Biography

Bon Jovi is an American rock band formed in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey. It consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarist Phil X, and bassist Hugh McDonald. Previous bassist Alec John Such was dismissed in 1994, and longtime guitarist and co-songwriter Richie Sambora left in 2013.

In 1984 and 1985, Bon Jovi released their first two albums and their debut single “Runaway” managed to crack the top forty. In 1986, the band achieved widespread success and global recognition with their third album, Slippery When Wet, which sold over twenty million copies and included three top ten singles, two of which reached the top of the chart (“You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer”). Their fourth album, New Jersey, released in 1988, was also very successful, selling over ten million copies and featuring five top ten singles, a record for a hard rock album, two of which reached the top of the chart (“Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There for You”). After the band toured and recorded extensively during the late 1980s, culminating in the 1988–1990 New Jersey Tour, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora released successful solo albums in 1990 and 1991, respectively.

In 1992, the band returned with the double-platinum Keep the Faith. This was followed by their biggest-selling and longest-charting single “Always” and the album These Days in 1995, which proved to be a bigger success in Europe than in the United States, producing four top ten singles in the United Kingdom. Following a second hiatus, their 2000 album Crush, particularly the lead single, “It’s My Life”, successfully introduced the band to a younger audience. The band followed up with Bounce in 2002. The platinum albums Have a Nice Day, released in 2005, and Lost Highway, released in 2007, saw the band incorporate elements of country music into some of the songs, including the 2006 single “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, which won the band a Grammy Award and became the first single by a rock band to reach the top of the country charts. The Circle, released in 2009, marked a return to the band’s rock sound. The band also enjoyed great success touring, with both the 2005–2006 Have a Nice Day Tour and 2007–2008 Lost Highway Tour ranking among the top twenty highest-grossing concert tours of the 2000s and the 2013 Because We Can Tour ranking among the highest-grossing of the 2010s. The band continues to tour and record, with their most recent album This House Is Not for Sale and its associated tour encompassing 2016–2019.

Bon Jovi has sold more than one hundred million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling American rock bands, and performed more than two thousand concerts in over fifty countries for more than thirty-four million fans. Bon Jovi was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. The band received the Award of Merit at the American Music Awards in 2004, and Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.