Aged 7 years old Jon Bon Jovi got his first guitar for Christmas; by Boxing Day he had thrown it down the stairs and brocken it. Aged about 13 he expressed an interest in playing guitar, and rescued his brocken guitar. His neighbour started to teach him how to play. Aged 14 Jon's first band was formed in High School called Starz. After their first gig they became known as Raze, who went on to finish last in the High School Talent Contest.
After the demise of Raze Jon formed a 10-piece R&B band called Atlantic City Expressway (ACE), who went on to become a popular band in the New Jersey area. This was the first band to feature another member of Bon Jovi, David Bryan, playing on the keyboards. ACE regularly opened for Bruce Springsteen and South Side Johnny in the New Jersey area, but never became anything bigger. Eventually ACE disbanded, and Jon moved on to become the front man in a band called The Rest. Despite interest from southside Johnny and Billy Squier - a huge star in the US at the time - the band never managed to break out of the local scene ad eventually frustration lead to acrimony and the band broke up.
At this stage Jon was seriously beginning to wonder if he was going to get the break he needed. In september 1980 he took a low-paid job at The Powerstation Studios in New York, which was owned and ran by his second cousion Tony Bongiovi. Here Jon watched and learned from professionals such as Mick Jagger and David Bowie, who where using the studeo at the time. During "dead time", early hours before dawn, Jon was in the studio recording his own imaginary album. By christmas 1982,a tape labelled "Johnny B" featuring, amoung other songs "Runaway" began to circulate in New York. However nothing came of this and so Jon decided to move to Los Angeles, along with David Bryan. Here they went around every record company they could with their demo tape. The result: a few "maybes". They were back home in New Jersey within a month.
With Jon thinking he was back to square on, a stroke of luck back in New York finally put Jon and David back on the rails. Ray Willhard, from the Power Station Studios, had entered "Runaway" in a locally ran talent contest called "From Rock To Riches", ran by the radio station WAPP. The track won the regional heat and was included on a compilation album sold locally by WAPP. Jon Bongiovi and The Wild Ones had come from being nothing, to being the hottest unsighed band on the US East Coast. By early 1983, two major labels were competing for Jon's signature, Atlantic and PolyGram. And on July 1st, 1983, PolyGram signed him up. He pulled out of the final of the "from Rock To Riches" contest to focus on putting together a permanent band line-up. "Bongiovi" could look confusing on a record sleeve, an American-ised Bon Jovi was deemed far more fan-friendly. |
