Bon Jovi – ‘Wild In The Streets: Unauthorized’ (2003) – Bootleg DVD Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

I normally won’t buy a CD, DVD or anything that is strictly an interview disc. However, this was part of a set of Bon Jovi DVDs I bought and for the price of the 4 DVDs I wanted, I was okay having this thrown in along with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends” we reviewed a few weeks ago. This is a Bootleg DVD called ‘Wild in the Streets: Unauthorized’ and as it says on the back cover, it is approximately 55 minutes of an interview with Jon Bon Jovi. This isn’t some big history of the band, nothing like that. It is an interview of a snapshot in time of Jon Bon Jovi (not so much the band). This sounds just like the Bootleg DVD, “Rock ‘n’ Legends”…wait…this is the same damn video…THE SAME DAMN VIDEO!!! Oh, looks like I’ll just cut & paste the last review then. Easy enough.

The DVD was released (unofficially) in 2003 and actually probably should have been reviewed right after everything related to the ‘New Jersey’ album is it took place shortly thereafter. The interview of Jon takes place in Montreal, Quebec around 1989 while Jon was working with Aldo Nova on his ‘Blood on the Bricks’ album which completely surprised me as I wasn’t expecting that. Especially when Aldo was also included in the interview with Jon and by Aldo was by himself. Interspersed between the interview questions, we were able to see some behind the scenes footage of the two working in the studio and getting to hear them working on some of the songs. We learn about when Aldo and Jon met and how Aldo also worked on Jon’s solo album from the ‘Young Guns 2’ movie. It was really cool and my favorite part of the whole interview.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Legends’ (2002) – Bootleg DVD (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

I normally won’t buy a CD, DVD or anything that is strictly an interview disc. However, this was part of a set of Bon Jovi DVDs I bought and for the price of the 4 DVDs I wanted, I was okay having this thrown in. And this is a Bootleg DVD called ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends’ and as it says on the back cover, it is approximately 55 minutes of an interview with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and those are both wrong. It is an interview with Jon Bon Jovi, but no Richie Sambora and it was only around 40 minutes. This isn’t some big history of the band, nothing like that. It is an interview of a snapshot in time of Jon Bon Jovi (not so much the band).

The DVD was released (unofficially) in 2002 and actually probably should have been reviewed right after everything related to the ‘New Jersey’ album is it took place shortly thereafter. The interview of Jon takes place in Montreal, Quebec around 1989 while Jon was working with Aldo Nova on his ‘Blood on the Bricks’ album which completely surprised me as I wasn’t expecting that. Especially when Aldo was also included in the interview with Jon and by Aldo was by himself. Interspersed between the interview questions, we were able to see some behind the scenes footage of the two working in the studio and getting to hear them working on some of the songs. We learn about when Aldo and Jon met and how Aldo also worked on Jon’s solo album from the ‘Young Guns 2’ movie. It was really cool and my favorite part of the whole interview.

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Jon Bon Jovi – ‘Blaze of Glory’ (1990) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

After the extensive worldwide tour for Bon Jovi’s ‘New Jersey’ album, the band was spent. They were exhausted and I am sure they were sick of each other. Over 200 shows together would make anyone need a break. And Bon Jovi needed a break or it was going to be over. The band members stayed busy as we will see these next few reviews. Jon Bon Bovi kept busy by doing his first solo album and it wasn’t your typical solo album. After being approached by actor, Emilio Estevez, to use the Bon Jovi song “Wanted Dead or Alive” for the soundtrack to his new movie, the western ‘Young Guns II’, Jon declined the offer.

Instead of flat out declining though, Jon offered to write a new song for the movie and that one song turned in to a whole album of songs from and inspired by the movie. In fact, only 2 songs were actually in the movie, the song Jon promised to write “Blaze of Glory’ and then the song “Billy Get Your Guns” which both appeared during the end credits. The rest were only inspired by the movie. Jon was so in to the movie, he was actually in the movie where he appeared in the movie during the scene where Doc and Chavez were prisoners in the pit…Jon was one of the other prisoners.

As we know, Jon doesn’t do anything half-ass and the musician friends he brought in were top notch. There is Jeff Beck, Elton John and Little Richard to name the A-Team. But the B-Team are no slouch either with Kenny Aronoff on drums, Robbin Crosy from Ratt, American Idol’s Randy Jackson and one of my favorite artists Aldo Nova. Jon would turn around and help Aldo for his next album ‘Blood on the Bricks’ where Jon and Aldo co-wrote all the songs together. The songs were not about rock & roll and girls anymore. Jon really pushed his boundaries and wrote about more mature subject matters, this would aid his future writing as we would see on future Bon Jovi albums.

The album came out on August 7, 1990 (that date will come up again in Jon’s world). The album would spawn four singles and reach #3 on the Billboard charts. The album sold over 2 million copies reaching Double Platinum in the States. The album wasn’t that much of a departure from Bon Jovi. It has the same cowboy rock style like their songs “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “Stick To Your Guns” and “Wild is the Wind”. So no surprise it did well. Also, Jon was the first with a solo album during this little break, but is it the best? We will see won’t we. Let’s get to the music.

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