You know how to work the muscles properly. GROSS: How do you prevent your voice from having been shredded after so many years of concerts? Particularly the stadium concerts, where I imagine it's very tempting to over-sing, because even though you know you're amplified, the room is so big.
And then it all just comes right back, and it's riding a bicycle again. BON JOVI: But On that very first night, when I get to the hotel room for that first time, and, you know, you close the door with that suitcase, you go oh, right. And I'm the guy that has his fingernails embedded in the driveway as they're dragging me up it to leave. The preparedness is half the battle, and leaving home for a year or so at a time, every time for a quarter-century now, you have to get yourself ready for it. You know, you have to condition yourself mentally, physically. And sure, there are going to be those days that you're a little more physically tired, and that could just be jet lag or monotony. BON JOVI: You know, I think that there's a little misconception there for those who aren't behind the microphone to understand, and that's simply that whenever I perform, be it for 50 or 50,000, you want to be the very best that you can be. Are there times that you have to convince yourself before going out on stage that you have the energy that day and the - just the kind of energy and belief to go on stage in front of 70,000 people? GROSS: You've done a lot of stadium concerts over the years, and I think you have a lot of them ahead of you. But it was an opportune time when you just look out the window, read the newspaper or watched the news, every day was another opportunity to write a song about what people are going through today. And if we are, in fact, as a nation going through hard times, then I think you've hit it on the bulls-eye. BON JOVI: Well, it's a social commentary. GROSS: I think of this as kind of like your hard times album, like kind of songs for hard times. GROSS: That's Bon Jovi from their new CD, "The Circle." Jon Bon Jovi, welcome to FRESH AIR.
Let me here you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah. Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow and that your saints and sinners bleed. When life is a bitter pill to swallow, you gotta hold on to what you believe. How will you raise your hand when they call your name? Walking beside the guilty and the innocent. This road was paved by the winds of change. This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry. This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical. JON BON JOVI (Musician): (Singing) This one goes out to man who mines for miracles. (Soundbite of song, "We Weren't Born to Follow"") This is "We Weren't Born to Follow." Bon Jovi performed the song last November at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate as part of the 20th-anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Let's start with a hit single from the new album. There's also a new book of band member interviews and photographs called "When We Were Beautiful." The new Bon Jovi CD is called "The Circle," and it comes with a companion DVD documentary about the band. Last year, they were the number one selling tour. Although the band is most associated with their hits from the '80s like "Livin' on a Prayer," "You Give Love A Bad Name," "Wanted Dead or Alive," "Runaway" and "I'll Be There for You," their new CD debuted at number one. My guest is Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer and songwriter of the band Bon Jovi.