Photo: AFP
When Jon Bon Jovi underwent vocal cord medialization surgery in 2022, he had the support from a famous friend: Bruce Springsteen.
The Bon Jovi frontman revealed the special way The Boss helped him recover in a new interview. “Bruce [came] to pick me up every couple of weeks,” he recalled. “We’d take these 100 mile drives during the surgery where I could barely speak and just that vote of, ‘I'm here for you, man.’ You know, ‘We'll get through this.’”
Unsurprisingly, seeing two rock legends driving around New Jersey together was a shock to passersby, and that's part of what brought Bon Jovi joy. “You got Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen driving around New Jersey. You want the state cops to pull you over,” he quipped. “One day we were at a stoplight, and some VFW hall was collecting with the bucket of, you know, for nickels and dimes. And I rolled down the window and I had some money in my pocket and I put it out. The guy saw me and he's like, ‘Hey!’ And then he bends down and looks in the window and he sees Bruce and he's like, ‘Oh!’ [laughing]. And then all the guys in the VFW (came over).”
The procedure was meant to help the singer regain proper vocal function, and it must have worked because on Thursday (March 14), Bon Jovi announced their 16th album FOREVER and shared its first single, "Legendary."
"This record is a return to joy," Bon Jovi said in a statement. "From the writing, through the recording process, this is turn up the volume, feel good Bon Jovi."
FOREVER is set for a June 7 release. Bon Jovi is also prepping a career-spanning four-part docu-series, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, which is slated to debut on HULU on April 26.