Bon Jovi Helps Boost Jazz Fest Attendance

Bon Jovi Helps Boost Jazz Fest Attendance

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival drew more than 400,000 this year, up from the approximately 375,000 reported last year, according to festival producers. The event’s final Saturday (May 2) drew a crowd of 90,000. Jazzfest was held April 24-26 and April 30-May 3.

“Bon Jovi’s enduring appeal manifested itself in one of the biggest days ever at Jazz Fest,” said Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, co-producer of the event with Festival Production of the final Saturday.

Phillips said of the 90,000 in attendance on May 2, “probably 60,000-65,000 were in front of Bon Jovi’s stage.” Other artists playing Jazz Fest this year included the Dave Matthews Band, Kings Of Leon, the O’Jays, Joe Cocker, Wynton Marsalis, Drive-By Truckers, James Taylor, Wilco, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Emmylou Harris, Sugarland, Tony Bennett, Bonnie Raitt, the Neville Brothers, Neil Young, Buddy Guy, and scores of other artists, most representing the musical heritage of the Big Easy.

Phillips credits the strong run for Jazz Fest 2009 to “the strength of the brand, the fact that we widened the demographic with an artist as gigantic commercially as Bon Jovi, and the weather. We had two stars on that Saturday. Bon Jovi headlined and Mother Nature supported.”

Bon Jovi Documentry To Debut At Tribeca Film Fest

Bon Jovi Documentry To Debut At Tribeca Film Fest

Tribeca is giving itself a shot to the heart.

The New York festival will unspool what is described as a work-in-progress documentary about Jon Bon Jovi.

Phil Griffin directed and @radical.media produced the previously unknown pic, titled “When We Were Beautiful,” which follows the musician and his band on their 2008 Lost Highway tour.

The movie will screen as the fest’s centerpiece presentation on April 29, with another pair of screenings scheduled over the following three days.

Described as a celebration of the quarter-century career of the chart-topping act, the film “susses out the secrets behind this legendary band’s determined and charismatic leader Jon Bon Jovi” and his band members, the fest said.

Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal noted that “nothing says rock ‘n’ roll more than Bon Jovi,” while Griffin, known as both a director and photographer, added that the movie went beyond a traditional concert doc to look at the complex relationships between band members over the group’s history.

Bon Jovi has enjoyed unusual staying power in American pop culture. The band came to prominence in the mid-1980s by creating a type of music that made the more aggressive style of rock at that time palatable to mainstream audiences; it has been resurgent this decade with several top-selling albums.

Jon Bon Jovi has starred in a number of Hollywood features, including “U-571.” The New Jersey rocker has a previous association with Tribeca, performing at its opening night two years ago as part of an environmental-themed evening.

Write On! Bon Jovi book coming out in the fall

Bon Jovi is ready to spill. The multiplatinum rockers are marking their 25th anniversary with “Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful,” an “insider portrait” that includes previously unpublished photographs and text by the band members.

“The book offers unprecedented insights into the members’ lives on stage, on the road, and at home, as well as intimate reflections on the highs and lows of their 25 years together,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by publisher HarperCollins.

The book comes out next fall, when a documentary of the same name is released.

Bon Jovi’s many hits include “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

Bon Jovi Writing New Songs For Hits Set

With the final leg of Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway” tour completed, guitarist Richie Sambora tells Billboard.com the New Jersey rock act is looking ahead to plenty of new projects.

“We’ve been filming a documentary and are in the process of mixing a live DVD of last year’s ‘Lost Highway’ concert tour,” Sambora says. “Also, I think we’re looking at doing a greatest hits album next year. Jon and I are writing some new songs for it and to just load up for the next Bon Jovi record.”

Sambora says he expects the DVD and best-of effort to be packaged together for a fall 2009 street date. The Nashville-tinged “Lost Highway” was a critical and commercial success, but Sambora says the band won’t necessarily return to that style again.

“No, we have to change,” he says. “We have to do something different. I don’t know what that’s going to be. As we get into the writing process and continue on, we’ll see what that’s going to look like. I think it comes to stylistically what songs you’re writing. What kind of music is coming out of you, and what’s the mood of those songs. You have to color those little drawings with the right production value and the right music.”

Outside of Bon Jovi, Sambora is staying active with various extracurricular opportunities. Not only did he recently join B.B. King on stage in Chicago for the taping of a PBS special, but he will take part in a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Tribute Concert for Les Paul Saturday (Nov. 15) at the State Theatre in Cleveland.

“I’ve also been doing multiple sessions out here, some odd recordings with Kid Rock and T.I., some crazy stuff,” Sambora says. “So I’ve been busy. Also, I’m going to be scoring some movies and TV shows. One of the movies is ‘The Tournament’ with Ving Rhames.”

Sambora is also looking ahead to next year, when Bon Jovi will become eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

“I hope so,” Sambora laughs. “Time flies man, but yeah there’s talk and rumors. Boy that would be nice. It’s something certainly I’ve been shooting for all my life. I think if you have a career in the music business, you want to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.”