hour-long interview, Jon talked about:

• getting his start playing in bar bands as a teenager and working at Power Station Studios;
• how "Runaway" came to fruition;
• burning out and gradually learning to appreciate special moments in his career;
• how the original Bon Jovi band was formed;
• his songwriting process, including how he and Richie Sambora complemented each other as songwriters;
• the importance of the arts; 
• the gaping hole left by Richie on the Because We Can Tour and 2015 Asian Tour and how others, especially David Bryan, stepped up;
• Bon Jovi's influences versus the hard rock bands they opened for early in their career;
• collaborating with Desmond Child and later Billy Falcon;
• the validation of finally getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame;
• his upcoming business venture: making wine with his son Jesse.

Jon also said Bon Jovi intends to play 30 shows in March, and is planning to tour on a smaller scale from now on (long breaks, fewer stadiums). They still haven't announced tour dates though, so if it's going ahead in March, they're leaving it pretty late. (The interview was conducted in December, I believe.)

*UPDATE 11/1/18: North American dates have been announced for March, April and May 2018. The new version of This House Is Not For Sale, featuring additional tracks "Walls" and "When We Were Us" will be released on February 23.*

This was Jon's first podcast interview (not including radio interviews that were later made available as podcasts) and I thought it was pretty good. Jon seems more relaxed and candid than he has been in the past. And there's some swearing but nothing you haven't heard before. 😉

You can listen to The Moment podcast on iTunes.

Hugh McDonald to be inducted into the Rock Hall?

Hugh McDonald (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

When the 2018 nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced, the band members eligible for induction were also revealed on the Rock Hall website. For Bon Jovi, it would be the original five: Jon, David, Tico, Richie, and Alec. I understood why, but have always maintained that if Bon Jovi got into the Rock Hall, Hugh McDonald deserved to be inducted with them. And I was quite upset that some people were saying no one but the original five had ever done anything worthy.

But some eagle-eyed fans noticed in the last 24 hours that, if you click on Bon Jovi's inductee bio on the Rock Hall website, Hugh McDonald's name has now been added to the list of band members. Which hopefully means he'll be inducted as well. I can't adequately express how over the moon I am about that prospect.

When David Bryan and Tico Torres were interviewed about Bon Jovi's impending induction, they said Hugh deserved acknowledgement for the role he's played in the band, so maybe they had something to do with this. Or maybe Jon pointed out to the Rock Hall that it was Hugh who played on the first ever Bon Jovi song and had played in the studio on the band's most important records. Who knows?

Hugh apparently only learnt of his likely induction after his wife Kelli got wind of it on Twitter:

I honestly had NO idea! I called Hugh and told him! Thanks for the heads up! It’s so exciting! I’m bawling like a baby!

— Kelli McDonald (@saintlyedge) December 19, 2017

Denny Laine, an original member of the Moody Blues, was also quietly added to their page after initially being left out.

UPDATE 21/12/17: According to a statement from the Rock Hall that was published by the Asbury Park Press, Hugh's and Denny's belated inclusions came about as follows:

“Once the Inductees were determined, the members of the Nominating Committee reviewed the list of artists and made the decision to add Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Hugh McDonald of Bon Jovi to acknowledge their significant contributions,” said a spokesperson for the Rock Hall via email. “We’re honored to induct them at the ceremony in April.”

UPDATE 15/03/18: This Deseret News article talks about how Jon appealed to the Rock Hall to get Hugh inducted. It was meant to be a Christmas surprise but the cat was let out of the bag when people noticed Hugh's name on the Rock Hall website!