COVID affected Jon Bon Jovi's health, songwriting and need to rehearse

Jon Bon Jovi seemed uncharacteristically hesitant.

"It's been [bleeping] years since I've done an interview," said the frontman of Bon Jovi, which performs Sunday in St. Paul.

The Xcel Energy Center concert will be the second stop on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band's first tour since 2019.

With all that time off the road, Bon Jovi's veteran group had to rehearse. A lot.

"More than I ever rehearsed in my entire career — and that's not an exaggeration," he said by phone from New Jersey last week. "We've just spent three weeks at the old Meadowlands Arena [in East Rutherford, N.J.]. More rehearsal dates than I have tour dates."

Like the rest of the world, the band has had to deal with pandemic delays and COVID, including Bon Jovi, who tested positive in October 2021.

"I'm grateful to have come through it with minor scratches and bruises and bumps," he said. "When I got it, I couldn't have sung for at least two weeks. That was biggest thing for me."

Four people in the Bon Jovi organization tested positive for COVID on the last day of rehearsal. "Everybody was double vaxed," he said. "I'm double vaxed and boosted and had monoclonal and had it."

Calling it a humbling experience, Bon Jovi said the illness made him realize "how volatile we are and how fragile life is. It didn't matter if you were young or old, American or Egyptian, no matter who you were or where you were from, the COVID-19 pandemic affected you. I was aware of that when I was writing the record."

COVID not only impacted his songwriting, but it postponed the release of Bon Jovi's latest album, "2020," which dropped on Oct. 2, 2020.

"Just shy of 40 years of my career, it was the only record that I ever released that I didn't do something for. I couldn't promote it, I couldn't perform it, I couldn't discuss it," the singer reflected. "I had to put it out when we did because it was such a timely record."

Bon Jovi said his songwriting became more relevant because "we were all much more aware of our surroundings or maybe I've just become of that age.

"When I was glued to my television like the rest of the world after the George Floyd incident, I wrote 'American Reckoning.' I had to. I had to. It was the only way I could express myself."

"American Reckoning" specifically references Floyd in vivid detail, including "those eight long minutes lying face-down in cuffs on the ground" and "when did a judge and a jury become a badge and a knee on these streets."

When Bon Jovi comes to the Twin Cities, he doesn't know if he'll mention the Floyd situation despite being aware of the location.

"If I say something, it'll be from the heart and off the cuff," he explained. "I don't script those moments."

Topical, not political

There are other social commentaries on "2020": "Blood in the Water" addresses xenophobia, "Unbroken" talks about patriotism and "Lower the Flag" disses gun violence.

"It's a topical record, not a political record," Bon Jovi noted. "As a writer, I watched what happened and I had to write about it."

As a rock hero with a broad-based following, Bon Jovi is not concerned about upsetting his fans with his commentaries.

"If it alienates anyone, I don't mean to pick a fight," he said. "Any of these songs — just to be clear in my point of view — I think they're observations. Not once do I say wave your Republican flag or your Democratic flag, your Minnesota flag or your New Jersey flag. I was witness to history just like you were. This is what I wrote."

This is not the first time that Bon Jovi has stepped into the commentary arena in song. "Bounce" in 2002 was a salute to New York's post-Sept. 11 resilience and "Have a Nice Day" in 2005 urged tolerance.

Expect to hear some "2020" songs in concert on Sunday. "I sure am anxious to play some of them," he said. "I haven't been able to perform them for a big crowd ever."

Also expect Bon Jovi's bread-and-butter, those meat-and-potato 1980s hits "Livin' on a Prayer," "Bad Medicine" and "You Give Love a Bad Name" written and recorded with guitarist Richie Sambora, who left acrimoniously in 2013 to be replaced by Phil X.

"Richie and I shared such a huge part of our professional careers," said Bon Jovi, taking the high road. "Phil was able to fill in and then be a part of the new chapter. There's love for both of them."

Keeps moving like Jagger

Bon Jovi has interests outside of music, including acting, charity work and pro football. He was a founding co-owner of the Philadelphia Soul team in the Arena Football League from 2004 to 2009. In 2014, he was part of a group that made an unsuccessful bid to buy the Buffalo Bills.

"I'm no longer obsessed with that," he said of his NFL ownership dreams. "I did my time. I tried. It was as legit as you can get. It didn't work out. It's passed me."

In 2006, he launched the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation to address poverty and homelessness. Five years later, he opened the first of three JBJ Soul Kitchen(s), which have now served more than 140,000 meals.

During the pandemic, his wife, Dorothea, took a photo of him washing dishes in a JBJ Soul Kitchen and posted it on Instagram with the caption "If You Can't Do What You Do … Do What You Can." That inspired Bon Jovi to write the song "Do What You Can," the band's recent single featuring guest Jennifer Nettles (who duetted with Bon Jovi on "Who Says You Can't Go Home," a No. 1 country single in 2006).

Being a rock star is a full-time job as Bon Jovi's training regimen attests.

"I put in more time now than I ever did. It's always been part of who I am," he said. "I've spent hundreds of hours in that gym in Minneapolis in the hotel — 'cause it's one of the best gyms in the country. Also, I'm an avid runner. It's always something you can do alone.

"I've taken up tennis. I'm really not sedentary. I like to be moving. When you look at guys like Mick Jagger, that's the bar. God knows he's in shape."

Fans praise the lead singer for many different reasons — guys invariably mention his hair, women his derriere. What's more important: good hair or a good butt?

"Ha ha ha," responded the son of a hairstylist. "I can't see either one of them, right?

"I tell you what, at 60 years old to still be able to have a head of hair, I've earned the gray but it's all mine. That much I can tell you. I fit inside a size 30 pair of blue jeans, and I can still run 5 miles a day."

He wasn't hesitant on that subject.

Bon Jovi

Opening: Anything But Human, an alt-rock band from Texas.

When: 8 p.m. Sun.

Where: Xcel Energy Center, W. 7th St. & Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul.

Tickets: $15.50-$1,950, ticketmaster.com.