It's a great advantage being a player because I can record and play a song into a tape player rather than just sing it. "I just put it on the back pickup, crank it up and let it rip! I use a couple of Kramers and I've got a lovely Ovation I use a lot. Guitars don't seem as important to him as they do to Ritchie. At the Dominion theatre last year the PA packed in and he ran on stage with his Ovation acoustic and rendered a good if fairly inaudible version of a Tom Petty song. Jon is also a guitar player as well as a singer and contributes some of his playing live. Very tight trousers, long blond hair and a hairy chest. The latest is a bit more anthemic, fists in the air and more sing-a-long-a-Jon than the previous releases, but even the most die-hard misery-type Smiths fan will find themselves involuntarily tapping their foot and maybe murmering the odd chorus or two.Įnter Jon Bon Jovi. While all three of their LPs are in the same vein they all have distinctly different styles. Ritchie has also learned from other people's mistakes and it looks as if the band are making a conscious effort not to make the same ones themselves. I mean, who wants to listen to Runaway (the band's first single and now their standard) in five years time?" That's great because people don't want to listen to the same old sounds. I'm a Led Zeppelin freak and the reason that they were so good was that they were always trying new things and each album was different from the last. I think that you should always be progressing. The time thing is good too it's almost as good as an ordinary pickup! I think it's important to keep up with modern technology. "I have an IVL guitar pickup and rackmounted MIDI link, which is great because I can have, say, 30 different guitar sounds without having to keep changing guitars. Guitar synths have also left their mark within the band, the evidence of which can be heard on the new LP. I've got a couple of Kramers that I use quite a lot and a Jackson Charvel." I used to use them a lot when I was doing sessions. Strats are good because with a five way toggle switch you can get a lot of variation from them. These ones are still hot but not quite so much, just toned down a little. I tried a lot of other hot pickups in it but they just squealed all over the place. It's great - it's got a couple of Seymour Duncan '59 humbuckers in it. It's really ornate with loads of inlays and stuff. One of my main guitars is a custom built Les Paul-type guitar I had made for me. "I have about 30 guitars and I use all of them for getting different sounds on different tracks. Ritchie is the proud owner of a collection of some very nice guitars but unlike a lot of collectors these guitars are not boxed up and labelled 'Do Not Touch'. That's why the new LP is black because people label us because of our image and don't give our music a chance." If he wasn't I wouldn't be here, but these days the image gets in front of the music and that pisses me off. Y'see Jon (Bon Jovi, singer, songwriter and geezer that they took their name from) is a good looking guy and a lot of women are attracted to him but apart from that he's a great singer and frontman. We have had problems in the past with people categorising us, saying we're Rock or Metal or whatever, but we don't want to be put into a category. "I don't see us as a Rock band, I just see us as Bon Jovi. But they're not too happy about being labelled so early in their career. The band's single - You Give Love A Bad Name - is the first to chart in the UK, and as they are not already known as a Rock band here, it's possible that they will get a stab at the pop stakes. In a sweat shirt and jeans he makes me look very scruffy indeed and I'm wearing a shirt and jacket. Ritchie Sambora is every inch the Rock star. It rained so hard on Michael Schenker that all his wireless units went to shit!" It wasn't so bad when we went to Mannheim because we were the only band it didn't rain on. "Out in Germany at the Monsters of Rock festival it was so damn cold I had to watch my hands to see what my fingers were doing for the first couple of numbers. The band are here to do some thawing out after some European dates, and surprising though it may seem, the long cold, wet season known to us natives as the English summer is preferable to the weather on the European festival circuit. Young, attractive, successful - it makes you sick doesn' it? Successful being 750,000 copies of the band's new LP Slippery When Wet selling within 11 days of release. As I walk into the Holiday Inn in Swiss Cottage looking somewhat dishevelled I espy in the coffee shop Ritchie Sambora, guitarist with Bon Jovi, one of America's most successful young Rock bands. Bon Jovi are the sort of band that make you really sick.
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