Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen drive 100 miles without phones

music

by Chuck Arnold

They were born to ride.

This is clearly part of a very special Jersey Boy bond between two of the Garden State's saints: Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen.

In the new Hulu docuseries “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story,” the “Livin' on the Prayer” singer reveals a beloved ritual he and the Boss practice when they want to disconnect from it all and get back to the simple life. Life – Decades after the rock gods.

“Now we go out of our way to drive,” Bon Jovi, 62, says of the fun time he shares with his 74-year-old friend. “The two of us got in the car — no phones, no radio — and drove 100 miles. That meant the world to me, [spending time with] Someone step on the path in their journey.

“One time a few years ago – when we were comparing where we were in our lives in terms of life, journey and work – he brought up the word 'death', and it had never occurred to me at the time. I thought to myself: 'Oh, yes, death – that's no Still on the horizon.

But after Bon Jovi's founding bassist, Alec John, died at the age of 70 in 2022, Bon Jovi says: “I have a different perspective now.” “It's in my face.”

Bon Jovi says he became closer to Springsteen as they both moved beyond their glory days as superstars in the 1980s, with the two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Having “many meetings.”

“We have become good friends, and we can talk openly, honestly and deeply,” he says.

“We've gotten a lot closer, maybe as we've gotten older here, you know?” Springsteen adds in the doc. “We're two guys in the same game here.”

But Springsteen's influence on Bon Jovi goes back to the rocker's younger high school years, when he began performing in the Asbury Park, New Jersey music scene and even covered Boss songs.

“Thank You, Goodnight” tells how Bon Jovi once performed “Promised Land” — from Springsteen's 1979 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town” — when he got a surprise appearance from the man himself.

“He jumped up and sang his song with me,” Bon Jovi recalls. “I looked up, and there was Bruce on stage with me.”

While Springsteen's success in the 1970s would open record company doors for other New Jersey artists — with Bon Jovi making his debut in 40 years in 1984 — that night was a teenage dream come true.

“You go to high school the next day, and it goes without saying that you look at the teacher and you look at the kids, and you say, ‘I have a story to tell you — and it’s so much better,’” Bon Jovi recalls, “than history class.”